BLACK PORTRAITURE[S] II: IMAGING THE BLACK BODY AND RESTAGING HISTORIES

Welcome by the blackamoor girl 1

Black Portraitures[s] II: Imaging the Black Body and Re-Staging Histories

Headquartered at NYU’s 57 acre, 15th century Florentine Villa “La Pietra” this conference Black Portraiture{s} II: Imaging the Black Body and Re-Staging Histories, will be the sixth in this series and once again, a collaboration between New York University (NYU) and Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. The  conference will open in Florence, Italy on Thursday, May 28, 2015 and continue through Sunday, May 31, 2015. This years conference is organized by  Deborah Willis, Ellyn Toscano, Awam Ampka, Ulrich Baer, Henry Louis Gates, Robert Holmes, Manthia Diawara, Thelma Golden, and Cheryl Finley.

 Attendance is expected to be high with over 800 registered attendees, many of whom will also be visiting the Biennale in nearby Venice, Italy  during the same time period.

The conference will once again bring together an international group of artists and scholars to continue an interdisciplinary  discussion of historical and  contemporary portrayals of the Black Body in Western Civilization.

This blog will report conference activities on a daily basis from locations in Florence.  Our aim is to share the experience of attending the BLACK  PORTRAITURE{S} II conference with people who would be interested but not able to attend in person.  Throughout the conference we will photograph and write commentary on talks and discussions as they take place in the various venues in the city of Florence and at La Pietra, NYU’s 15th century Tuscan Villa overlooking the city.

Stairway to the second level of the Rotunda at La Pietra
Stairway to the second level of the Rotunda at the Villa La Pietra

The most recent conference in the series, held in Paris, France in January 2013, attracted a diverse community of scholars, included over 400 attendees, and produced an outstanding body of work on the portrayal of the Black Body in the West.  Many scholars, students, as well as non-professionals throughout the diaspora who have become aware of the Paris conference have shown a great interest in the scholarly work in history, art history, and art that has been produced in the past few years as depicted in these conferences.

Black Portraiture{s} II: IMAGING THE BLACK BODY AND RESTAGING HISTORIES
Black Portraiture{s} II: IMAGING THE BLACK BODY AND RESTAGING HISTORIES

THE EXHIBITION:

This year’s conference will also include an exhibition of a portion of the art collection at La Pietra, the historical Villa that is home to New York University at Florence, Italy. This

African warrior/hunter carries a quiver of arrows on his back and a bow in his right hand.
African warrior/hunter carries a quiver of arrows on his back and a bow in his right hand.

exhibition will be centered on depictions of the Black Body as “Blackamoors” within La Pietra’s art collections.

Blackamoor with seashell son head

These ornamental sculptural representations of the Black Body have been held with some esteem for at least five centuries in many art collections throughout the Western world. Where and why did this practice originate?  What does this dichotomy signify when European cultures that have sought to enslave, villainize, and dehumanize African people have at the same time, made them subjects of their ornamental art?  “Often encrusted with gold and precious stones and typically immaculately attired in the costumes of their period, these highly prized and costly figures were in ancient times and still are today, placed in prominent high visibility areas in the homes, mansions, and villas of the moneyed elite across the western world.  For the owner there is no dichotomy at all.  The possession of the black body as represented in the Blackamoor is simply another signifier of the wealth, power, and status of the owner.”

      

 THE CONFERENCE:

While the art exhibition in various museum venues throughout the city of Florence will feature the “Blackamoors,” the conference itself will engage wider discussions about the many ways in which the black body has been imagined in the West. “The art and politics of representing blackness has has been completely controlled and manipulated by non-african powers over the centuries.” The significance of this conference is powerfully expressed in the following statement by the conference organizers .

“Centuries of migration (whether forced or voluntary) encounters and exchanges shaped imbalanced structures of power and knowledge. Representation became, in the hands of those with power, a tool to reconfigure the identities of peoples engaged in these exchanges through various technologies of representation—literature, art, popular culture, etc. Constructs of race and sexuality defined these identities, setting precedents that continue to color our ways of seeing. More recently, the universality of black culture and its global presence have heightened the visibility of the black body in international sports, music, fashion, and the visual arts, with implications worthy of much critique. The conference will examine the ways in which the same technologies of representation can and are being used to contest that knowledge, and to offer counter-images.”

