COMMUNITY
HomeWorks: Bronzeville, is a cultural development project initiated in 2016 and located in the Bronzeville Cultural and Entertainment District in Milwaukee. We seek to cultivate North Avenue and the blocks that surround the main street from 4th to 6th from Meinecke Street to Garfield Avenue.
HomeWorks: Bronzeville and its leaders are actively engaged in the community and development of Bronzeville in relationship to North Avenue which is further stimulating new arts, culture and business investment.
Through news links, videos and blog posts, COMMUNITY gathers information on HomeWorks: Bronzeville collaborative projects, as well as related neighborhood development and activities.
Recently opened Five Points Gallery featured in Art City, December 2018
Five Points Gallery Grand Opening, November 2018
SPLASH! Jazale’s Edition, Summer 2018
"Bronzeville" Letters at Arts & Culture Fest 2018
Building Bridges opening at Jazale’s Art Studio featured in Urban Milwaukee
Bronzeville Week 2018
RISE and SHINE: Bronzeville
Art House Trap and Bronzeville Autumn
Iconic Bronzeville Mural Restored to Inspire Next Generation
Black Male Artists Bring ‘Fresh Perspectives’ to Bronzeville
New Black Holocaust Museum site Groundbreaking
Transforming Historic Garfield Avenue Elementary School
Big Ideas for Bronzeville?
Recently opened 5 Points Art Gallery & Studios featured in Art City
December, 2018
The newly opened 5 Points Art Gallery & Studios is featured in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal’s Art City section, in which artist Della Wells talks about the importance of having a gathering space for black artists. Artist Fatima Laster has converted the former Johnson-Goolsby Funeral Home, into the 5 Points Art Gallery & Studios, a two-story, mixed-use development that includes a large main gallery, a boutique, nine artist studios, a commercial kitchen and two apartments. The conversion was supported by the city’s ARCH program (Art and Resource Community Hub). Laster wants to increase the representation of artists of color and those who are marginalized in other ways, as well. She also wants 5 Points to be a platform from which local artists become known in other markets. When she talks about the place, she uses words like "mecca", "hub" and "Renaissance."
Fatima Laster converted the former Johnson-Goolsby Funeral Home, located
at 3514 N. Port Washington Road, into art spaces. Laster is an artist who also
operates her own interior design firm.Photos: Angela Peterson/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Read the whole article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Art City, published December 2, 2018 here.
Grand opening of the Five Points Art Gallery
November, 2018
An event to celebrate the grand opening of the Five Points
Art Gallery and Studios, an Art Resource Center Hub (ARCH)-supported house
remodel, was held on November 17th, 2018. Fatima Laster bought the
foreclosed Johnson-Goolsby Funeral Home, located at 3514 N. Port Washington Avenue,
in March 2018 and has successfully transformed the building into the Five
Points Art Gallery and Studios. The ARCH program is an initiative started in 2017 in which
the city provides a grant of $25,000 which an artist or interested resident
matches in order to rehab a foreclosed property, transforming it into a livable
and working art studio or resource hub for the community. HomeWorks:
Bronzeville is a recipient of the ARCH program grant to support the rehabilitation
of a cluster of houses at the corner of Vel R. Philipps and Meinecke Avenues.
Top Image: Vedale Hill & Mikal Floyd-Pruitt at the opening of the Five Points Art Gallery.
Bottom: images from the gallery opening.
SPLASH! Jazale’s Edition
SUMMER, 2018A SPLASH! of color was added in Bronzeville. On Aug 16, 2018, Mikal Floyd-Pruitt produced another episode of Splash!, which is his interactive, community-based, variety-show that explores culture in Milwaukee. Working in collaboration with Jazale’s Art Studio, which recently moved to it’s new home at 1950 N Doctor M.L.K., the event was held during a back to school block party, entitled Building Bridges. Brown St., which runs along the side of the Jazale’s Art Studio, was blocked off to make way for over 100 students and community members. Children excitedly lined up to participate while the older attendees took seats and watched. Mikal Floyd-Pruitt provided a humorous performance at the show’s host, while live music played by Klassik set a energetic vibe and accented the bursts of color. Connecting with the theme of Building Bridges, contestants were faced with trivia questions about black history and achievement. Winning contestants got to launch paint-filled water-balloons at four large panels that were prepared with designs created by Vedale Hill. The images were slowly revealed as the panels were progressively covered in paint.
This edition of Splash! was made possible through the support of the Milwaukee Arts Board & Jazale's Art Studio.
Building Bridges Art Project featured in Urban Milwaukee
August, 2018
Members of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee involved in the Mural Arts Program unveiled their Building Bridges art installation at a block party on Thursday afternoon at the recently relocated Jazale’s Art Studio. The event included the unveiling of a new mural in remembrance of civil rights pioneer Ruby Bridges, as well as games and festivities for community members. The event featured remarks from Sheri Williams Pannell, Producing Artistic Director of Bronzeville Arts Ensemble and Assistant Professor of UW-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts; Vedale Hill, Mural Arts Program Instructor; and Darren Hill, co-owner of Jazale’s Art Studio. The block party took place on W. Brown St. between MLK Dr. and 2nd St. The event revolved around honoring historic trailblazer Ruby Bridges by showcasing the youth-created mural. Bridges (born September 8, 1954) was just six years old when she became the first African-American child to integrate a white Southern elementary school on November 14, 1960. The mural includes life-sized silhouettes of Bridges and other important figures involved during her first day of school. The young artists chose to focus on Bridge’s experience during the Civil Rights Movement since it was important to them and reflects Milwaukee’s diverse culture.
Vedale co-founded Jazale’s Art Studio with his brother Darren, and each are involved in the Mural Arts Program, which gives Boys and Girls Club members the opportunity to work on this installation of art for the community. “I want to give it up to the kids who made this possible, and who make my life better every day,” stated Vedale in his remarks. Jazale’s Art Studio was the first stop of the Building Bridges instillation. The youth project will also make its way to America’s Black Holocaust Museum and other Boys and Girls Club locations. Jazale’s Art Studio had its doors open at the block party. The Hill brothers take pride in not only showing youth how to express themselves artistically, but how to become involved in efforts to build a better community.
Top Image: Street side of Ruby Bridges mural at Jazale’s Art Studio. Photo by Zach Komassa.
Bottom Image: Paintings and sculptures featured inside Jazale's Art Studio. Photo by Zach Komassa.
See the entire article in Urban Milwaukee here.