Artists & Communities Host Site: 651 ARTS
651 Fulton Street
Brooklyn, New York 11217
E-mail: info@651ARTS.org
Web site: www.651arts.org/

Millennium Artist:
Seitu Ken Jones
Multi-disciplinary Artist
Minnesota

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Millennium Artist Seitu Jones worked with residents of the Fort Greene neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, and 651 ARTS, to design and implement public art installations inspired by their concerns in relation to the changing demographics of the community.

During his three-month Artists & Communities residency, Jones took walking tours of Fort Greene, noting its landmarks and researching its history, and had numerous dialogues with local African-American artists, merchants, and members of cultural institutions. He also visited neighboring Clinton Hill. These experiences enabled the artist to conceptualize themes and ideas for two powerful art installations. Jones' overall goal was to create artworks expressing and celebrating the neighborhood's African-American constituency, a constituency waning in numbers due to increasing levels of gentrification.

The first artwork is a memorial reading bench marking the presence of famed writer Richard Wright, which will be installed in Fort Greene Park in May 2001. According to Jones' research, the author spent many mornings at the Park, over an eight-month period, composing the American classic, Native Son. The bench will not only serve as a fitting tribute to the nurturing spirit and inspiration that Fort Greene provided to Wright, but for its impact on present and future writers residing in the neighborhood. The idea was raised that, in years to come, park benches could be replicated to personally honor neighborhood writers. Jones worked closely with the Committee for the Restoration of Fort Greene Park on this portion of his residency.

Jones' second design involves two sculptured metal gates, called "the Freedom Gates," which he plans to install at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church. The Church was a stop on Brooklyn's Underground Railway; the "Freedom Gates" will commemorate the escape route many slaves traveled on their journey to freedom. The gates will contain imaged silhouettes of families who used the Church's basement as sanctuary. One gate will remain locked at all times as a reminder that slavery still exists in the world and will be unlocked when slavery is universally abolished. Jones worked hand-in-hand with the New York City Landmarks Preservation Committee to design the gates.

In his work, Millennium Artist Seitu Jones has "aspired to create environmental artwork that honors, communicates to and inspires communities." Jones says that one of his missions is "to create art that can be a source of neighborhood pride as well as a tool for social and cultural development."

MILLENNIUM ARTIST BIO

Seitu Jones is a painter, sculptor, and master gardener who has realized commissions from the Minneapolis Community Technical College and Lino Lakes Correctional Facility in Indiana. Jones has created designs for Penumbra Theater and Children's Theater in Minnesota and First Stage Milwaukee and Crossroads Theater in New Jersey.