Youth Explosion: Empowerment Summit at Gantt Center

Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in Charlotte, NC — Photo: Mace Publishing, LLC

The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture, at 551 South Tryon Street at Levine Center for the Arts, celebrates the contributions to our art and culture by African and African-American people. It features changing exhibits, and frequently hosts low-priced arts events for the community, giving them a chance to meet working African-American artists and to create their own art.

Read on to learn about current exhibits, the museum’s schedule and ticket prices, and upcoming events, including many for Black History Month, in February, 2022.

Learn more about Black History Month in Charlotte!

Hours:

Sunday: 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Monday: Closed
Tuesday: 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Wednesday 12 p.m. to 9 p.m. (through August, 2022)
Thursday: 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Friday: 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Admission

Adults: $9
College/educator/military/senior: $7
Youth age 6-17: $7
Youth 5 and under: Free
Members: Free

Discounts and Free Days at the Gantt Center

There is currently a Groupon for a discount to the Gantt Center.

In addition, the first full weekend of the month, customer of Bank of America are admitted, free of charge, to the Gantt Center as well as many other museums across the country, as part of their Museum on Us program. You just need to bring your Bank of America or Merrill credit or debit card.

Also, the Gantt Center is part of Wednesday Night Live, during which there is free admission to several Uptown museums, including the Gantt Center, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, and Mint Museum Uptown. There is also a free performance or activity at one of the museums, or at Knight Theater. Wednesday Night Live takes place every Wednesday evening, from 5 to 9 p.m., through August, 2022.

Parking at the Gantt Center

The Levine Center for the Arts parking garage is located across Tryon Street from the Gantt Center. Enter at 101 W. Stonewall Street. Park on levels P1 and P2. Once at the Gantt, ask for a discounted parking pass. With the parking pass the maximum charge for parking will be $5.

There are also other parking garage and surface lots a short walk from the Gantt Center.

Accessibility at the Gantt Center

The Gantt Center has wheelchairs available. If you have other needs, please let the staff know so that accommodations can be made. In addition, the Gantt Center has installed iBeacons to help patrons who have vision loss navigate around the facility.

Current and Upcoming Exhibits

Billie Zangewa: Thread for a Web Begun

Thread for a Web Begun brings together silk tapestries spanning 15 years of the Malawi-born, Johannesburg-based artist, Billie Zangewa’s career. Zangewa’s works explore themes of society, identity, and feminism through an intricate creative practice.

Zangewa does not make grand gestures or even overt political statements, but rather, like a kind of “daily feminism,” focuses on mundane domestic preoccupations; themes connecting us all. Zangewa states “I use fabric and sewing, which traditionally is a female pastime, to empower myself. I tell my personal story, how it’s happening on the home front, and show the intimate life of a woman, which usually we’re not encouraged to do.” Zangewa views telling her own story in her own voice as a kind of personal empowerment. Historically, this has been very difficult for women in general, but particularly for women of color with many social obstacles to overcome.

June 17th, 2022 to September 11th, 2022
More info

Painter’s Refuge: A Way of Life — A Solo Exhibition of Recent Work by Reginald Sylvester II

Reginald Sylvester II’s paintings are manifestations of grace. The emergent young artist’s influences range from the Bible, Abstract Expressionism, contemporary design, and the readymade. For his first solo museum exhibition, Sylvester reflects on the charged history of the materials he uses in the creation of his work. Military tent shells – functional, utilitarian objects – serve as the substrate for a transcendent new body of abstract paintings that allude to shelter, protection, and refuge. The son of a U.S. veteran, Sylvester’s use of military tents also connects with the familial.

