A group of Charlotte arts advocates wants the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School board to name a school for Charlotte-born artist Romare Bearden.
Bearden was a prominent 20th-century artist. He is known for his work in collage and other mediums, including paintings in oil and watercolor. Much of his art reflects Southern images, such as "Carolina Memory."
"It's also one of Bearden’s important etchings. He includes his family in this image,” Patrick Diamond said from inside his south Charlotte home. He points to a window in the image that includes a train.
“Bearden lived in uptown Charlotte, not very far from the train trestles and those trains were an important part of his early life as well as, you know, contributed to the growth and rapid expansion of Charlotte-Mecklenburg," Diamond said.
Diamond says he and his wife wanted their son to grow up with an appreciation for his culture, they made their home a showcase for Black art and culture. Bearden’s work has also stood out.
“Many of his themes are Southern themes, musical themes, family themes. He focused a lot of his attention on Mecklenburg County. We're drawn to those images,” he said.
Diamond is now the chair of the Romare Bearden Project. Its goal is to name a new school after Bearden. The committee was founded nearly a year ago after learning that CMS still had some new schools left to name. An elementary and a high school in south Charlotte are still under construction. Another four schools will be built if voters approve a bond package in November.
The group has some prominent supporters such as Congresswoman Alma Adams and organizations like the Mint Museum of Art and the Harvey B. Gantt Center, not to mention Diamond himself. He’s a former executive with Bank of America and Duke Energy who has played a large role in several philanthropic campaigns in Charlotte.
Romare Bearden is already recognized in Charlotte with a park named after him in uptown. But Diamond and other members on the committee believe Bearden can serve as a role model for students given his many achievements. Diamond gives 2003 as an example.
“The National Gallery in Washington (D.C.) exhibited the art of Romare Bearden. That important exhibition was the museum's very first one-person exhibition of an African American artist in the museum's 62-year history,” Diamond said.
Schools are typically named when a new one is in the process of opening, says CMS board Chair Elyse Dashew.
“A principal would convene a committee, and the committee needs to have input from community historical and cultural groups,” she said.
The principal then sends recommended names to the superintendent, which are then forwarded to the board. The board typically honors the committee’s recommendation.
The Romare Bearden Project is a bit unusual, in that it’s getting a head start. It has already emailed board members, urging them to name a new school after Bearden.
But there is another option, one that Diamond says even he didn’t realize is a possibility. There are plans to turn First Ward Elementary School into an arts magnet middle school.
“Some people have said, ‘Well, can we rename First Ward for Romare Bearden?’ That is certainly a possibility,” Dashew said. “I have not seen a situation where you rename an existing school, for a historic figure when it's not coming out of pushback against the current name. It's not like there's as much of a clear road map to follow for how this would happen, but there definitely are ways in policy for it to happen.”
Dashew says it makes sense to name a school after Bearden. Longtime CMS board member, Thelma Byers-Bailey, agrees.
“He's a perfect candidate for a school to be named for him," Byers-Bailey said. "I think it would be highly appropriate to be one of our art schools.”
At the very least, Byers-Bailey says an art school’s gallery could be named after Bearden.
Although Bearden is arguably Charlotte’s most famous artist, he only spent the first four years of his life in the area before moving to New York. He died in New York City in 1988 at the age of 76. Still, Charlotte historian Tom Hanchett says much of Bearden’s art revolved around his hometown.
"Toward the end of his life, his art really mined the themes of his youth, and he had a whole series of collages called ‘The Mecklenburg Series’ about Black life in the early 20th century,” he said.
And Hatchett notes that near the end of his life, Bearden said, “I never left Charlotte except physically.”
Perhaps a park and a school named after him would help secure his legacy for generations to come.
