The Aurora Public Art Commission Presents: Works by Dr. Charles Smith

From the Permanent collection of the Aurora Public Art Commission

The Aurora Public Art Commission is featuring an exhibit of works by Dr. Charles Smith. On display are more than twenty-five pieces from the commission’s permanent collection.

Dr. Charles Smith, a sculptor, is the founder and Curator of the African-American Heritage Museum and Black Veterans Archive, which he established on land surrounding his home in Aurora, Illinois. That property is currently under restoration.

In the late 1980s, Dr. Smith began work on a series of sculptures that would tell the story of African-American experiences in the United States, from the slave ships to contemporary life. With no formal training in the arts, Smith, a Vietnam veteran and recipient of the Purple Heart, has said that he was compelled to create by the voice of God saying “Use art. I give you a weapon.”

Inspired by his passion for African-American history, Smith transformed concrete, wire, wood, paint and found objects into sculptures. He filled his house and yard with portraits: captured slaves, manacled together, field slaves carrying their infants, Harriet Tubman and her Underground Railroad, Sally Hemmings, Rosa Parks, a tender likeness of his own “Grandma Churning Butter” as well as cultural icons such as Sammy Davis Jr., Snoop Dog and Michael Jordan. In addition, Smith created memorials, such as the tribute to African-Americans who died in Vietnam and a sculpture of Eric Morse, the five year old dropped to his death from the 14th floor of a Chicago housing project.

By the mid 1990s, Dr. Smith’s African-American Heritage Museum featured more than 800 sculptures, most of which surrounded the house. Speaking about the effect of his works on passers-by, Dr. Smith has said that the Aurora site was “A cemetery where people are not in the ground, but standing up, holding their obituaries and ready to be seen by you and you and you.”

In 1999 the Art Institute of Chicago designated Smith’s African-American Heritage Museum as a Millennium Site, recognizing its cultural and historical significance. In 2001 the Kane County Board provided funds for improvements to the museum. In 2002 The Kohler Foundation of Sheboygan, Wisconsin purchased 500 pieces from Charles Smith’s collection. Working with the artist, conservators removed the sculptures for conservation treatment at their facility in Wisconsin.

The works purchased by the Kohler Foundation have been distributed to museums across the United States, including the Anacostia Museum of the Smithsonian; the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan WI; the Aurora Public Art Commission; the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum; the Houston Museum of Fine Arts; Louisiana State University-Lafayette; Hampton University, Virginia; the Paris Gibson Square Museum, Great Falls, MT; the Lucy Craft Laney Museum, Augusta, Georgia; and Intuit Gallery, Chicago.

Dr. Smith now lives and works in Hammond, Louisiana, where he is creating a new sculpture site. In addition, eighteen of Smith’s sculptures are now on display in the exhibit Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. http://www.avam.org/exhibitions/index.html

Location: 20 E. Downer Pl., Aurora, IL 60506, first floor gallery

Contact: Rena J. Church, Director, Aurora Public Art Commission, (630) 906-0654, rchurch@aurora-il.org