Things are What We Encounter: Dr. Charles Smith +Heather Hart
When Dr. Charles Smith (b. 1940) was fourteen, his father was killed in what local officials described as a “ferry accident,” but Smith surmises it was a racially motivated murder. In 1955, Smith’s mother took her children to the funeral of Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old African American boy who was brutally killed by white racists. Attending Till’s funeral profoundly affected Dr. Smith, embedding the searing feelings about racism that later informed his sculptures.
In 1986, Dr. Smith purchased a home in Aurora Township, Illinois. He dedicated himself to transforming his home and yard into a sculptural environment commemorating the people and events of African American history. He also began using the self-designated “Dr.” to connote the learned status he had achieved from life experience.
By 1999, Dr. Smith’s African-American Heritage Museum + Black Veterans Archives reportedly had close to 600 sculptures and 150 fixed monuments. His art environment was an open invitation for all who passed by to consider the struggle, sacrifice, and creativity of the African American experience. In 2000, he and Kohler Foundation, Inc. removed 448 sculptures for preservation. Over 200 were gifted to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center. Dr. Smith is now working on an environment with similar themes in Hammond, Louisiana.
Artist Heather Hart (NY) uses architectural forms mixed with family and oral histories, multiple narratives, and participatory engagements as integral components in much of her creative work. For this exhibition, she continued her exploration of community spaces to consider and challenge the evolving socio-political landscape. She created site-specific architecture to house and interact with twenty of Smith’s sculptures. Hart’s piece was designed to facilitate multiple congruent streams of communication between Smith, herself, the work, and the public.
Read a special Q & A from the responder, Heather Hart, in our gallery handout.
The Artists
The Responders
This exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding was also provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Kohler Trust for the Arts and Education, Kohler Foundation, Inc., Herzfeld Foundation and Sargento Foods Inc. The Arts Center thanks its many members for their support of exhibitions and programs through the year. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) (nonprofit) organization; donations are tax deductible.
The Road Less Traveled 50th anniversary program was conceived by Amy Horst, deputy director for programming. The exhibitions series was organized and curated by Arts Center Curator Karen Patterson. Special thanks to Emily Schlemowitz, assistant curator, for the curation of Driftless: Nick Engelbert & Ernest Hüpeden and Folk & Fable: Levi Fisher Ames & Albert Zahn, and Amy Chaloupka, guest curator of The World in a Garden: Nek Chand and Volumes: Stella Waitzkin.