Conference Venues:

Odion Theatre view from the stage

THE ODEON THEATRE: FLORENCE, ITALY

Registration and sign-in of all attendees will start on Thursday, May 28th – Day #1 from 5:00-8:00 PM  at Villa La Pietra, Via Bolognese 120, 50139 Firenze, Italy. A reception and open house will follow immediately at the Villa Pietra from 6:30 – 9:00 PM.

Day 2 – Friday, May 29th Registration – 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM at the Odeon Theatre which is housed in the fifteenth century Palazzo Strozzino in Metropolitan Florence at Piazza Strozzi, 50123 Firenze, Italy.

MORE TO FOLLOW

“BELLE” – THE MOTION PICTURE

Portrait of Elizabeth and Dido
The portrait by Johann Zoffany commissioned in 1779 by Lord Mansfield that resurrected the story of “Belle”.

-BELLE –

The Motion Picture

I saw the motion picture “Belle” when it opened in New York City in May 2014 to approving audiences and strong ‘word of mouth’ acclaim. The beautifully written screenplay by Missan Sagay is  based on a true story.  As told by Ms Sagay she discovered the story under very unlikely circumstances as she took a walk through a nearby palace during a break from her medical studies at St. Andrews University more than a decade ago. During her walk along one corridor in the palace she came upon a room where a large portrait of two women hung on a wall. The way the two women seemed to relate to each other in the painting caught her attention and remained in her mind’s eye for years afterwards. After the completion of her medical degree and a few years of work as a practicing physician and screenplay writer, Ms Sagay decided to revisit and research the portrait that had caught her attention years earlier during that walk in the Scone Palace in Scotland. This research led to the discovery of  the story of Dido Elizabeth Bell the daughter of a woman, Maria Belle,  who had died over 250 years ago in a British colony deep in the American South*.

 

The story of Belle was unearthed, wonderfully researched, and masterfully told in the screenplay by the gifted Anglo-Nigerian writer Misan Sagay (‘Secret Lives of Women’, and ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’).Photo (http://thesource.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Misan-Sagay.png)
The story of Belle was unearthed, wonderfully researched, and masterfully told in the screenplay by the gifted Anglo-Nigerian writer Misan Sagay (‘Secret Lives of Women’, and ‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’).Photo (http://thesource.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Misan-Sagay.png)

Maria Belle, a beautiful enslaved African woman, was found in the ‘hold’ of a captured Spanish ship during a naval battle between warships of the Spanish and British governments off the coast of 18th century Cuba.  Maria Belle had been rescued from the Spanish warship by Sir John Lindsay, an officer in the British Royal Navy and captain of the 28 gun British warship HMS Trent. Marie and Sir John Lindsay fell in love after her rescue from the Spanish and apparently lived together near Mobile, Alabama where Sir John was stationed after the end of the war with Spain. They had a child, the eponymous Dido Elizabeth “Belle”.

Gugu Mbartha Raw stars as Dido Elizabeth Belle in The Motion Picture "Belle" Born in Oxfordshire to a British mother and a South African father. Gugu (Gugu is short for Gugulethu, a xhosa word meaning "our pride") has appeared in on stage as Cleopatra (Anthony and Cleopatra), Juliet Capulet (Romeo and Juliet), Monique (Gethsemane), and Ophelia (Hamlet).  PHOTO (http://thesource.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/belle-poster.jpg)
Gugu Mbartha Raw stars as Dido Elizabeth Belle in The Motion Picture “Belle” Born in Oxfordshire to a British mother and a South African father. Gugu (Gugu is short for Gugulethu, a xhosa word meaning “our pride”) has appeared in on stage as Cleopatra (Anthony and Cleopatra), Juliet Capulet (Romeo and Juliet), Monique (Gethsemane), and Ophelia (Hamlet). PHOTO (http://thesource.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/belle-poster.jpg)

The film opens when Sir John Lindsay, having been recalled from his post in Alabama and ordered to report for duty elsewhere in the British Empire, arrives in London to leave his young (perhaps five years old) daughter with his Great Uncle Lord John Mansfield to be brought up and raised with Lord Mansfield’s  family in England.

