Black Creative Genius in Chicago: Art & Soul

by Rashieda Witter, BMRC Visual Arts Researcher

You might know that Chicago is the birthplace of Soul Train, but it was also home to a different kind of creative movement: Art & Soul. Art & Soul was a community art center located in North Lawndale, a predominantly Black neighborhood on the West Side of Chicago.

What made it especially unique was that it was founded collaboratively by a street gang known as the Conservative Vice Lords and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

In the wake of the 1968 uprisings following Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, these two seemingly unlikely forces came together to create a space for artmaking and self-determination. During this time, some members of the Vice Lords began to transform — moving away from violence and toward community empowerment through creativity, education, and civil rights activism.

This rebrand resulted in the formation of the Conservative Vice Lords, Inc., a nonprofit organization that started multiple initiatives to serve the Black community, including Art & Soul. Two brothers from the Conservative Vice Lords were the co-founders of the space. Jackie Hetherington was the Director, and Danny Hetherington was the art director. Their vision was supported by Jan van der Marck, director of the new Museum of Contemporary Art, who sought ways for museums to better serve their communities.

Rooted in community from the start, the neighborhood even chose the name Art & Soul through a community contest. Local youth were also active in transforming the abandoned building that housed Art & Soul, helping to paint the exterior in vibrant colors. Art & Soul hosted artmaking classes for all ages, including papier-mâché, drawing, collage, silkscreen printing, and bone sculpture taught by artist Peter Gilbert.

Both Jackie and Danny were talented artists who taught classes alongside their administrative roles, supported by a group of Black women known as the Vice Ladies. Art & Soul also featured a library with books on Black history and culture, curated with support from the Chicago Public Library.

Art & Soul also functioned as an art gallery. It opened to the public on November 14, 1968. The inaugural exhibition featured work by Jeff Donaldson, Ralph Arnold, and others, with sculptor Richard Hunt among those in attendance

The opening brought together members of the Black Panthers, the Fruit of Islam, the art world, and neighborhood residents — solidifying it as a space where everyone was welcome. Visitors signed the Art & Soul wall, making it a permanent collaborative artwork.

Art & Soul continued to serve Lawndale’s community through creativity until a lack of funds and Mayor Richard Daley’s “War on Gangs” ultimately led to its closure. Though short-lived, Art & Soul remains a powerful example of how vision and resources can create spaces for Black creative genius to thrive. It affirms that in the face of political suppression, art and soul can become tools for liberation.

If you'd like to learn more about Art & Soul, I highly recommend Art & Soul: An Experimental Friendship between the Street and a Museum. This critical essay was penned by art historian Rebecca Zorach, whose extensive research brought Art & Soul back to the surface in 2011. This research would not be possible without the generosity of Ann E. Zelle, a photographer who kept thorough notes and documented the project photographically.

While scholarship is important to amplify and archive this history, I believe that it's best to learn about the Conservative Vice Lords and their community activism through their own words. Reproduced below is a copy of their 1968-69 Report for the Public, which details all of their community-serving initiatives, including Art & Soul.

Also below is LORD THING, a 1970 documentary about CVL Inc. As described by the Chicago Film Archives: "Produced at the height of the Black Power movement in the early ‘70s, LORD THING is an insider history into the genesis and transformation of the Conservative Vice Lords gang."

Art & Soul records, The Newberry Library, Chicago.