Dr. Selma Burke

On my quest to find a subject for my blog I came across the name Selma Burke, at first the name didn't quite catch my attention as far as remembering who she was. I knew the name was familiar but I couldn't quite place it at first, then it came to me. When I was a pre-teen there was a place I visited as part of a field trip with a summer camp I was attending, it was called the Selma Burke Art Center. Of course, being a student of art, I loved anything that had to do with art, drawing, painting and sculpturing with wood and clay. I tried my hand at them all. I took up art all four years in high school, it was my favorite subject and I got straight A's all four years, It was a subject I excelled in. I still draw and hone my craft every now and then when the inspiration hits me. So, from my home town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania I would like to share the story of Dr. Selma Burke, the artist who built an art center in our city.

 

A quote from Selma Burke:

 

Art didn't start black or white, it just started. There have been too many labels in this world: Nigger, Negro, Colored, Black, African-American... Why do we still label people with everything except "children of God"? - Selma Burke, 1994

Selma Burke was born in Mooresville, North Carolina on December 31, 1900, the seventh child of ten children. Inspired by her grandmother who was a painter, Selma took an interest in sculpting. She was further encouraged by her father; he brought home artistic objects from his travels on the ocean liner where he was employed as a chef. As her talents flourished, she graduated from the St. Agnes Training School for Nurses in Raleigh in 1924 and earned a doctorate in arts and letters from Livingstone College in 1970. She then moved to Harlem, where she found work as a nurse.

With the arrival of the Harlem Renaissance, like other artists, poets, musicians and literary legends she was influenced by the Harlem Community Art Center and she began to nurse her dream of becoming an artist and sculpted with the free time she had. In the late 1930's with The Rosewald and Boehler Foundation grants she was able to study abroad in Vienna with Aristide Maillol in Paris and she obtained a Master’s Degree of Fine Arts from Columbia University in 1941. 

Selma Burke also had a passion for teaching art to others and established the Selma Burke Art School in New York City and eventually opened the Selma Burke Art Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. From 1968 to 1981, it was an essential part of the Art community in Pittsburgh, especially for young black children. It offered studio workshops and puppetry classes. She also taught art in the Pittsburgh Public School system for 17 Years.

Dr. Burke was commissioned to sculpt a portrait of Franklin D. Roosevelt for the Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, DC. In 1943, Dr. Burke won the District of Columbia Fine Arts Commission competition for her bronze plaque of President Roosevelt. 

The 3.5 by 2.5 foot plaque was shown on September of 1945. It can still be seen there to this day. 

In 1946, the U. S. Mint issued the dime with the portrait of Franklin 

D. Roosevelt on its face.  

Ironically,  a similar face was also on Dr. Burke's portrait of Roosevelt. 

The dime bears the initials JS, John Sinnock, the former mint engraver. 

According to Dr. Burke it was copied from the bronze plaque that she did of Roosevelt for the Recorder of Deeds Office. The claims were discarded, she believed because she is black, she will never get the credit she deserves.

``I'm so mad at that man,'' she says of Sinnock.

Sinnock, however, denied this vehemently, claiming the design for the dime was based on earlier medals he had sculpted in 1933 and 1934 as well as photographs of Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Officials at the mint say their records show Sinnock deserves full credit for the Roosevelt dime.

To her honor Dr. Burke further states, "she isn't discouraged. She says..."Everybody knows I did it."

   

Honors:

Burke is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. She received her second doctorate degree at Livingston College in 1970, she also received 8 honorary doctorate degrees for her life time efforts. In 1975, the Governor of Pennsylvania, Milton Shapp, declared July 29 Selma Burke Day in recognition of the artist's enormous contributions to art and education. In 1979 President Jimmy Carter honored Burke at the White House for her contributions to visual arts, praising her as a “shining beacon” for aspiring artists. She received a Candace Award from the National Coalition of 100 Black Women in 1983.

Dr. Selma Burke was commissioned for her last sculpture in 1980, at age 80. It was a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It stands in Marshall Park in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Burke retired to New Hope, Pennsylvania and died in 1995, at age 94.

*Source: Wikipedia