The Harvey B. Gantt Center For African American Arts & Culture
Museum, Art center, Art gallery in Charlotte, NC
- Address
- 551 S Tryon St, Charlotte, NC, 28202
- Phone
- (704) 547-3700
- Website
- ganttcenter.org
About The Harvey B. Gantt Center For African American Arts & Culture
The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts and Culture sits in the heart of Uptown Charlotte as the city's premier home for exhibitions, performances, and educational programs celebrating the African-American narrative. The Center presents work by both emerging and established artists, with past exhibitions including Jordan Casteel: Harlem Notes, a 2017 showcase of the Harlem-based painter's intimate portraiture. Beyond its galleries, the Gantt hosts scholarly talks and community programs that connect visual art to broader questions of history and identity, positioning itself as a place for cultural experiences found nowhere else in the city. The organization traces its roots to the student protest movements of the 1960s at what was then UNC Charlotte, where students demanded a forum for Black history and culture, leading to the creation of a Black Studies Center under founding director Bertha Maxwell. Around the same time, English professor Mary Harper proposed an Afro-American Cultural and Service Center to preserve Charlotte's Black history, which was increasingly threatened by urban renewal. Maxwell embraced the idea, and with support from UNCC President Bonnie E. Cone, city leader Fred Alexander, Dean William S. Mathis, writer Harry Golden, and founding board chair Mamie L. Brewington, the Afro-American Cultural Center was established in 1974. In October 2009, the organization moved into its current Uptown building and was renamed in honor of Harvey Bernard Gantt, the first African-American student admitted to Clemson University and later Charlotte's first African-American mayor. That collaborative spirit between the Center and the university endures today, and the Gantt continues to rely on visitor and donor support to sustain its exhibitions and programming.
Founded in 1974 as the Afro-American Cultural and Service Center, the organization grew out of 1960s student activism at UNC Charlotte and the vision of professor Mary Harper and founding director Bertha Maxwell, who wanted to preserve Charlotte's African-American history against the threat of urban renewal. In October 2009 it moved into its current Uptown Charlotte building and was renamed the Harvey B. Gantt Center in honor of Harvey Bernard Gantt, the first Black student admitted to Clemson University and Charlotte's first African-American mayor.
Services
- art exhibitions
- cultural performances
- educational programs
- community talks
Photos
