Culture

Fort Worth

SPRING 08

The Bass Hall decade

•••
Fort Worth’s Jazz Heritage
•••
Gracey Tune &
Arts Fifth Avenue
•••
Four great museums
anniversary

Bass Performance Hall

A 10th anniversary
By Michael H. Price

N
early 10 years have passed since the
Bass Performance Hall opening of Nancy Lee and Perry R.
Bass Performance Hall as the last
has decisively stretched great concert venue of the 20th centu-
ry. The timing might as well have suggested the rise
the boundaries of Fort of a new century’s first great concert hall, for the Bass
— with its forward-thinking acoustical versatility
Worth’s Cultural and its willingness to engage in the promotion of
artistry for the sake of art – anticipated a New
District to embrace the Millennium more so than it looked backward to its
kindred ancestral showplaces of the Old World or
downtown area. early-day America.
A 10th Anniversary Festival is a foregone conclu-
sion. The dates are April 29–May 4, reflecting the
watershed opening of 1998. The events
will include these:
• An April 29 showcase for gifted
schoolchildren, including performances
from the the Paschal High School Jazz
Band and the All-City Honor Choir.
• An admission-free performance April
30 from roots-music ace Jack Ingram.
• A jazz blowout May 1, featuring
PHOTO BY JON P. UZZEL

Chuck Mangione and Dianne Reeves.

• A formal anniversary-date concert
May 3, featuring Liza Minnelli.
• And a May 4 gospel extravaganza fea-
turing Fort Worth native Kirk Franklin.
(Web: www.basshall.com)
Along with the close-by Sid Richardson
Museum, Bass Performance Hall has deci-
sively stretched the boundaries of Fort
Worth’s Cultural District to embrace the
downtown area. The Bass’ masterstroke –
apart from its savvy home-base affiliations
with the Fort Worth Symphony, Texas
Ballet Theatre, the Fort Worth Opera and
the Cliburn Competition – is that of oper-
ating a Children’s Education Program as a
perpetual-motion function of the operat-
ing agency, Performing Arts Fort Worth.
The educational outreach assures that
schoolchildren from throughout the area are granted
access to musical finery as a matter of routine.
The very acoustics of the hall have helped to hone
the Fort Worth Symphony, in particular, to a sonic
near-perfection that suggests candidacy for popular
regard among the Top Five American orchestras.
The FW Symphony’s success with a recent début at
New York’s Carnegie Hall owes much to the stimu-
lus of the orchestra’s extended workout in a fine local
hall.
A more-than-figurative kinship between the Bass
and the Carnegie derives in part from Bass-family
ties to both institutions. There are more nuanced
connections, as well: In 2001, when the Van Cliburn
International Piano Competition settled into Bass
Hall as a base of operations, I booked a classical-
piano film festival into the nearby Palace Theatre as
a show of solidarity – concentrating upon favorite
motion pictures selected by Van Cliburn himself.
One of the movies was Edgar G. Ulmer’s Carnegie
Hall (1947), whose array of personalities includes
the celebrated conductor Artur Rodzinsky (1892-
1958), father of the Cliburn Foundation’s Richard
Rodzinsky. Small world.
As developer Edward P. Bass has explained: Bass
Hall “was built entirely with privately contributed
funds, and it operates as a civic-oriented nonprofit
for the benefit of our community.” Financial chal-
lenges may surface from time to time, given the mer-
curial nature of show business, but the dedication to perma-
nence persists.
“We’re building our audiences for tomorrow,” as Paul
Beard, managing director, has noted.“We present many
shows, and we’re at risk … [What] sustains the hall is our
consistent success in presenting shows to our economic bene-
fit. The purpose of that benefit is to cover the expense we
incur in accommodating the resident companies.”
Not to mention that the 2,056-seat hall, as designed by
David M. Schwarz’ Architectural Services Inc., has settled
into the skyline as an iconic evocation of the classic European
opera-house style, with an inviting human-scale accessibility.
Every show-business venture needs its “angels,” too – but
the angels adorning the Bass are literal as well as figurative:
Marton Varo’s two 48-foot Grand Façade sculptures serve a
heralding presence that has drawn any number of visitors to
the Commerce Street landmark — and suggest a guardian-
ship over Bass Hall to match the Bass’ proven guardianship
of the fine and popular arts. FWC
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4 Fort Worth Culture / Spring 08 Spring 08 / Fort Worth Culture 5