 The film depicts a period in the lives of Lord Mansfield and his family as they lived in a small town near London toward the end of the 18th century. Lord Mansfield, his wife, and daughter were people of some ‘means’ who led lives of historical significance but who are perhaps better known now than they were during their lifetimes. Their story though, and the peculiar circumstances of their lives, holds some special relevance in today’s world. The lead character, Dido Elizabeth Belle, a mixed race child, is unceremoniously delivered to her grand uncle to be reared while her father goes off to war. The grand uncle, Lord Mansfield, perhaps the most powerful man in the British Empire during the latter half of the 18th century, is also Lord Chief Justice of England. Mortified at first, Lord Mansfield hesitatingly takes the young girl into his home and raises her as his daughter. During this same time period one of the most important legal cases in the history of the Empire is presented to Lord Mansfield for a decision. The case involves and eventually leads to the abolishment of the slave trade in the British Empire. Thus the stage is set for a wonderful love story against a backdrop of great historical significance centered around the most powerful man in the British Empire during the latter half of the 18th century.

THE DIRECTOR

The film is directed masterfully by the much acclaimed British director Amma Assante.
The film is directed masterfully by the much acclaimed British director Amma Assante.

The film is directed masterfully by the much acclaimed British director Amma Assante. Ms Assante was brought in by producer Damian Jones to direct “Belle” after her directorial debut with the film “A Way of Life” won awards in England and the United States. Ms. Amma Asante began her career as a child actor, became a screen play writer, and has now developed into one of the most promising new film directors in the motion picture business.

The London Film Festival awarded Asante the inaugural Alfred Dunhill UK Film Talent Award, created to recognize the achievements of a new or emerging British writer/director who has shown great skill and imagination in bringing originality and verve to film-making.

Museum of African American History and Culture Raises $410 Million Dollars

National Museum of African American History and Culture
Groundbreaking – National Museum of African American History and Culture

On Monday night March 24, 2014, in a reception room on the 52nd floor of the 55 story Bank of America Tower in Manhattan, the Bank of America, represented by its’ Chief Executive Officer Brian Monyhan and other top executives, hosted a very special reception.  The occasion  celebrated the birth of the new Museum of African American History and Culture now under construction on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.. Brian Monyhan opened the reception by announcing the Bank’s decision to contribute an additional 1 million dollars toward the project’s 500 million dollar budget. This contribution brings the total amount contributed by Bank of America to 2 million dollars and the total amount raised thus far for the project to 410 million dollars of the 500 million dollar budget. Groundbreaking for the museum took place 4 months ago and construction is well underway.

View from 52nd Floor Reception Room
                                            View from 52nd Floor Reception Room

To commemorate the celebration, and in addition to the 1 million dollar contribution, Monyhan announced the gift to the museum of “Daufuskie Island”, the exhibition of photographs produced by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe during her photographic documentation of the Gullah culture thirty five years ago. The Gullah community had thrived as a society of freed African people who had been enslaved during the antebellum years on the sea islands off the coast of South Carolina. The slaveholders moved away from the islands during the civil war leaving the plantations in the care of the formerly enslaved Gullah people. At the close of the Civil War the Gullah people were given the opportunity to buy plots of land that had been subdivided by the union army for this explicit purpose. This community grew and prospered on the islands for many years in relative isolation after the war ended. In so doing the Gullah people were able to preserve “more of their original African language,  and cultural heritage than any other community in the United States”. During the early twentieth century a series of natural disasters along with increasing contact with the outside world brought attention to the islands. Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe  began the work of documenting the Gullah culture in 1977-1981 as the Gullah culture was about to be completely absorbed into the twentieth century world of tourism and mega-resorts. Twenty-five years later a collection of Moutoussamy-Ashe’s photographs was sponsored by Merrill Lynch as a traveling exhibition of the Gullah culture.  The book “Daufuskie Island: Photographs by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe” with Foreword by Alex Haley, was originally produced to accompany the traveling exhibition. This book has been updated  with additional photographs from Moutoussamy-Ashe’s collection, a new Preface by Deborah Willis, Ph.D., and an epilogue by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe.  The work came into the possession of Bank of America when the company acquired Merrill Lynch in 2009.  As a result of the Bank of America’s gift of the exhibition to the museum this unique and priceless work of art by Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe, depicting the Gullah culture and the memory of the Gullah people, will now be preserved and secured into the distant future at the National Museum for African American History and Culture.

