The Purple House

Carpenter Workshop

Aunt Lou’s House

The Art Garden

Community Gardens

Mosaic Memorial Sculpture Park

Tell Me About the Art Garden

While brainstorming what we wanted the theme to be for the monthly email on the 10th, I asked the Teen Staff what they thought I should write about. Teen Staff member Willie reminded us that his birthday was on the 10th of this month and said he wanted to be the topic. This interview was an unrehearsed conversation with a young man on the eve of his 15th birthday, wise beyond his years. If you know Willie, be sure to wish him a Happy Birthday!

Tell me about the Art Garden. 

The Art Garden is a place where I come that is in my comfort zone to draw and get more experience in art. I go to get myself better socially, emotionally, and I meet new people that means making more friends. 

What do you do at the Art Garden to help you meet those goals?

Art classes, potholders, any classes I can sign up for. I can do everything because it’s right in the neighborhood. I am a really creative person and good in art. I express myself through my art and when I do that it makes my body feel lighter, like I got something out. 

You were the first, why do you think your entire family participates now?

They like to come up here now because they want to see people they know from the Garden. Every day we walk by to see what’s going on, and if we like it we will stay for the day or come back up the next day because it will be different. 

What do you think makes an Art Garden an Art Garden? OR if you were to create an Art Garden in a different city, what would you need to make it an Art Garden?

This is hard to think about. The first requirement would have to be no violence. The Garden needs to be a violence free zone. And this Art Garden is good because it is right by the school. Nothing is long distance so kids do not have to cross streets or risk getting hit by cars. If I made an Art Garden I would also have good ideas.

Flash back to ten years ago – (when you were four years old!!) what did you think when you first came to the Art Garden?

I didn’t think much about it at first because it was an abandoned house. You know when you have doubt on something? And then as something continues to grow that doubt starts to go away and you get very happy that you first started off working it up from what it came from. That’s what happened to me. 

Alphonso brought me up here from Red Oak. I was always good at art when I was down at the Christian Center, and they got me into being an artistic person. My earliest memory was cleaning out the Purple House. It was really dirty and the Art Garden was just a lot of grass. It didn’t look as big as it does now because there wasn’t anything else. It was just grassland and an abandoned house. I remember Red Oaks from when I was little but I can’t remember anything about this street until the Art Garden was here. 

Alphonso and I had a lot of stuff in common. We are both artistic and we both like going outside. I’m not going to say best friends, but we were good, good friends. When he said he wanted to take me somewhere I knew it was going to be fun. 

What has changed in the past ten years?

The amount of people who come here. At first no one came here but then Tuesday Art Garden got really crowded. Now there are things that kids can do that are more their interest, like some kids only go on bike rides or cook. 

It’s a place where no violence. You can have fun without worrying about getting in trouble or getting hurt in any kind of way. You don’t have to worry about getting into any of the grown stuff that they’re doing around here. It’s a place where kids can have fun and it needs to continue to be that way. Because the Community Center and the Art Garden are the only safe places in Binghampton. People don’t mess with it because their kids come here too….they want their kids to grow up to be successful and have a chance to do something good like be a doctor or an athlete. 

How do you see yourself being involved at the Art Garden in 5 years for our next milestone?

I’ll still be here. I’m not going to leave the Art Garden because this is where I grew up. I’ll volunteer here by then. 

Not working here?

No. I’m going to be very successful. Everybody has high hopes for me, like my Mama. When I was in elementary school I got straight A honor roll. And I’m good at running so I’m hoping I’ll run in the Olympics. 

Is there anything else you want to say to CAG? 

The Art Garden is a very great place. Yep.

About Willie

As a Teen Job Hub member, Willie is an apprentice in the Bike Shop and helps with Tuesday Art Garden. Currently, he is taking face-painting lessons from Ms. Nicole and will assist her in her face-painting business on weekends.  

This summer he will lead the Potholder Club with Ms. Judy and continue to work in the Bike Shop with Mr. Lee.

With the opening of the Purple House in 2014, CAG began hosting weekly small group classes for students interested in going more in-depth with their artwork. This curriculum focused on exploration, access, and healing through workshops led by professional artists. Over the past decade, CAG has had the pleasure of hosting hundreds of local and national artists including George Hunt, Christian Robinson, and Lonnie Holley. These classes provide the framework to learn new techniques, create artwork for our annual art shows, and allow students' work to be displayed alongside professional artists.

One of the artists that spent time on Carpenter Street is Terry DeWitt.

Terry first became involved at CAG in 2017 as president of the Memphis-Germantown Art League. Terry reached out to CAG to learn more about our programs and went on to make several financial contributions to CAG through MGAL over the years.

In 2019 Terry transitioned into the role of a volunteer as a small group art class instructor. Terry’s first workshop explored architecture in our neighborhood, using sketching and watercolors to examine the buildings and houses on Carpenter Street. This class was an introduction to architecture as we prepared for our art immersion trip to Chicago that October.

In February of 2020, Terry returned to lead a painting workshop based on iconic Memphis architecture. CAG artists studied buildings specific to their hometown, sketching the details before visiting one of these sites. A surprise up to the day of, six students traveled to Crosstown Concourse to sketch the different spaces with Mr. Terry. In class three of four in the workshop, we brought our sketches back to the Purple House to project sketches on large watercolor paper. We were scheduled to wrap up the project on Thursday, March 12, a class we would never complete.

