With a major new grant in excess of $100,000 from the
Pew Center for Arts & Heritage,
Historic Germantown (HG) is tackling the "Elephants on the Avenue" – i.e., long-standing issues of race and class.
"The impetus for the project really was continuing Historic Germantown’s vision to contribute to the cultural and economic development of this community,” explains HG executive director Trapeta Mayson of the newly-funded "
Elephants on the Avenue: Race, Class, and Community in Historic Germantown."
That means respectfully interpreting Germantown’s deep and diverse history on a few main themes, including slavery and abolition, inclusion and exclusion, and tolerance.
"I don’t think people can always easily find themselves in some of these stories, so we feel that some of the responsibility of our historic site is to make this information accessible and relevant to today’s public," says Mayson.
The project, which will launch in October and last two years, will pair local artists and historians to "collaboratively curate text and image-based public art and educational workshops about race and class" with the help of member sites and community partners.
The project boasts four historians: Dr. Abigail Perkiss, Dr. Matthew Countryman, Dr. Molefi Assante and Dr. Thomas Sugrue. Participating creative types include visual artists, educators and poets: Barbara J. Bullock, Ife Nii Owoo, Diane Pieri, Sonia Sanchez, Yolanda Wisher and Benjamin Volta.
Pew dollars will let HG compensate the artists and historians, Mayson explains, and cover materials for workshops, festivals and other community events. "Elephants" will also have a dedicated part-time project manager.
And it’s not just about reckoning with the past -- exploring the full potential of Germantown’s historic fabric has economic importance, too.
"Economics is something that people tend to forget when we think about historic sites and how important they are to a community," insists Mayson. "People come to a neighborhood, they spend money, they become interested."
That means Germantown has a lot of growing to do, from upping the number of available restaurants to improving walkability and transit -- that’s why HG already partners with several non-historic community organizations, meeting monthly with
Germantown United CDC,
Germantown Community Connection and others.
"We’d be missing a great opportunity if we didn’t realize we were just as essential to economic development and community planning," adds Mayson.
"Elephants on the Avenue" will culminate in a final performance/exhibition curated by
iMPeRFeCT Gallery co-founder and Germantown resident Renny Molenaar.
Source: Trapeta Mayson, Historic Germantown
Writer: Alaina Mabaso