Construction Site - Museum of African American History and Culture
Construction Site – Museum of African American History and Culture

Lonnie Bunch, Director of the new museum, the man for whom the reception was held, spoke to the A-list gathering of board members, financial executives, business entrepreneurs, wealthy contributors, and to the scholars, historians, and artists who study and produce work in the African American culture, about his journey and his vision for the future of the museum.

In 2003 the indefatigable Congressman John Lewis, after 18 failed attempts, succeeded in moving his fellow congressmen to pass the act that created the National Museum of African American History and Culture as one of the museums that make up the Smithsonian Institution. The congressional act provided for the appropriation of $250 million in federal construction financing  with another $250 million to come from the private sector to complete the $500 million budget.  The museum is to be devoted exclusively to the documentation of African American life, art, history, and culture.

Lonnie Bunch was named as the founding director of the new museum. Bunch is no neophyte to the museum business. During the 1980’s he was curator and program manager for the California Afro American Museum in Los Angeles which he helped to build. He has taught at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. Bunch left his position as head of the Chicago  Historical Society in 2005 to take the position of Director of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. Now, nine years later, enough money has been raised to start the construction of the 380,000 sf, 5 story structure on the 5 acre site next to  the Washington Monument at the National Mall.  Construction completion is projected for early 2016.

It is worthwhile now to applaud the monumental achievement of Lonnie Bunch, his staff and all of the collaborators on this project in recognition of  the accomplishment of an amazing task.

This is a major step toward systematically compiling a history of the lives, art, and culture of the African American People. This museum will allow us to collect our artifacts, music, art, and history and to tell our own story for the benefit of future generations. It is very appropriate that the first two artifacts to arrive for installation at the museum are a Jim Crow-era rail car, and a 1930’s guard tower from Angola, the infamous Louisiana State Penitentiary.

I enclose a list of the private contributors toward the 250 million dollars necessary for the completion of the museum development.  As Americans we can be as proud of them as we are of Lonnie Bunch and John Lewis.

The major focus remains on raising the $90 million balance that will be necessary to complete the financing of the museum development.

The Museum begins!

Although construction continues over 30,000 artifacts have been contributed already for exhibition.

   NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE

DONNER LIST 

$10 MILLION OR MORE

Oprah Winfrey Charitable Foundation,

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

The Lilly Endowment

$5 Million and above 

American Express

Anonymous

The Boeing Company

The Ford Foundation

The Rockefeller Foundation

Target

United Health Group

Walmart

$2 Million or more

Bank of America

Bloomberg Philanthropies

Robert L. Johnson

W.K. Kellog Foundation

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,

Carl W. and Amanda Stafford

Time Warner Foundation

United Technologies

The Walt Disney Company

$1 Million or more

3 M

Rodney and Michelle Adkins

Aflac, Incorporated

Dr. and Mrs. T.B. Boyd III and Family/The R.H.

Boyd Company

Caterpillar

Kenneth I. and Catherine Chenault

The Coca Cola Foundation

Goldman Sachs

The Hartford

Melody Hobson and George Lucas

IMB

James A. Johnson

Johnson Publishing Company

JP Morgan Chase

Robert and Arlene Kogod

The Reginal F. Lewis Foundation

The Links Foundation Incorporated

The J. Willard and Alice S. Marriott Family

Foundation

McDonalds Corporation

Jules L. and Juliette McNeil

Morgan Stanlye

Mark and Brenda Moore and Family

Richard D. and Laura A. Parson

Pepsico Foundation

Colin and Alma Powell

The Prudential Foundation

Franklin D. Raines

Arthur and Toni Rembe Rock

Deborah Sara Santana

Gerald B. and Anita Smith Family

Patricia Q. Stonesifer and Michael E. Kinsley

Reginald Van Lee

Craig and Diane Welburn and Family

Anthony and Beatrice Welters

  

