The Helis Foundation John Scott Center

The Helis Foundation John Scott Center Opens

A new community art center in New Orleans continues the multimedia artist and educator's legacy

Alexandra Kennon

How does one possibly capture something as fluid and dynamic as a pioneering artist’s legacy in something as concrete and literal as a physical space? That is exactly what the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities and the Helis Foundation have accomplished with their latest gift to the city of New Orleans, The John Scott Center.

John Tarrell Scott, the larger-than-life yet famously down-to-earth man who inspired the center, is known for his colorful kinetic metal sculptures, woodblock prints, collages, and other types of artwork that frequently draw from traditional African art and are inspired by important moments in African American history, like the Middle Passage or the 1962 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham. While living and at the height of his career in 1992, Scott received the high honor of being named a MacArthur Fellow. He also taught at Xavier University for forty-two years, and according to the new center’s Director Asante Salaam, who was at one point one of his students, Scott had a knack for connecting with anyone and making them feel important, regardless of his own accolades or who the individual he was speaking with might be.

Upon first learning the John Scott Center was in the works, Salaam knew she wanted to be involved, especially because it was conceived to honor a mentor who so inspired her personally. “I was inspired, and really excited about the possibility of translating into experience what I knew of him personally, and what I witnessed in others’ experience of him— whether it was his art, or how down to earth he was in talking to just a neighbor wandering around, or somebody on the Xavier campus, to somebody in a boardroom, or on Julia Street at one of his galleries. You know, he just really made so many people feel like they were the most important person to be talking to in the moment.” Salaam expressed of Scott. “So the opportunity to translate someone who was such a unique person and a unique character, with a unique voice and legacy into an experience in a space is really, really exciting to me.”

The center, which is housed on the first floor of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities’ historic Turner Hall in the Central Business District, features fifty-one of Scott’s diverse works of art, as well as a new mural on the side of the building by Scott’s son Ayo Scott. The center is comprised on one side of a sleek, white-walled gallery space highlighting a wide range of Scott’s works, from chainsaw-carved wood block prints to the kinetic sculptures for which he is best known. Each work is illuminated by thoughtful and well-researched information, explaining not only Scott’s artistic process but also the important historical events and concepts that inspired him.

On the other side of the center is ample space for community engagement and collaboration—like various seating areas, a public meeting room, and more displays about the life, work, and inspiration of John Scott.

“I want visitors to experience the center’s environment, exhibits, programs and staff members as manifestations of John Scott’s art, life, and legacy, in ways that help inspire each person’s greatness and helps enhance each person expanding and realizing their human potential,” Salaam said. “Even if it’s one little, small sight, sound, activity, lesson, idea, insight at a time that resonates in each person’s being, and in each person’s doing. All to help make a better, brighter, more beautiful, more wonderful world for us each and all.”

To learn more about the John Scott Center or find information on upcoming programs, visit leh.org.