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Jerome Meadows at Indigo Sky Gallery. (photo by Russ Bryant)
Jerome Meadows was born in the Bronx, New York. He received his B.F.A. in 1973 from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence; and an M.F.A. in 1981 from the University of Maryland in College Park. He has served as part of the faculty for North Adams State College, Massachusetts; the Baltimore School for the Arts, Maryland; and the College of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C. His major public sculptures include: the Martin Luther King Living Memorial in Anchorage, Alaska; Truths that Rise from Roots Remembered in Alexandria, Virginia; To Create the Beloved Community in Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Carry the Rainbow on Your Shoulders in Washington, D.C.
Meadows moved to Savannah, Georgia, in 1997 when he accepted a commission to design and create the Yamacraw Public Art Park, which pays tribute the area’s various residents throughout its history: the Muskogee Indians of Yamacraw Bluff, the congregation of the First Bryan Baptist Church, immigrant settlers, and African Americans. The park opened May 13, 2006. Upon settling in Savannah, Meadows established the Indigo Sky Community Gallery at 915 Waters Avenue in a building that once served as an old-fashioned ice house, where ice was stored and sold.
In the following interview, Meadows discusses some of his projects and the value of art to the American community:
Aberjhani: What made you settle on Savannah as a place to set up shop? I know you’ve had exhibits all over the country, and very possibly all over the world, so why Savannah?
Meadows: I had been living and working in Washington, D.C., for about twelve years and had really gotten to the point where I wanted to finally own my own studio. I spent a couple of years trying to find affordable space in Washington, and could not. This notion came to me that my building was out there somewhere, and since I was doing public art, I could really be [or work] anywhere, although Washington had a lot to offer and I had a lot of network there. But I became convinced that my building was somewhere out there in the United States and I put out feelers in maybe five or six locations. And again simultaneously had gotten a commission here and came to Savannah and of course was immediately taken by the charm of the city. And it turns out that the chairman of that public arts project was realtor Bob Bess. I asked him to keep an out for some buildings and he found the one that I’m in right now. And so right was it that the price was affordable and everything just fell into place.
Aberjhani: You have said you would like to see a change in the way Savannah experiences art. Can I get you to elaborate a bit more on that?
Meadows: Absolutely.
Aberjhani: First of all, what would you say is the dominant manner that people in the city do experience art now and how should, or would you like to see, that change?
Meadows: It’s a mixture. I guess looking at it from the self-employed artist point of view, you know, the main focus is on the market. And it seems as though there’s a preponderance of work done that caters to the tourist trade. That’s understandable because it’s an economic engine. But ironically, I was asked about this for the article they did on SCAD’s (Savannah College of Art and Design) 30th anniversary. I went to art school in Providence, Rhode Island. The energy of that institution really radiated out into the community. And the kind of work and the kind of activity that was going on had an ongoing dynamic quality to it. So it just seems to me that you’ve got a lot of folks coming here for SCAD—
Aberjhani: You mean the students that come to the school from all over the world?
Meadows: We’re talking faculty and students. And a fair amount seem to stay here afterwards. And, again, just knowing personally other artists, there is this dynamic energy that we have as creators, as people who create visual expression. But the market doesn’t really draw upon that. You know? Up until recently, my basic bread and butter was basically doing things outside of Savannah, public art projects. So the thought was you’ve got a market that’s limited by an economic engine of tourism, yet you’ve got this art school that’s bringing in a wealth of talent. And then you’ve the Telfair Museum of Art, which is this preeminent cultural institution, really focusing on connecting with and drawing upon the local community. So it’s like those forces to me just spoke of a convergence that could really foster a kind of a sea change with those dynamics—the museum wants to put Savannah on the map in a bigger way and yet at the same time be sensitive to local talent. SCAD is international, has people coming in from all over the place. And then, you know, there’re artists here throughout the community who have the juice, so how you do that is I think still being formulated. But I think first of all you want to just bring people to the table for the firs time to just talk about the issue.
Aberjhani: Ok, so a two part question here: What is the most important thing that you feel art and artists give to communities in general?
Meadows: Hmmm, ok, I think in answer to the first part—you know, I like to think it’s regional, it’s block by block. I felt badly because again, being here, on Waters Avenue, for the most part I’m focusing a lot of my efforts on things that are going out of here. But I grew up in a neighborhood like this so it wasn’t lost on me, seeing young black children, even adolescents in a situation where there’re limited options. Occasionally when we would be here working, young children would come in and they’re just like fascinated, you know understandably. So that’s really how Indigo Sky Gallery came into existence. It was me looking to address a deficiency in terms of living in this environment and not really doing as much as I could to, again, going back to the initial question of where you live and how you impact that community. So the answer to the first part I guess would be yeah, on an individual basis, people within a twenty or thirty block radius of where your studio is should know. And they should know that those who have interest in art, who have leanings toward creativity, can come to you and just talk about things. I’m particularly thrilled with the fact that, you know I hate to say it but that’s one reason why we did the Black Fathers Show. In the mornings I’m looking at the local news and almost invariably the black male face is the mug shot. Hence, so, you know, being sensitive to young black children being able to look an African-American male who’s succeeding as a self-employed artist—you don’t see that every day.
Aberjhani: Then you’re letting them know there are other models of what or who and what we are, not necessarily role models but other models of what it means to be a black man in Savannah or America.
Meadows: Other models, yeah, and if you’re interested in art, how unlikely is it that, you know, unfortunately, other family members are saying “Oh yeah, go out and pursue that?!” But to see that it can be done, you never know. But you know that it’s lacking if you don’t put out there.
by Aberjhani
For more info:
Jerome Meadows' Reframing a Perceptual Paradigm
Learn about the Artists of the Harlem Renaissance
For More Entertaining Interviews
View More Photography by Russ Bryant
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