music

Adonis Rose & the Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra

A storm-driven merger of traditions

By Michael H. Price

T
1930s with one crucial song: New Orleans’
Since early on in the he coastal panic of 2005 sent many residents of New Orleans ranging far
afield in advance of the onslaught of Hurricane Katrina. Fort Worth, emblematic “Tiger Rag.” You get the picture.
last century, prominent among the earliest Southwestern cities to lend refuge, became
as a result a new home base for the acclaimed percussionist Adonis Rose.
New Orleans, of course, has disseminated
its indigenous music to telling effect since the
Fort Worth has Rose – who has worked with such marquee names as Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton day of Jelly Roll Morton, though with seldom
a pressing need to disperse its populace in the
Marsalis – returned the courtesy by founding the Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra, a 16-
nurtured a jazz-and- piece ensemble dedicated to a combination of preservation and newly commissioned bargain. The onslaught of Hurricane Katrina
sent innumerable Louisianans inland to Texas.
artistry. From beginnings in association with Bass Performance Hall’s McDavid Studio
blues heritage satellite, the Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra has performed and recorded extensively while Adonis Rose, one in a jillion, came aground in
Rose has persisted as a solo artist. His more recent projects include the development of Fort Worth with his music as essential gear.
comparable with an ensemble known as the N.O. Vaders, in addition to contributions to the musical And as a New Orleanian traditionalist-plus-
score of Spike Lee’s recent documentary film about the Katrina disaster, When the Levees innovator (or N.O. Vader, to crib from his play-
that of any other Broke. ful terminology), Rose recognized Fort Worth
Rose, born in 1975 in New Orleans, is hip to it that his town has always generated straightaway as fertile ground for a transplant.
such burg short of more jazz than it knows what to do with. The haunted Crescent City learned early on New Orleans’ loss – Fort Worth’s gain,
acknowledged with gratitude. Rose’s establish-
New Orleans. to consume all it can and then export the rest – a jazz-independent society that has ren-
dered the rest of the world thoroughly dependent upon jazz. And all the better for it. ment of the Fort Worth Jazz Orchestra merges
The old-timers will swear that jazz, blaring forth from the brass and the reeds and the heritage of both cities in a striking manner.
the Talking Drums of African origin, is the sonic levee that held a phantom menace at Rose’s N.O. Vaders ensemble advances the
bay during New Orleans’ Great Axe-Man Scare of 1918–1919. Amid a siege of whole- Crescent identity, reaching back and looking
sale murder, The Times–Picayune fielded a letter-to-the-editor from some fool professing forward with nary a lapsed beat.
“I miss New Orleans…,” says Rose.“But
to be the rampaging Axe-Man – and vowing to spare the jazz enthusiasts. Call it Blues
now I feel it’s a perfect time for me to … bring
Passover.
my experiences here, along with the music of
Did Buddy Bolden, that mighty founding bugler of 19th-century jazz, propel New
New Orleans.”
Orleans into the culture-at-large? Maybe not in a direct sense, although those same old-
A historic precedent bears remembering:
time legend-bearers who tell of the Axe-Man will aver that Bolden’s horn could be
Malcolm “Dr. John” Rebennack developed his
heard for miles away from wherever he happened to be blasting. Certainly, Bolden’s
greater identity as a musical ambassador from
influence fueled the passions of those Orleanians who would range more freely through
New Orleans only after he had sidetracked
space and time – King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechét –
himself to New York and L.A. in indignant
seeding the music into Kansas City and Chicago and Manhattan and St. Louis and
response to a 20th-century catastrophe – Jim
Fort Worth.
Garrison’s politically motivated campaign to
Since early on in the last century, Fort Worth has nurtured a jazz-and-blues heritage
sanitize N.O.’s rambunctious French Quarter.
comparable with that of any other such burg short of N.O. And how else to explain Likewise, in a sense, with Adonis Rose. Best
Euday Bowman and Red Connor and Ornette Coleman and Tex Beneke and the arche- of both worlds. FWC
typal jazz-in-a-Stetson of Bob Wills? The localized influences have proved too varied,
however, to permit one identity as iconic as that which Louis Armstrong has provided Contact Price at mprice@bizpress.net
to New Orleans. A singer from Fort Worth named Milton Brown, who had insinuated
W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues” into Wills’ hoedown fiddle-band repertoire in 1929,
interlaced Fred Calhoun’s jazz piano with prototypical Western Swing early in the Adonis Rose

