{"id":11435,"date":"2022-01-31T15:26:24","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T15:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/media-archive.blackartinamerica.com\/?p=11435"},"modified":"2022-01-31T15:26:24","modified_gmt":"2022-01-31T15:26:24","slug":"the-soul-of-atlanta-how-a-mostly-forgotten-artistic-exchange-facilitated-atlantas-emergence-as-a-global-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/earthexhibitions.org\/media-archive\/?p=11435","title":{"rendered":"The Soul of Atlanta: How a mostly forgotten artistic exchange facilitated Atlanta\u2019s emergence as a global city"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

The Soul of Atlanta:<\/h2>\r\n

How a mostly forgotten artistic exchange facilitated Atlanta\u2019s emergence as a global city <\/em><\/h3>\r\n
By D. Amari Jackson<\/pre>\r\n
Almost 40 years ago, in the autumn of 1983, a profound but mostly forgotten event had its beginnings in Atlanta. It occurred at a pivotal point in the city\u2019s history, at the advent of a mid-1980s economic boom that motored the ongoing expansion of its international airport and saw Georgia\u2019s economy grow at an average of 13 percent each year. Within this thriving backdrop, an exhibit of contemporary French art debuted in the city as part of the newly established International Arts and Cultural Exchange Program, an effort designed to raise the artistic and cultural profile of the rapidly growing southeastern city. Under the program\u2014which corresponded with French President Francois Mitterrand\u2019s 1984 visit to Atlanta and the introduction of Delta Air Lines\u2019 nonstop flights from the city to Paris\u2014French artists presented their works for display in Atlanta in exchange for the subsequent presentation of works by Atlanta-based artists in France.<\/p>\r\n
In May 1985, a delegation of the city\u2019s top administrators, art scholars, and prominent artists travelled to several major cities in France to present a series of exhibits and further establish the growing southern mecca as a global destination. The trip was a clear indicator that Atlanta\u2019s time had come, both economically and culturally.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cFor five weeks in Paris, Toulouse and Angouleme, this International Arts and Cultural Exchange will constitute our attempt to cement bonds between our two peoples, to share some of the joys of our own cultural achievements, and thank the French people for their abiding friendship and their contributions to Atlanta and our nation,\u201d offered Atlanta mayor Andrew Young, at the time. \u201cOn behalf of the people of Atlanta, I take pride in introducing our city\u2019s International Arts and Cultural Exchange Program to the people of the French Republic, and in presenting, through these exhibits, an experience of the soul of Atlanta.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Numerous artists from the city, from a variety of ethnicities and walks of life, accompanied the delegation, exhibiting their works at the Chapelle de la Sorbonne, Espace de la Coupole la Defense in Paris; the Refectoire des Jacobins in Toulouse; and the Centre d’Action Culturelle in Angouleme. For those who attended, the experience was unforgettable.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cWe went to events in Paris and then we had a flight down to Toulouse where we spent a couple of days,\u201d recalls Dr. Michael D. Harris, Associate Professor Emeritus of Art History and African American Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. An award-winning photographer, mixed media artist, curator, and longtime member of AfriCOBRA, Harris exhibited several pieces while in Toulouse, including his quilt-based art. \u201cThe exhibition was in a repurposed, 13th-century monastery, which was fascinating,\u201d says Harris, noting the majestic brick structure and how gallery walls had been erected inside for the event. \u201cBut then, above the wall, you had the soaring atria of the facility,\u201d he continues, before concluding \u201cit was a great honor, and I was so happy to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\"\"
Michael D. Harris
Mixed Media Artist; Professor of Art History, African American Studies<\/p><\/div>\r\n
Throughout history, great societies and civilizations have commonly been symbolized by their culture and art. Ancient Egypt epitomized this tradition with its megalithic monuments, storied cosmologies, and ubiquitous imagery. These Africans were well-known to adorn their massive geometric structures, abodes, and burial chambers with vivid, indelible depictions of their daily existence and cosmogenic philosophies. Their art would subsequently be coveted and stolen by waves of conquerors seeking to imbue their own expanding societies with a sense of status, culture, and aesthetics.<\/p>\r\n
Fast forward thousands of years to 1980s Atlanta where this quest for cultural status remains.<\/p>\r\n
The city\u2019s administration\u2014consistent with the direction of its previous and pioneering mayor, Maynard Jackson\u2014was wholly committed to ongoing development and they knew art was both a status symbol and a magnet. Along with Mayor Young and his top cultural affairs administrators, other prominent leaders and Atlanta icons played their role in supporting the international exchange and contributing to its success.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cIt is with great pleasure that we at the King Center present this exhibit to the people of France,\u201d offered Coretta Scott King, who, at the time, was president of the Martin Luther King Junior Center for Nonviolent Social Change. The King Center took part in the event given its international reputation and the popularity of its namesake in France both before and after his 1968 assassination. \u201cIt is our hope,\u201d continued Coretta King, \u201cthat these items will serve as representative samples of our much larger Freedom Hall Complex in Atlanta, Georgia.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