May 5th, 2022 to January 16th, 2023
More info

Upcoming Events

Youth Explosion: Empowerment Summit
Saturday, August 20th, 2022
1 to 5 p.m.
Free
Ages 14-19

In partnership with the Youth Initiative of Race Matters for Juvenile Justice (RMJJ), this summit will highlight the voices, passions, and talents of young people with collaborative art, live performance, and community conversation. The schedule below outlines the experience that all are welcome to drop in and participate at any point throughout the day. The summit is created to allow high-school-aged youth to shine by way of artistic and activist expression, and for this reason, are especially encouraged to take part. Please feel free to bring the entire family, and join in as an ally in the celebration.

Note that 100% of the donations from registration will fund giveaways for youth in attendance. All minors must be accompanied by an adult at all times while guests of the Gantt.

Program Schedule

1 pm – 2:30 pm:
Your Voice, Your Power: Youth-led Panel and Community Forum
(Performance Suite)

The Youth Initiative leaders of RMJJ discuss a pressing community issue as a panel, followed by an audience talkback.

2:30 pm – 3:30 pm
Your Connection, Your Power: Conversation with Community Leaders
(Rooftop)

All youth attending the summit will meet and greet relevant community leaders, with the objective of mentorship, hearing perspectives of older leaders, sharing their ideas surrounding their future and building community.

2:30 pm – 4 pm
Your Vision, Your Power: Drop-In Community Art Workshop
(3rd Floor Mezzanine)

Youth and community attending will add to a collective piece that celebrates the power of youth voices, contributions, and talent. The workshop will blend creative writing/empowering statements and collage.

4 pm – 5 pm
Your Talent, Your Power: Spoken Word/Musical Performance + Item Giveaway
(2nd Floor Lobby)

A young spoken word poet and young musician will perform a piece that speaks to youth empowerment and the role of youth in the community, followed by a giveaway of raffle items.

Wednesday Night Live: Black August — Commemorating the Black Liberation Movement
Wednesday, August 31st, 2022
6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Free
All ages

Each year, Black August remembers those who lost their freedom in efforts against racial oppression. This Wednesday Night Live event will uplift crucial community discussion and expression to remember those who have supported the movement over different eras in our history. Charlotte Poet Laureate Jay Ward will share an exclusive piece written for Black August that explores the tenacity and passion it takes to fight for a cause.

Following Jay’s performance, media maven Ohavia Phillips will facilitate a panel discussion, Unmasked: Multi-Layered Movement, featuring Councilman Braxton Winston, educator and Executive Director of Be More Foundation De’Les Green-Morris, and activist and community leader Kass Ottley.

This discussion will highlight how a successful movement needs more than marching in the streets and will review the many ways we all can support a movement with diverse talent and skills.

Family First: Textile Collaging
Saturday, September 10th, 2022
12 to 2 p.m.
$10
Ages 8+

A textile-based workshop, exploring the bliss and complexities that come from discovering and amplifying one’s voice. Participants will create their own 8″x10″ mixed-media collage, signifying a story of their own personal identity. Through this experience, true ancestral stories can be told, exhibited and shared between participating families.

Participants will create and take home their own 8″x10″ mixed-media collage. Leaning into the theme of identity and self, it is encouraged that participants tell a story or reveal a certain emotion through their collage. For example, this can be done by using fabric as clothing for painted figures or using the fabric as a base to create a drawn character etc.

This workshop is a celebration of the exhibition Billie Zangewa: Thread for a Web Begun. Participants are encouraged to view the show before or after the workshop as a part of the experience.

Classic Black Cinema Series: Zouzou
Sunday, September 11th, 2022
2 p.m.
Free after museum admission
Ages 18+

Zouzou is a French film by Marc Allégret released in 1934. Josephine Baker, who plays the title character, was the first black woman to play the leading role in a major motion picture.

Zouzou (Josephine Baker) and Jean (Jean Gabin) were children adopted by Papa Melé (Pierre Larquey) and grew up as performers in the circus that he ran. As adults, Jean works as an electrician and Zouzou, who is in love with Jean, works at a laundry. When Jean is accused of murder, Zouzou becomes a star in a musical show to earn enough money to help clear his name.