12 Fort Worth Culture / Spring 08

museums

Fort Worth Circle at Carter Museum

Mo’dern’ modern art from Texas

By Michael H. Price

T
he Fort Worth Circle – a fabled and enduringly relevant Cynthia Brants (1924–2006), who remained a working artist despite her
colony of artists who helped to re-define art as a class during retrospective regard of the Circle as a relic.
the 1940s and ’50s – comes full-circle in a massive exhibition “It was natural and inevitable that our work was relegated to history
on view at the Amon Carter Museum. The styles of painting and no longer considered relevant to Fort Worth’s ambitions for continu-
and etching are too wildly diversified to allow any simple description: One ing cultural prominence in the visual arts,” Brants said in connection with
might say the members shared a determination to describe how it felt to that 2005 showing.“It was, however, sufficient for us to have opened some
be alive at a time of unbridled creative enthusiasm and reciprocal encour- eyes to a wider range of possibilities in painting and sculpture than had
agement. been previously accepted.” The most lasting direct tangents have surfaced
The display of nearly 100 striking examples is called Intimate in the performing arts, via such deeply rooted Fort Worth troupes as Hip
Modernism: Fort Worth Circle Artists in the 1940s, the first such industrial- Pocket Theatre and SceneShop.
strength retrospective in more than 20 years. If some of the works suggest The history of the Fort Worth Circle will find amplification and inter-
music to those discovering the Circle for the first time, it might be helpful pretation in a variety of lectures and participatory activities. A recent talk
to mention that Stravinsky and Ravel were among the members’ preferred by Fort Worth-based historian Quentin McGown has covered 16 works
composers; at the time of the Circle’s launching, the modern-jazz move- by Bror Utter (1913–1993), as commissioned by the pioneering Fort
ment had not quite taken a decisive form. Worth preservationist Sam Cantey III during the 1950s to chronicle the
More than 50 years is more like it, in the case of many of the featured city’s rapidly disappearing early-day architecture. (These watercolors are
works. Some privately held pieces have gone that long without a public- an exhibition in themselves.)
viewing showcase, as organizing cura- Then at 11 a.m. March 29, the cele-
tor Jane Myers points out. brated art critic and author Dave Dickson Reeder, Portrait of Bill Bomar Lia Cuilty, Arrested Flight
The styles are as varied as the per- Hickey, formerly of Fort Worth, will
sonalities who made up the Fort deliver a talk called “Fort Worth: How
Worth Circle, but together the selec- Cowtown Became a Center for Art in Theater & Design for Children will be the subject of a staged presen- tive artists. Individual works can be found today in various museums
tions tell nothing less than “the tale of the West,” placing the local movement tation on April 5-6 and April 11-12 by Hip Pocket Theatre, at the and private collections; the Carter Museum’s exhibition presents a
how progressive art came to Texas,” in a broader context. Hickey, now neighboring Community Arts Center.) unique opportunity to view the works together.
adds Myers. Schaeffer professor of modern letters Reeder, Bomar and Helfensteller shared in common a background Intimate Modernism: Fort Worth Circle Artists in the 1940s is accompa-
“The history of art in Fort Worth at the University of Nevada, Las in private art instruction. Kelly Fearing entered the circle as a new- nied by a catalogue of the same title. With more than 140 full-color
goes back more than 100 years,” as the Vegas, is a widely published authority comer to Fort Worth during the war. In 1945, Cynthia Brants (recent- reproductions, the publication can only stand as the definitive account
historian-exhibitor Glenna Crocker whose contextual knowledge of pro- ly the subject of a memorial retrospective at Albany, Texas’ Old Jail Art of the movement. The annotated reproductions are accompanied by
wrote to herald a 2005 Monticello gressive art is unsurpassed. Center) became the youngest female member. George Grammer, biographical notes and photographs.
Gallery show that placed the Fort The Fort Worth Circle radiated youngest among the artists, joined in 1946. Other Fort Worth Circle activities will include Hip Pocket
Worth Circle in context with Texas’ from a nucleus of four locals, then in Drawn together by a shared interest in art, dance, music, theater Theatre’s Dickson School tribute, Tempest in a Dream, will perform at 7
earlier artistic movements.“The social their mid-20s, who met as students at and myth-making, the artists of the Fort Worth Circle sought new p.m. April 5, 2 p.m. April 6, and 7 p.m. April 11–12 at the Community
and political posturing of those eras the Fort Worth School of Fine Arts: avenues of artistic expression as a departure from a prevailing prefer- Art Center.
[since the 1940s] forever changed the Lia Cuilty, Veronica Helfensteller, ence for regionalism and other, more conservative, artistic styles. They And on April 12–13, the Center for the Advancement & Study of
creativity of the art world … [The Marjorie Johnson and Bror Utter. Just also shared a fascination with fantastic, often enigmatic imagery that Early Texas Art (CASETA) will stage a symposium at the neighbor-
influence of the Circle] continues prior to America’s involvement in often infiltrates otherwise lifelike portraiture and deceptively conven- ing University of North Texas Health Science Center – prefacing the
today, although somewhat obscured by World War II, Dickson Reeder, a tional regional landscapes. Members of the Circle responded to mod- event with an April 11 reception at the Carter Museum. A detailed
the influx of a multitude of modern school-days friend of Utter’s, assumed ernism in art by creating a unique aesthetic based upon contemporary agenda can be found on the Web at www.caseta.org. FWC
contemporaries.” Adventurous artists, leadership. Reeder and his New York- surrealism and abstraction – drawing largely upon the power of imagi-
that is, without direct ties to the spe- born wife, Flora Blanc, provided the nation. Contact Price at mprice@bizpress.net
cific hometown background. social glue that bonded the group Their determined ascent to prominence proved lasting, as well. By
The advancement of the Circle’s together. Also in the sphere were Sara the mid-1950s, the group’s aesthetic gave way to newer ideas, but the
influence into a new century had rest- Shannon and William P.“Bill” Bomar shared view of art as a vista without boundaries persisted. The mem-
ed largely with the abstract painter Marjorie Johnson Lee, Studio Corner Jr. (The influential Reeder School of bers became, in turn, significant as teachers while remaining produc-