But before the King Center contributed items to France, the French had already left their mark on the growing southern city. Along with the earlier artistic contributions by French artists, and the 1984 visit by the French president, 50 French companies already had operation bases in the Atlanta area; a French firm was responsible for making the original trains for the city\u2019s urban mass transportation system, MARTA; and the city boasted a Franco-American Chamber of Commerce, a French Trade Commission office, and a growing community of French American citizens.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n
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Confrontation Tupelo, MS 1978 Photo By Jim Alexander<\/p><\/div>\r\n
\u201cThe first step was that they brought the French artists to Atlanta,\u201d acknowledges Harris, of the 1983 commencement of the exchange. \u201cThen we went to France, and Andy Young and Shirley Cooks, who was then the head of the Bureau of\u00a0 Cultural Affairs, were the main people involved.\u201d Harris goes on to report that renowned African-American scholar of language and the arts, Richard Long, also travelled with the delegation. \u201cLong was a prominent scholar here in Atlanta for many years and he was fluent in French and always travelling between Haiti and Paris. So he was very prominent on the trip and one thing I learned, whether we were on a plane, a bus or wherever, was to sit near Richard and wait for somebody to ask him a question because Richard was the most informed and brilliant person.\u201d So, adds Harris, \u201cI just learned to sit near him and wait.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Other prominent Atlanta-based artists participated in the exchange by solely lending their works of art. Well-known photographer<\/strong><\/a> and activist, Jim Alexander, contributed several images to the effort, among them, Confrontation<\/em>, his famous 1978 photo taken while at a Thanksgiving weekend rally protesting the Klan in Tupelo, Mississippi. In the image, part of the Struggle<\/em> series, Mississippi activist Alfred \u201cSkip\u201d Robinson stands alone, hands on hips, mere feet from at least a half dozen robed klansmen, \u201ccussing them out.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\u201cIt was a city thing,\u201d recalls Alexander, whose studio is now based in East Point, Georgia. He describes the mid-1980s cultural exchange as \u201cmore of a political program\u201d implemented by the city\u2019s political and cultural establishment. \u201cThey came and got some pictures from me, and I think that the High Museum of Art had a lot to do with it as well.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Undoubtedly, the art of politics played a substantial role in the effort.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cThe casual surreality of Atlanta art comes with the environment, with the nature of the city and its history,\u201d penned Peter Morrin, curator of 20th century art at High Museum of Art, in his foreword to the Atlanta in France<\/em> catalogue in 1985. \u201cThe rapidity of the city’s development and its high-powered real estate market means that a daily occurrence driving down one of the city’s thoroughfares is taking note of the changing skyline, what buildings no longer stand, what new ones are springing up.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\u201cSocial inequities add to the startlingly unreal profile of Atlanta which has the largest and most prosperous black middle class in America, but is known to the mass media as the site of a series of brutal murders preying upon black children of low-income families,\u201d continued Morrin, acknowledging the 30 slayings between 1979 and 1981 known as the Atlanta Child Murders. \u201cAtlanta\u2019s rolling economy in the midst of a state beset by the woes of low agricultural prices increases the sense of removal from common reality. Pockets of extreme naivete and extreme sophistication jostle against each other. These repeated contrasts and juxtapositions, which make up the fabric of urban life in this city, subtly and inevitably work their way into the city\u2019s best art.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
Along with Morrin\u2019s compelling entry, the 1985 catalogue included the works of 29 contemporary Atlanta artists and full-page introductions and commentaries from the likes of Mayor Young, Coretta Scott King, France\u2019s Minister of Culture Jack Lang, Mayor of Toulouse Dominique Baudis, and Mayor of Angouleme Jean Michel Boucheron.<\/p>\r\n
\u201cAtlanta, at the time, was developing international sister-city relationships and because Andrew Young had been in the United Nations with Jimmy Carter, I think he really had an international vision,\u201d explains Harris. \u201cAnd I think that this is when Atlanta begins to imagine itself as an international city.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\u201cAnd then, of course, a decade later, we\u2019ve got the Olympics coming here,\u201d acknowledges Harris, promoting that \u201cI would connect those two events to each other as a part of this continuum of development, and I think that Andy\u2019s vision reflected that.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\u201cSo this was a time of great optimism and expansion in the city.\u201d<\/p>\r\n
\"\"<\/p>\r\n
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