Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Dr. Charles Smith: Aurora installation view at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2019.
Beginning in 1986, Dr. Charles Smith set to work to transform the entirety of his home and its surrounding property in Aurora, Ill., into the African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archive. Over the next 15 years, Smith made hundreds of figural sculptures memorializing historical figures, community members, and celebrities, and depicting the tragedies and triumphs of the African-American experience.
Photo courtesy of John Michael Kohler Arts Center
Dr. Charles Smith, Lively Tourist (detail, installation view, John Michael Kohler Arts Center), c. 1985–c. 1999; concrete, paint, and mixed media; 45 1/2 x 17 x 11 in. John Michael Kohler Arts Center Collection, gift of Kohler Foundation Inc.
After a fateful stop in Hammond, La., convinced Smith that he needed to relocate his project there, the majority of the sculptures from his Aurora site were removed, conserved and acquired by several museums. The 218 sculptures acquired by the Kohler Arts Center make it the largest single institutional holding of the artist’s work. Smith continues his work on the African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archive today in Hammond.
In the spirit of experimentation, this exhibition is a testing ground for the principles and experiences that will be generated within the Art Preserve. The Arts Center’s collection of more than 150 of Smith’s works is one of 38 collections of artist-built environments that will go to the Art Preserve, now under construction in Sheboygan, Wis., and set to open in August 2020. The Art Preserve is designed to be a research hub and a platform for collaborative exploratory programming. It will be a dynamic site of discussions, interdisciplinary investigations, and workshops dedicated to the conservation, preservation, and the presentation of artist-built environments.
While on view at the Arts Center, “Dr. Charles Smith: Aurora” will evolve as more information is revealed about the collection through audience engagement, interviews with the artist, and ongoing institutional investigation. It will be a laboratory, updated in real time as Smith is engaged as an artist-consultant and an active participant in the presentation of our collection of his work.
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“Dr. Charles Smith: Aurora” is on view through May 18, 2020 at John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 608 New York Ave., Sheboygan. For more information visit jmkac.org.