14 Fort Worth Culture / Spring 08 Spring 08 / Fort Worth Culture 15

museums

Kimbell Art Museum

An impressive Impressionist impression

By Michael H. Price

T
he Art define the
Institute of Impressionist
Chicago achievement – widely
will pay an reproduced paintings
extended visit during the that will be familiar Paul Cézanne,
summer to Fort Worth. even to those who The Basket of Apples,
The occasion – have never visited the c. 1893.
announced for June 29- Art Institute. These
Nov. 2 – is a loan of include the likes of
some 90 paintings from Paris Street; Rainy Day
the Art Institute’s (1877), by Gustave
renowned Impressionist Caillebotte; seven
collection to Fort Cézannes, including
Worth’s Kimbell Art Madame Cézanne in a
Museum. Yellow Chair
Small world, indeed: (1893–95) and The
The exhibition stems Bathers (1899–1904);
from an ambitious re- six Degases, including
installation and expan- Yellow Dancers (In the
sion project at the Art Wings) (1874–76)
Institute, involving reno- Claude Monet, Stacks of Wheat (Sunset, Snow Effect), 1890-91. and The Millinery
vation of the galleries Shop (1884–90);
and the construction of seven Gauguins, including The Arlésiennes (1888) and The Ancestors of
a new Modern Wing designed by Renzo Piano. Piano, in turn, is the Tehamana (1893); five Van Goghs, including Self-Portrait (1887) and The
architect recently chosen by the Kimbell to design a neighboring building Bedroom (1889); seven Manets, including The Races at Longchamp (1866)
within the Cultural District. The Art Institute’s Impressionist collection and Woman Reading (1878–79); 26 Monets, including six paintings depict-
has never left Chicago heretofore in such a large group. The selection will ing wheat stacks, four depicting London and three portraying water lilies;
be shown exclusively at the Kimbell. 12 Renoirs, including Lunch at the Restaurant Fournaise (1875), Acrobats at
The Impressionists: Master Paintings from the Art Institute of Chicago can only the Cirque Fernando (1879), and Two Sisters (On the Terrace) (1881); and
surpass a terrific Barnes Collection exhibition, as seen 14 years ago at the three Toulouse-Lautrecs, including Moulin de la Galette (1889).
Kimbell. The new show will feature masterpieces from the likes of The Art Institute of Chicago will open its Modern Wing in 2009. The
Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, movement of the modern and contemporary collections into the new
Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse- building offers the opportunity to reinstall earlier collections – including
Lautrec. This succession of geniuses, as if by cosmic coincidence, worked the Impressionists – in renovated galleries.
largely in the same country and within the approximate span of a shared During the Chicago overhaul, certain collections must be moved or
lifetime. stored. The temporary relocation of the Impressionist collection created a
Such painters of then-modern life created a new method of regarding unique opportunity for the Art Institute’s greatest works to be shown
one’s surroundings, at once dreamlike and recognizably genuine. Carried more widely, and the Kimbell’s Malcolm Warner, as acting director, seized
forward by the so-called Post-Impressionists – represented in the exhibi- the moment.
tion by evolved works from Cézanne, Van Gogh, and Gauguin – the Founded in 1879 as a strategic combination of museum and an art
Impressionist movement advanced many audaciously progressive pictorial school, the Art Institute of Chicago is one of the artistic treasure houses Vincent van Gogh, The Bedroom, 1889.
arguments that pointed toward the increasing modernization of fine art, of the world. Its encyclopedic collection of some 250,000 works qualifies it
intersecting ever more with commercial art and design, during the 20th as the third-largest museum in the United States. FWC Pierre Auguste Renoir,
century. Acrobats at the Cirque Fernando
The exhibition will bring to Fort Worth works that have come to Contact Price at mprice@bizpress.net (Francisca and Angelina Wartenburg),
1879.

