By Jennifer Flowers

jenniferflowers@gannett.com

Bill Scott and Leonard Maiden made the best of the shade Wednesday morning as they painted below a pair of dusty windows and a sign that reads "All Seasons Creations Mall, 611 Texas."

But the pair aren't doing just any old paint job on the aging property.

The two artists are volunteering their time to create an entire scene of colors and shapes, hoping to visually enliven downtown Shreveport.

"This is the arts district on the upswing, so we don't want to see boarded-up buildings downtown," Scott said. "There are so many boarded-up spaces here. And as a gallery owner, I don't want that by my place of business. Until something has been done with this property, we should use it to display artwork."

Scott, who owns Kuumba Fine Art Gallery two doors down from the mural, is interested in beautifying downtown, which the city has been working to revitalize into West Edge Arts District. He has asked Shreveport Regional Arts Council to help him find funds for the project for which he received paint donations from neighbor C.C. Hardman Co., 712 Texas St.

Wednesday was the third full day the artists set aside to work on the 611 Texas St. mural, which they hope to finish by the end of this week.

"The best public art project is when a private individual lets a part of their property be used for a public mural," said Pam Atchison, SRAC executive director. "Bill is an experienced muralist. And the idea of this project is very exciting."

Duwain "Bo" Taylor, owner of the 611 Texas St. building, recently closed off its entranceway with several brown boards to deter littering, vandalism and use of the property for shelter by the homeless. Scott and Maiden got his permission to paint a mural over the boards.

Taylor also gave Scott permission to paint a mural on the McNeil Street side of 609 Texas St. when he owned it several years ago. He's planning to sell 611 Texas St., which is taking longer than he'd hoped.

"A vandal knocked windows out (of 611 Texas St.) so we boarded it up," Taylor said. "It's ugly, just an empty building with plywood and tan paint. That's kind of bleak looking. And the only benefit I see for a mural is static value to the public."

Maiden, who recently graduated from Louisiana Tech University with a degree in fine art, jumped at the opportunity of his first mural project. He now works at Scott's Achievement Through Art group and helped teach art classes to children and incarcerated youths this summer.

"We talked about the design for a couple of days. And Bill Scott showed me pictures of New Orleans shotgun houses," said Maiden, who kneeled to sketch a cartoon-style figure on the plywood with a black felt marker. "And I thought the musicians would fit the scene."

The building door has been painted green and incorporated into the approximate 9-by-22-foot mural that shows three shotgun houses rendered with New Orleans-inspired architectural elements. A drummer and a horn player recline on the central porch as onlookers watch from the periphery.

The horn player, clad in a bowling hat and sunglasses, leans back rhythmically as he blows into his instrument.

Paul Bradley, a city plumber who was passing by, stopped for a few minutes to watch Scott and Maiden paint. The Shreveporter who has been an artist in his spare time for a number of years is glad Scott is making an effort to beautify an otherwise nondescript part of Texas Street.

"It's just something that catches someone's attention when they're walking down the street and seeing it," Bradley said. "It's something with colors and designs. This is just a closed-up building. And at least now there's something to look at."


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By Jennifer Flowers

jenniferflowers@gannett.com

Ask Bill Scott why it's worth putting on a festival for black arts and culture in Shreveport, and he'll say it's a simple matter of keeping the arts alive.

"African-Americans have large, extensive traditions that some people are not aware of," he said. "If you don't know where you came from, you can't go anywhere. It instills pride in our young people and encourages the development of the arts."

Scott, director of Achievement Through Art Inc., is heading the first Black Arts Festival on July 9-10 at the Municipal Auditorium. The festival will import prominent regional artists and performers to Shreveport in the hope of stimulating tourism and increasing cultural awareness.

"We're trying to have an impact on Shreveport's economy and I think we can, as well as raise the level of consciousness of our culture," Scott said. "It will give people a reason to come to Shreveport."

He compared the festival to the 19-year-old Let the Good Times Roll, a festival celebrating black arts and music, saying the Black Arts Festival would place more emphasis on cultural and folk art.

"The Black Arts Festival focuses on artists who are generally not included in the traditional folk life category, even though they're self-taught artists," Scott said. "This is a way to see all the wonderful arts coming together and how diverse their art forms are."

The Shreveport-Bossier Convention and Tourist Bureau helped the festival with brochure costs and has provided $3,700 in grant funding.

Attending cultural events and festivals is the third-most popular activity among black travelers in Louisiana, after gambling and shopping, according to the Travel Industry Association of America.

"I think the festival makes our destination a more complete package," said Jessica Hawkins, tourism bureau advertising and publications manager. "We have all of these attractions and entertainment, but something about our cultural heritage is a unique offering, and maybe a target that we're not hitting."

And the festival is estimated by organizers to bring approximately 10,000 visitors to Shreveport, according to Scott.

Angela Randall, proprietor of Nubian Express Books in the Pamoja Cultural Art Center complex on Linwood Ave., is glad to see an arts festival focus on the historical importance of folk art.

"We need the cultural awareness in Shreveport," said Randall, a Dallas native. "If young blacks were constantly reminded of the struggles that the people that came before them had to go through, I think they'd have a greater appreciation of themselves and their community."

The event will cost $36,000, and ATA is still waiting to see whether its funding sources will come through, but Scott said the board has made a commitment that if the funding sources don't come through, no bills will go unpaid.

Entertainers include blues legend Bobby "Blue" Bland and Dallas-based Kumaasi African Ensemble. Area artists include Ruston painter Sarah Albritton and Shreveport storyteller Thelma Harrison.

An eager Scott and local dancer Luther Cox Jr. started planning for the Black Arts Festival immediately after attending the Cultural Economy Initiative Conference in New Orleans last December. The meeting promoted a statewide plan to use arts and culture to invigorate the state's economy. And only seven months later they, along with the Black Cultural Arts Coalition, are ready to kick off the event.

Scott and other organizers also felt the need to respond to studies funded by the state showing there isn't enough African-American involvement in the cultural economy of Louisiana, though the state's culture is heavily influenced by the ethnic group.

Baton Rouge-based toothpick sculptor Michael Anthony Smith, better known as "The Toothpick Man," is one of the region's many artists who will exhibit their work and conduct a workshop. Among the pieces he will display is a 15-foot alligator sculpture that took 3 million toothpicks and weighs 320 pounds. In fact, the self-taught artist has submitted the alligator to the Guinness Book of World Records in the hope his work will set the record for the most toothpicks ever used in a sculpture.

"The festival is bringing a lot to the community as for allowing other young blacks to see different things that artists like myself have constructed out of just plain materials," Smith said. "It will allow kids to know they too can be productive with their gifts as well because everybody has a gift and a talent. It's just a matter of being persistent in learning who they really are."

Ohio-based quilter Carolyn Mazloomi is returning to Shreveport to share knowledge of her craft by exhibiting and lecturing on the history of quilt making in black culture.

Mazloomi is making the trip down to support Scott's efforts to promote black culture in Louisiana, a state that plays an essential role in the country's folk history.

"(Scott) needs all the support he can get, especially with this being the first annual event," Mazloomi said. "I think there's not enough attention paid to what's happening with folk art and not enough attention paid to African-American artists in particular, so if Bill and his organization can make known the artists in the region, this is good."


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