In the following weeks, the Art Garden took a two-month pause from all programs as we turned our attention to understanding and responding to the global pandemic. Our small group art classes tuned in to take home projects and online videos for the next year. Memories from that final workshop were used to count the passing time until we could safely invite CAG members back on site. This month we are happy to announce we have opened the Purple House to our first visiting artist in two years.

In this time children have grown into teenagers, middle school students are in high school, CAG members have moved away or returned to the neighborhood. We have also experienced loss, with Mr. Terry DeWitt passing away in November 2020 due to Covid-19. We are honored the DeWitt family and friends made donations in Terry’s name to our programs, and are working with the family to donate supplies from his personal studio to our small group art classes.

Student Architecture Exhibit

We invite you to join us at Crosstown Concourse in May to see this collection of work, both incomplete but perfectly concluded. These images capture the disruption we all felt in March of 2020 and explore the growth and change to CAG program members, our organization, and the important relationships of those who have created the foundation for art programs at CAG.

Building an Education House

In 2018 we opened Aunt Lou’s House at 282 Carpenter Street. This little turquoise house is devoted to our educational programs. The call to develop a space for educational support came as a response in partnership with the Binghampton community to address a critical issue facing the neighborhood. Every week for six years at the end of Tuesday Art Garden, CAG members would ask for homework help and volunteers would commit to staying late to assist. This was not the original plan, but in true Art Garden fashion, volunteers rose to the occasion. If you’ve ever volunteered at CAG, chances are you’ve found yourself helping with homework.

CAG members were connected with long-term tutors that have worked with students through years of schoolwork, grade promotions, connecting during summer breaks, and being present for graduations. As we formalized a tutoring program, the need for a dedicated space became clear. There were many years spent tutoring at the picnic tables or sneaking in and out of the back rooms of the Purple House as an art class (or two!) was happening in the front.

Putting together the vision of Aunt Lou’s truly took a community.

There were hours of conversations with neighbors on Carpenter Street about the idea of developing a tutoring space. A generous donor stepped forward to assist CAG with the purchase of the home. A caring friend funded the rehabilitation of this Carpenter Street beauty with good bones. The University of Memphis Architecture program spent hours in the summer heat building the outdoor classrooms. CAG members helped to paint the exterior and mosaic the kitchen. The neighborhood celebrated a grand opening honoring Aunt Lou, the strong, loving, fun, determined, and generous woman this space was named for. An AmeriCorps member spent the opening year overseeing hundreds of students and volunteers as we navigated the possibilities in this new space. Our first Education Coordinator spent two years developing thoughtful programs for anyone wanting to learn on Carpenter Street.

Today

Like every part of CAG, this critical space is multi-use. In three years we have led daily after-school homework help, ACT prep and even offered adult writing workshops. Aunt Lou’s host’s puppet shows, book clubs, art therapy, our first science fair, and even transformed into a haunted house this October. We’ve journaled, read, played multiplication bingo, and made more slime than you could imagine. Aunt Lou’s is a special part of our story and we thank everyone who played a role in making these programs possible.

Bike Parade, December 2016

Our Bike Shop Coordinator, Lee Evans, tells the story of the first bike parade in 2016.

Bike Parade, December 2021

Welcome to Binghampton Sign

A Binghampton resident was frustrated with the public perception of the neighborhood as a dangerous place. He and other residents wanted to make the neighborhood more attractive to visitors, especially as the nearby Broad St. Corridor, a part of Binghampton, has seen a revitalization and resurgence as a business and cultural district. 

The solution? A "Welcome to Binghampton" mosaic community sign that has now been installed at the intersection of Tillman Ave and Sam Cooper Blvd. Every public space created by CAG was not a plan created by the organization. They have organically evolved out of the desires of Binghampton children and conversations with neighbors.

“The ‘Welcome to Binghampton’ sign was designed by two adults and three Binghampton teenagers. We had to sit in a group to come up with ideas for it and then hand make all of the tiles for it. This part of the plan took over a year.

Once we got our design together on cardboard panels, we went to work on the site where the concrete was poured; the entrance to the East side of Binghampton on Sam Cooper and Tillman. While we worked on the sign during the summer we always had people honking their horns as they passed to show support and hollering out the window to say ‘good job!’.

We were all happy to see people loving our ideas and hard work. We even had people stop to bring us snacks and refreshments and would ask us about the sign. The neighborhood loves the sign because now when they see it, everyone in Memphis knows where they are at.”

-Tarlisa Clark
Carpenter Art Garden Community Outreach and Mosaic Apprentice Team Coordinator

Read more about the Welcome to Binghampton sign in the Daily Memphian

‘Welcome’ sign takes shape in Binghampton

Binghampton organizations request neighborhood welcome sign

Mosaic Team

Suzy Hendrix, Professional Artist
Tarlisa Clark, CAG Team Leader

Teen Apprentices:
Marterica, Douglass High School 11th grade
Marmiracle, Kingsbury Middle School 8th grade
Daria, Douglass High School 11th grade

Click here to learn about the Teen Job Hub

We appreciate the support of our Binghampton Community and Mosaic Arts Programming sponsors.

ArtsMemphis | Center for Transforming Communities and the City of Memphis | Lichterman Loewenberg Foundation | Tennessee Arts Commission | River Arts Fest, Inc. | Suzy Hendrix and Friends | Montgomery Martin Contractors, LLC | Inspire Community Cafe | Binghampton Development Corp.