16 Fort Worth Culture / Spring 08 Spring 08 / Fort Worth Culture 17

museums
Modern Art Museum
Sculptural exhibition distinguishes MAM
By Michael H. Price
I
f any one element of Fort Worth’s cultural landscape san be
said to state a case for a Bold New Millennium, it is the 2002
landmark address of the Modern Art Museum, designed by
architect Tadao Ando as a sculptural statement in itself. The
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is at once the oldest such
museum in Texas — chartered in 1892 — and handily the newest
in aspect.
As befits a monumental sculpture of architectural pedigree, the
Modern in its new location at 3200 Darnell Street, has fared partic-
ularly well as a showcase for internal exhibitions of sculpture. The
exhibit of the moment is Martin Puryear, on view through May 18.
The retrospective survey of works by a celebrated American
artist features nearly 50 sculptures in an arc reaching from Martin
Puryear’s first solo museum show in 1977 to the present day.
Working primarily in wood, Puryear (born 1941) has main-
tained a commitment to manual skill and traditional building
methods. His forms derive from everyday objects, both natural and
man-made, including tools, vessels and furniture. His sculptures are
rich with psychological and intellectual references, examining issues
of identity, culture, and history. Cultural influences can be traced to
his studies, his work and his travels in Africa, Asia, Europe and the
United States.
The Modern’s chief curator, Michael Auping, explains:“Bringing
the eye and hand of the woodworker to Minimalism’s precise forms
has been one of [Puryear’s] most pointed contributions …
Puryear’s work has a way of sneaking up on us perceptually, and it
is partially through his surfaces that we are drawn in, invited to
inspect his wooden objects more closely, as one would a more inti-
mate construction, through the subtlety of inflection that he at
times imparts to the surface.”
Puryear’s Ladder for Booker T. Washington (1996), is part of the
permanent collection of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth
— and as such, an ideal element of familiar leverage into the
greater body of the exhibition. The towering object was inspired by
homemade ladders that Puryear had noticed in the French country-
side while working at Alexander Calder’s studio on an invitational
grant.
In a conversation five years ago with Auping, Puryear said:“It
just occurred to me that this would be an interesting project to try
to do, to make a very tall or long ladder … I had been interested in
working with a kind of artificial perspective through sculpture,
which if you think about it is not so easy to do. With a ladder, a
18 Fort Worth Culture / Spring 08
very long ladder, I could make a form that would appear to recede
into space faster visually than it in fact does physically…”
And like the functional ladders that inspired it, Ladder for Booker
T. Washington is made from a single sapling that the artist had split
down the middle. He added rungs to form a 36-foot ladder that
narrows to just over an inch wide at the top. This sculpture, re-
installed in the double-height concrete gallery for the present exhi-
bition, has been one of the Museum’s most popular works since it
was installed for the grand opening in 2002.
Other sculptures installed for the exhibition include Greed’s
Trophy (1984), a 12-foot-high net of wire mesh; Desire (1981), a
wooden wheel measuring 16-by-32 feet attached to an eight-foot-
high basket; and Some Tales (1975–1978), six wooden segments of
varying lengths, some of which resemble saws, spanning 30 hori-
zontal feet of wall space.
The sculptures examine a chronological evolution, demonstrat-
ing how the artist refers to earlier ideas, reinterpreting familiar
themes. Among these works are Puryear’s Ring series of the late
1970s, his Stereotypes and Decoys sculptures of the 1980s, the vessel-
like forms of the 1990s, and the more allegorical work of recent
years.
From childhood into adolescence during the 1940s and ’50s,
Puryear constructed and crafted such objects as bows and arrows,
furniture and guitars. As a teacher with the Peace Corps in Sierra
Leone, he observed and learned the craft of local carpenters.
Puryear spent two years at the Swedish Royal Academy of Art in
Stockholm, where he began working on independent sculptural
projects investigating popular craft traditions and modern
Scandinavian design. Returning to the United States to complete a
master’s degree and to begin teaching, Puryear resumed his studies
during the 1980s, centering upon Japanese architecture and garden
design. He has concentrated exclusively upon his own artistry since
the late 1980s.
The exhibition, running through May 18, is organized by the
Museum of Modern Art, New York. Special exhibitions are includ-
ed in general museum admission, in the $4-to-$10 range; free of
charge to children 12 and younger, and free of charge for Modern
members.
Clockwise from above left; Old Moles; Sharp and Flat; Greed's Trophy; Some Tales
On the Web: www.themodern.org FWC
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Spring 08 / Fort Worth Culture 19
museums