BLACK PORTRAITURE[S]: THE BLACK BODY IN THE WEST – THE PARIS CONFERENCE REVISITED

place_de_la_concorde 3

With the charm and beauty of the City of Paris as a backdrop the conference “BLACK PORTRAITURE[S]: THE BLACK BODY INecole des baux arts THE WEST” opened a few months ago with attendance by scholars, artists, writers, and students from throughout the Western World. Hosted by three centers of art and education in the city of Paris the homogenous blend of art and architecture provided the perfect atmosphere. The conference centered on the 111 papers presented by distinguished scholars in 19 panels  over a four day period to an audience of over 500 attendees from Africa, Europe, North America, South America, and the Caribbean.

Panel discussions were held according to the following schedule beginning on January 17, 2013:

Thursday –         Ecole Nationale Superioeure Des Beaux-Arts

Friday                Universite Paris Diderot – Paris 7,

Saturday           Musee du Quai Branly

Sunday             Musee du Quai Branly.

One of the most impactful outcomes of the conference in retrospect, was that it brought such a large group of artists and scholars from across the diaspora as it exists throughout the Western World, into personal contact and lively conversation with each other in a way that would, perhaps not have happened otherwise. This conversation centered on the way the Black BodyMusee de Quai Branly is represented and has been represented historically in visual and performance arts in the West. The view of the evolution of these various representations of the Black Body provides an unequaled depiction of the progress that has been made from the distant past to the present. More profoundly however, the ability to meet, share, and discuss these representations allows one to clearly see points, times, and places where intervention is urgently required to provide corrections to the historical narrative. As data has become moreregistration Portraiture[s] readily available to this rapidly growing community it is increasingly possible to turn intellectual and other resources to the objective study and examination of the historical data. This process and these discussions make graphically evident how racial bias and bigotry has systematically caused misrepresentations and distortions of reality and thereby negatively influenced the visual representation of The Black Body. Objective scholarship focused on the re-examination of the historical narrative as it pertains to representations of the Black Body is required to ‘set the record straight’ and to provide a sound basis for the intercultural discussions that must take place with the wider world if there is to be a better future.

The conference is over but the dialogue is energized throughout the diaspora and continues at a high level among conferees who have now returned to their respective worlds. InOpening Day - Beaux Arts an effort to support this continuing conversation I propose to profile each of the panel participants from the conference by providing some background and a brief discussion of each panel topic as presented at the conference.

 I begin with a discussion of the work and times of Legendary Ghanaian photographer James Barnor.james as portraiturist

JAMES BARNOR – PHOTOGRAPHER

james with panel

Barnor was the first staff photographer employed by the Daily Graphic newspaper when it was established in The Gold Coast in 1950 by Cecil King of the London Daily Mirror Group. This was a pivotal period in the development of the country that would become Ghana seven years later.  After the 1948 Accra riots Kwame Nkrumah was arrested along with five other activists (the big six) who had  been advocating independence from England and the end to colonial  rule in the African continent. From this point forward the countryjames at Universite day 2 was in transition towards independence. Barnor’s early portraitures and street photographs provide a visual history of the development of Ghana from the colonial period through independence and into the modern era. This early work covers the birth of Ghana and includes photographs of Kwame Nkrumah, the future president of Ghana , The Duchess of Kent, Richard Nixon, Andrew Young and many other politicians who visited Ghana in that period.

Barnor moved to London in 1959 in order to study photography in a more formal setting. In London Barnor learned the techniques of color processing. He perfected these techniques doing work as a street photographer providing works in the ‘Blackdeb james barnor and cheryl Lifestyle’ genre. During this period London was rapidly becoming a center for a new cultural revolution. Music, art, and fashion took the city by storm.  The fashion world was ablaze and models were making millions. There was little interest however in the black lifestyle.  Unable to get work as models notwithstanding black women were major trendsetters on London streets in their mini skirts, high heels and hair styles. Drum magazine an anti-apartheid South African  magazine, had grown from its’audence at universite paris diderot inception in Johannesburg in the early 50’s, to become one of the most widely read magazines in Africa.  Drum was very interested in photographs with black models and news about Africans generally. Barnor had done work for Drum in Ghana and had contacts there.

