The GatewayGIS Neighborhood Banner Project showcases prominent figures from JeffVanderLou, Covenant Blu Grand Center, and Carr Square through the work of local students.

Courtesy of Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis

The Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis’ Learning and Engagement department and GatewayGIS are celebrating past and present African-American leaders from North St. Louis through digital design. GatewayGIS Neighborhood Banner Project: Learning North St. Louis History Through Design is a new exhibition of eight banners highlighting role models from JeffVanderLou, Covenant Blu Grand Center, and Carr Square. But this project is no ordinary art exhibition. All the designs were conceived and created by local middle- and high-schoolers. 

The goal of the GatewayGIS Neighborhood Banner Project was to expose North St. Louis students to past and present Black leaders, community landmarks, and digital graphic design. Students partnered with teaching artists who had ties to their communities to complete each work. The project was conceived by Dr. Rosalind “Roz” Norman, founder of GatewayGIS, whose organization focuses on bringing STEAM education to underrepresented and under-resourced communities, as well as bridging digital, geographic, cultural, racial, and economic divides. She says inspiration for the project came from a short documentary on the 1999 opening ceremony for the then-new Vashon High School in JeffVanderLou. Norman remembered late activist and educator Norman R. Seay referencing banners at the event, and emphasizing the importance of fostering community pride. 

“While each teaching artist had a different methodology for implementing the project, most had students work in teams to create artwork for the banners and then combined the designs into a final collaborative design,” says Miriam Ruiz, the school and community partnership manager for CAM. From these partnerships emerged the faces of Negro League great James “Cool Papa” Bell, performer and activist Josephine Baker, Griot Museum of Black History founder Lois Conley, and congresswoman Maxine Waters, who all now look out from CAM’s west facade.

Kevin McCoy, the resident teaching artist for the James “Cool Papa” Bell banner, says his students were the true driving force behind the project. “I was really the designer, and they were the creative directors,” McCoy says. “I wanted to do a role reversal, where they were instructing me as to how they wanted us to look.” Together, McCoy and his students created a banner inspired by vintage baseball cards, with the students directing every part of the design, from the color of the jersey to the shadows and highlights.

L.M. Flowers, the resident teaching artist for the Lois Conley banner, sees the project as an opportunity to create more positive representations of North St. Louis. “I absolutely believe that anytime you highlight beauty, it creates more beauty,” she says. Growing up near Elizabeth City State University, a historically Black college in North Carolina, Flowers saw people who looked like her in important positions and grew up knowing what she could achieve. “I love that young people will be able to see a representation of themselves,” she says. “To highlight African Americans is not exclusionary, it’s restorative.”

McCoy is also glad to be part of helping his students learn new skills while fostering their community pride. “I never connected with the world because it didn’t reflect my lived experiences," he says. "I’m glad that we have the opportunity to highlight some of the heroes that come from these neighborhoods.”

At the end of the exhibition, one set of the banners will go to the classrooms of the student artists, and the other set will be gifted to St. Louis Third Ward Alderman Brandon Bosley for future public display so that their message can reach and inspire even more community members. “It's important to know where you come from and whose shoulders you're standing on,” says Flowers, “because when you know whose shoulders you're standing on, it gives you confidence for your own future.” 

The GatewayGIS Neighborhood Banner Project runs through September 18. 

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