Sid Richardson Museum

Downtown museum marks 26th anniversary
By Michael H. Price

isitors can expect a thoroughly refurbished environment at Museum. Taken together, with the finishing touch of an impressive

V the long-established Sid Richardson Museum, which marks

its 26th anniversary this year with some striking renovations
and a generous deployment of paintings.
An international destination among admirers of the art of the Old
West, the downtown museum features works by Frederic Remington
archive of historic photographs at Fort Worth’s Stockyards Museum,
these institutions convey a near-comprehensive view of the history of the
Southwestern borderlands.
Since the Richardson’s opening in 1982, nearly a million visitors have
toured the address at 309 Main Street. Recent expansion and renovations,
(1861–1909), Charles M. Russell (1864–1926), and other artists. The as supervised by architect David M. Schwarz, have included a bold new
source is the personal collection of the pioneering Texas oilman Sid W. façade, redesigned exhibition spaces, a new education resource center, a
new group-entry area, and an enlarged
Museum Store.
“After a quarter of a century, it was
time for a complete makeover,” said Jan
Scott, the museum’s director. The new
façade expresses a more direct appeal to
pedestrian traffic, reflecting the human-
scale dimension that has long character-
ized the downtown area known as
Sundance Square. The exterior features
red granite from the Texas Hill
Country, adorned with bronzed-brass
buffalo medallions. Gallery space was
reconfigured to allow simultaneous
exhibition of works from the collection
and special exhibitions. The project
expanded the facility from 4,370 square
feet to 6,340.
And new lighting enhances the char-
acter of each painting, as if reading the
mind of each artist as to how this or
that work of art should be seen. New
framing, too, evokes the period of the
late 1800s and early 1900s.
The museum retained National
Gallery of Art Deputy Chief of Design
Charles M. Russell, When White Men Turn Red Gordon Anson to design the lighting of
the exhibition spaces. R. Wayne
Richardson (1891–1959). Thirty-nine paintings from the permanent col- Reynolds, director of business development and new product design of
Clockwise from top:
lection are on view this spring. Julius Lowy Frame & Restoring Company Inc., New York, created the Charles M. Russell, Utica (A Quiet day in Utica);
Formerly known as the Sid Richardson Collection of Western Art, the frames. Nancy K. Anderson, the National Gallery of Art’s curator of Frederic Remington, The Dry Camp;
museum is perhaps better known by its familiar name among downtown American and British paintings, developed the exhibition plan. Charles M. Russell, The Bucker.
habitués: “The Sid.” Its formidable collection of Remingtons and Russells On the Web: www.sidrichardsonmuseum.org FWC
in the United States was accumulated as the result of Sid Richardson’s
friendship with publisher Amon Carter — namesake, of course, of Fort Contact Price at mprice@bizpress.net
Worth’s similarly influential showplace for frontier art, the Carter

20 Fort Worth Culture / Spring 08 Spring 08 / Fort Worth Culture 21

art

PHOTO BY JON P. UZZEL

Gracey Tune

Arts Fifth Avenue

Keeping in tune
By Ken Parish Perkins

he story of the opening of Arts Fifth Avenue on Sept. 11, 2001, has
This is what I am
supposed to be doing. I’m T been told and re-told by co-founder Gracey Tune – though not neces-
sarily for the sake of repetition. That any such enterprise was trying to
find its footing at the same moment the country came to a screeching
halt is dramatic enough, without having to result to theatrics.
One quality always stands out when Tune tells of the day this south side gather-
not about to give ing-place came into being, on a day remembered for its concentration of terrorist
attacks. That is the more modest recollection of how people showed up there, any-
up and run away. how, not looking for the arts per se, but just looking.
Why they’d find themselves there, of all places, was intriguing then for Tune and
partner Eddie Dunlap, who had brought over his famed Mondo Drummers educa-
– Gracey Tune tional program from the Eastside Neighborhood Arts Center.
But with the passage of time, it all makes perfect sense. Arts Fifth Avenue has
been around only seven years but has already earned a reputation as a focus of Fort
Worth’s grass-roots consciousness of cultural diversity and an artistic world-view.
Call it the little train that could, can – and often does, to borrow a classic cliché
from children’s literature.
“I had a few students come in that day, and it was almost like we huddled