In South Africa Drum was the only publication that described the world of the urban black in the townships.  The magazine employed the new generation of writers and photographers… urbanized Africans who had been freed or escaped from the tribal reserves. These men were widely read ex soldiers returned home from World War II. They were fast talking hipsters who were irreverent, satirical, andbarnor fashion addicted to a lifestyle that included heavily chromed american cars, jazz music, and freedom. The magazine developed a reputation for dealing with social issues that affected black people in South Africa. The work that these writers and photographers produced  at Drum changed the way that Black people were represented in society.   Drum has been described by photographer Peter Magubane as “a different home; it did not have apatheid. There was no discrimination in the offices of Drum magazine. It was only when you left Drum and entered the world outside of the main door that you knew you were in apartheid land.” As the magazine grew and became more in demand across the continent it required more and more content.  This created a demand  for the work of otherUntitled-Barnor Black writers, photographers, and their models. During this period (the ‘London period’) Barnor recruited, discovered and photographed models  to fill this demand.  As the fight against apartheid intensified the editors of Drum were forced to resign under pressure from the Nationalerlin ibreck Police or to leave the Country to escape arrest.  Drum magazine virtually disappeared for a time. The ANC ultimately succeeded in abolishing apartheid with the establishment of a new government.  Drum has since reestablished itself and is now once again one of the leading magazines on the continent.

James Barnor returned to Ghana in 1969 and worked there for the following 24 years as a professional photographer. During this period Barnor became the official African representative for Agfa-Gevaert (at the time the leading company for imaging technology), worked for the American embassy, and various Ghanaian government agencies and eventually for President J. J. Rawlings.  In 1994 James Barnor returned to London where he now lives.

On June 6, 2013 James Barnor had his 83rd birthday.  Happy Birthday Mr. Barnor!!Hank Thomas and  James Barnor - ParisMr. Barnor has spent 63 years of his life creating and helping others to create representations of the Black Body.  His  work, its impact and consequences are loud testimony to the importance of the quality of the representations that are made.  It was a pleasure to meet and talk to him at the Black Portraitures conference.

  James Barnor has been exhibited in the UK, US, France, Ghana and South Africa.

BLACK PORTRAITURE[S]: THE BLACK BODY IN THE WEST
Event Organizers: Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Deborah Willis, Manthia Diawara, Jean-Paul Colleyn, Lydie Diakhate, Awam Amkpa, Chery Finley, Anne-Christine Taylor-Descola, Anna Laban, Christine Barthe, Caroline Montel-Glenisson, Raissa Laheine, Thelma Golden, and Nicholas Bourriaud

Washington Square Park – Manhattan

The land that is now Washington Square Park was given to freed African Americans in 1643 by the original Dutch settlers..
The land that is now Washington Square Park was given to freed formerly enslaved African Americans in 1643 by the original Dutch settlers.

The Park is an open space, dominated by Washington Arch (1892), with a tradition of celebrating nonconformity. The Park’s fountain area has long been one of the city’s popular spots for residents and tourists. The land here was divided by a narrow marshy valley through which Minetta Creek ran. In the early 17th century, a Native American village known as Sapokanikanor “Tobacco Field” was nearby. The Native Americans also owned the land known now as Washington Square Park before the Dutch attacked and drove them out. By the mid-17th century, the land on each side of the Minetta was used as farm land by the Dutch. The Dutch gave the land to their slaves, thus freeing them, with the intention of using them as a human ‘buffer zone’ between (the attacks of) the Native Americans and the white colonial settlements. The formerly enslaved African Americans who received the land were told that, although they were no longer slaves, they had to give a portion of the profits they received from the land to the Dutch East India Company. Also, their children would be born as slave, rather than free. The tract was in the possession of African Americans from 1643 to 1664. Today, the area, then called “The Land of the Blacks,” is Washington Square Park. The ex-slaves who owned “The Land of the Blacks” included Paulo D’angola.

Washington Square Park is one of the best-known of New York City’s 1,900 public parks. At 9.75 acres (39,500 m2), it is a landmark in the Manhattanneighborhood of Greenwich Village, as well as a meeting place and center for cultural activity.