Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts facts for kids

The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts (ELSFA) was a unique school started in 1950 by Elma Lewis. Located in Roxbury, Boston, the school offered many classes in art, dance, drama, music, and even making costumes. Elma Lewis wanted to create "cultural enrichment programs" for children in Roxbury, Dorchester, and the wider Greater Boston area. Sadly, the school closed its Elm Hill Avenue location after a fire in 1985.

Who Was Elma Lewis?

Elma Ina Lewis (September 15, 1921 – January 1, 2004) grew up in Boston, Massachusetts. She went to Emerson College and became a famous American arts educator. Elma Lewis worked hard to support the African-American community through the arts. She also dedicated her life to helping others.

Because of her amazing work, she was one of the first people to receive the MacArthur Fellows Grant in 1981. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan gave her the Presidential Medal for the Arts. This is the highest award a civilian can get. Elma Lewis also received 28 honorary degrees from different universities. She passed away in 2004 when she was 82 years old.

How the School Started

Elma Lewis opened the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts in 1950. It began in a rented 6-room apartment at 7 Waumbeck Street in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Lewis created the school to give African-American students and adults in Boston a chance to learn about the arts.

On its very first day in 1950, 25 students signed up for classes. To join, students paid a small fee of $5 each month. The ELSFA became a non-profit organization on October 19, 1966. At that time, Elma Lewis was the secretary. The school received its first money from the government that same year.

Finding a Home for the Arts

By 1955, the school had too many students for its first rented space. So, it moved to 449 Blue Hill Avenue. After this move, student enrollment grew to 250! That was ten times more students than when it started. However, this new spot was not ideal for the long term.

In 1964, the school rented a building on Charlotte Street in Dorchester, Massachusetts. But after only two seasons, a church bought the building. The school had to move again.

In 1966, the art school operated from the Lewis Junior High School. During the summer of 1967, the school moved to the Hecht House in Boston. It was during this time that Elma Lewis started the "Playhouse in the Park" series.

The next year, the ELSFA moved to a former synagogue building. This building was on the corner of Elm Hill Avenue and Seaver Street. The owners of the New England Hebrew Academy bought the property and gave it to the ELSFA. This was a big deal because it was the only Black arts organization to own its own property back then. The school spent $2,000,000 to change 20 rooms in the building. These rooms used to be part of the synagogue's Hebrew school and community center. That year, Lewis also started the National Center of Afro-American Artists.

National Center of Afro-American Artists

Elma Lewis founded the National Center of Afro-American Artists (NCAAA) in 1968. Its goal was to "preserve and foster the cultural arts heritage of black peoples worldwide." This meant teaching arts and showing professional art from all different fields.

After it started, the NCAAA took over running the ELSFA. It became the "intellectual dimension" of the school. The NCAAA still runs many cultural programs and exhibitions today. In 1980, it opened the Museum of the National Center of Afro-American Artists to help achieve its goals.

Exciting Programs and Performances

Playhouse in the Park

In 1966, the same year the ELSFA became a non-profit, Elma Lewis started the "Playhouse in the Park" program. This was a summer theater in Franklin Park, Boston. The idea for the program came from Joseph Papp's New York Shakespeare Festival. Between 100 and 3,000 people came to watch the shows every night.

The program ran every summer until 1977. Performances happened nightly from July 4th through Labor Day. More than 100,000 people watched shows during the very first season! Famous artists often performed, including musicians Duke Ellington and Babatunde Olatunji.

The "Playhouse in the Park" was brought back in 2002. It still happens in Boston every summer. The revived program still features classic arts. But now, it also includes Chinese and Irish dance, music from Brazil and the Caribbean, and ballet, hip-hop, and tap dance.

Arts in Prison

The ELSFA started the Technical Theater Training Program (TTP) at Massachusetts Correctional Institution (MCI), Norfolk, in July 1970. Over time, 140 inmates took classes in drama, playwriting, music, and dance. In the early years, ten inmates worked together to write a book. It was called Who Took the Weight: Black Voices from Norfolk Prison (1972). A company called Little Brown & Company published it.

Talented Students and Alumni

Between 1958 and 1963, eight former ELSFA students moved to New York. They became professional performers on Broadway! In 1964 and 1965, teenage students from ELSFA performed at the World's Fair in New York City. Four students were in the 1969 revival of "Hello Dolly," starring Pearl Bailey.

Other students performed in Broadway shows like Ben Franklin Goes to Paris and Golden Boy, which starred Sammy Davis Jr. The American writer Danzy Senna also attended the school as a child in the late 1970s.

Challenges the School Faced

In 1966, the ELSFA received a grant of $3,500 from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). This money was to "teach art, dance, music and drama to public school children" at Lewis Junior High School. The Boston School Committee voted to let all Boston public school students attend the ELSFA. However, the Committee's Business Agent forced the arts program to leave the Junior High school. This left the school without a place to hold classes.

In 1967, when classes were not in session, the ELSFA received donations. These came through the network of Elwood McKenny, a judge in Roxbury. During this time, leaders held meetings to decide the school's future. They also looked for a permanent home.

In the early 1970s, the NCAAA started a program called CELEBRATE! to raise money. This money was for building repairs and staff salaries. This fundraising continued from 1971 to 1973.

In 1971, Elma Lewis became involved in a long legal battle. This court case lasted for two decades and involved many appeals. It was very expensive for the school.

By 1980, the arts school was in serious financial trouble. The number of students had dropped a lot, from 525 to only 100. The ELSFA had a large debt and not enough staff. Experts were hired to create a four-year plan for the struggling school. They figured out that the ELSFA needed about $1 million each year to run at its best. That year, the Kennedy Foundation gave the ELSFA a grant. This helped with building repair costs, but only for one year.

Fires at the School

The Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts faced several fires in the 1970s and 1980s. The fires in the 1970s did not cause much damage. Most of the school's records from that time survived. One fire was thought to be caused by a kiln left on overnight. However, the fires in the 1980s destroyed some records. In 1985, a very worrying incident happened. Someone threw flaming materials into a classroom during a rehearsal. None of these fire cases were ever solved.