Spring 08 / Fort Worth Culture 23

 here and said we must protect our children and our families,”
Tune says.“And in that, there was this strength within us that car-
ried over that first year. Even though we thought it was a horrible
situation, we felt that this was going to be a place where we’ll be
safe. That in this midst of a tragedy and horror, there was some
little seed that was planted for growth.”
The seed that Tune and Dunlap planted at Arts Fifth Avenue
has certainly grown, putting the enterprise in the category of arts
institution survivorship – an impressive accomplishment in a
shaky economy. AFA’s $145,000 budget is higher than the $90,000
it took to run things last year, and at times Tune wonders if she
has overreached.
The optimism comes from success: 7,000 classes conducted by
local and nationally recognized artists in the visual and perform-
ing arts. More than 500 performances by such diversified artists as
tap dancer Sarah Petronio and jazz legend Marchel Ivery. Dozens
of art exhibits.
With classes in – take a deep breath, here – salsa, zumba, act-
ing, ballet, guitar, hip-hop, chorus, drums, a home-school curricu-
lum, sculpture workshops, public school art teachers’ forums and
an annual celebration of El Dia de los Muertos, AFA offers a
heavenly haven for both the cultural connoisseurs and the curious
souls.
“I really admire her dedication, her passion and the amount of
sacrifice to keep that place alive and make it so all-encompassing
and inviting,” says musician Sevan Melikyan, who approached
Tune about bringing in the Jamaican reggae drummer Dyrol
Randall and bass player Robert Higgins. Her answer: We can
make that happen. She even suggested the idea of workshops in
the Jamaican reggae style. The process took a few weeks to prepare
and was staged early this year.
Tune has been many things: choreographer, artistic director,
lecturer, director, producer and tap dancer from a performing fam-
ily – her brother is the terrific Tommy Tune, who scarcely requires
24 Fort Worth Culture / Spring 08
an introduction – and recipient in 2005 of the North Texas Dance
Council’s Texas Tap Legends Award. But providing arts opportu-
nities to a vast audience will be Tune’s legacy.
Still, while AFA has managed to get local funding – the Arts
Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County has provided a grant
that allows access to a public relations company to handle market-
ing – the big-money donors haven’t come around. AFA relies
heavily on volunteers to handle tasks from running the box office
to mopping floors. That the lights are still on doesn’t mean that
keeping them on hasn’t been a struggle.
“You don’t want to say that things are tough or hard because it
doesn’t paint the picture that you are going forward,” Tune says.
“But to be honest and true, it’s been very difficult.”
That’s why Tune has tried to get out of the building more to
drum up support, talking with groups and foundations. The out-
reach shows signs of success. Fairmont-district neighbors raised
$600 by throwing a Christmas party.
“The times get really tough,” Tune says,“and you start to say,
‘Gee, are we going to make it?’”
There are no guarantees in the world of non-profit arts, Tune
and Dunlap say – only guarantees that Arts Fifth Avenue will
continue to provide as long as the building is standing and they
are in it. The plan is to move forward by changing nothing: There
are Shakespeare in the Parking Lot and a Hispanic Playwrights
Festival in need of producing, not to mention belly dancing and
jazz.
“A man once said,‘This is your curse,’ because I was put here to
do this,” Tune says. (Dunlap’s mother calls AFA his “affliction.”)
Tune doesn’t see it as a curse at all.
“It’s a gift,” she says.“This is what I am supposed to be doing.
I’m not about to give up and run away.” FWC
Contact Perkins at bizpress@bizpress.net
PHOTO BY JON P. UZZEL
 music
PHOTO BY GLEN E. ELLMAN
Past nourishes future
Public Library’s Jazz Preservation Project
By Tom Kellam
At the end of the
T
he jazz-making traditions of Fort Worth
run deep and wide. Tradition sustains
1950s, jazz underwent and advances itself through continuing
activity, of course — but its lasting doc-
its greatest revolution umentation must involve a conscious effort for
preservation, lest crucial traces of the origins become
since the beginnings of scattered.
The scene today includes such high points as
the bebop movement each fall’s Jazz by the Boulevard Festival; pianist
Johnny Case’s generation-long showcase engagement
some 20 years before. at Sardines Ristorante Italiano; drummer Adonis
Rose’s development of the Fort Worth Jazz
Orchestra, with its McDavid Studio/Bass Hall con-
nections; and the recent opening of the downtown
area’s Scat Jazz Lounge.
The idea of an archival collection devoted to the
Tom Kellam
local history of jazz emerged in the summer of 2003,
in the weeks leading up to the first Jazz by the
Boulevard event. Donna Van Ness, as an organizer,
visited my office one afternoon to invite the Fort
Worth Public Library’s participation.
She suggested that the library begin building a
collection devoted to the history of jazz in Fort
Worth, and she invited us to set up a booth at the
festival. As an archivist and a jazz fan, I was intrigued
by the idea — although I must confess that, at the
time, I knew next to nothing about any jazz roots in
my hometown.
I was vaguely aware of the curious fact that sev-
eral fairly big names in jazz had some connection
with Fort Worth. Ornette Coleman, Dewey Redman
and Ronald Shannon Jackson came to mind. I
Spring 08 / Fort Worth Culture 27

had heard these artists, generally at the Caravan of Dreams during its 18
years as a local haven for jazz. My impression was that their artistic lives had
begun only after they had left Fort Worth.
A few days of research revealed a history of which — I’m embarrassed
to admit — I’d been completely unaware. This city has long been home to a
musical culture that has nurtured several generations of jazz artists. Music
historian Dave Oliphant sums matters up concisely in his Handbook of Texas
article on jazz in Texas:
“At the end of the 1950s, jazz underwent its greatest revolution since the
beginnings of the bebop movement some 20 years before,” notes Oliphant.“In
1958, Ornette Coleman of Fort Worth initiated what he labeled … Change of
the Century and Free Jazz … Many of his protégés were also natives of Fort
Worth, [including] tenorist Dewey Redman and drummers Charles Moffett
and Ronald Shannon Jackson.” Oliphant cites still earlier roots in such Fort
Worth artists as drummer Ray McKinley and tenorist Tex Beneke, both of
the Glenn Miller Orchestra.
Some of the most important names in jazz, representing just about
every major style — big-band, bebop, free jazz, you-name-it — have roots
right here in Fort Worth. But beyond people in the local jazz community, this
history had been completely unknown, and in mortal danger of being lost.
At this point, Donna Van Ness’ idea of a jazz archive seemed not just
interesting; it seemed essential. Thus the Jazz Preservation Project was found-
ed.
The Library’s Genealogy, Archives & History Unit has become a consis-
tent presence at the Jazz by the Boulevard Festival each September. We have
a Jazz History & Archives booth, where we feature exhibits and provide liter-
ature about the Jazz Preservation Project. We have also sponsored lectures by
such music-history scholars as Dave Oliphant and Michael H. Price, per-
formances and poetry slams.
Building an archival collection of this scale can be slow going. While we
have several potential donors, the actual file-transfer process can be tedious
and time-consuming. But we do have serious commitments, and records are
slowly coming in.
28 Fort Worth Culture / Spring 08
PHOTO BY GLEN E. ELLMAN
One of our most rewarding projects has been our oral-history program,
Jazz Perspectives. This is a series of interviews we have done in cooperation
with the Fort Worth City Cable Channel. Over the last year and a half, we
have completed six interviews, including Marjorie Crenshaw of the Fort
Worth Jazz Society, big-band era musician Curley Broiles and pianist Johnny
Case. We have also collected archival footage featuring Dewey Redman and
other local jazz greats from Sarah Walker’s African-American documentary
series They Showed the Way, which can be seen on the City Cable Channel.
And the Jazz Preservation Project has been enhanced by other collec-
tions in our archives. For example, the Tarrant County Black Historical and
Genealogical Society Collection contains information on the neighborhoods
that nurtured the early jazz community in Fort Worth, and on early jazz ven-
ues such as the Jim Hotel. The society’s records also provide valuable infor-
mation on the history of I.M. Terrell High School, where many of our local
jazz greats were educated. A couple of years ago, we acquired a fascinating
collection of manuscripts, pamphlets, flyers and many photographs related to
the Rocket Club, a Jacksboro Highway venue that had featured a lively big-
band scene during the late 1940s and early 1950s.
We are also interested in the urban geography of jazz history in Fort
Worth. We want to identify the neighborhoods that nurtured the art form, to
identify the places where jazz was most frequently played and celebrated.
Jazz is universal in its appeal, embracing varied forms ranging from
Western swing, big-band, Dixieland and bebop to the avant-garde work of
Ornette Coleman. The deepest roots of jazz can be located in African-
American sources — an essential part of the cultural life of Fort Worth’s
African-American communities.
It is our hope that the archival collection we are building will help to
identify the people and places important to the history of jazz in Fort Worth,
and that it will help to continue the growth and development of jazz in the
neighborhoods where it traditionally has flourished. FWC
Tom Kellam chronicles the city’s cultural and economic history as senior librarian and archivist with the
Fort Worth Public Library. Contact: tkellam@fortworthlibrary.org