Art brings history into the present at Gladstone Residences

The “Story Shields” installation uses the backs of chairs that once occupied the auditorium at Gladstone School. It commemorates the building’s history and significance in Hazelwood. The project consists of 25 shields and one video. Photo by Heather Mull

By Edith Abeyta

A few years ago, I was invited by The Community Builders Inc. to submit a proposal for an artwork for the lobby of the Gladstone Residences. I was asked to design this artwork using the wooden backs of the chairs of the auditorium from when it was a school.

It can be a challenge to reuse materials and incorporate them into an artwork. I spent a lot of time thinking about these wooden backs and moving them around into different configurations.

And then one day it came to me that the chair backs resembled shields. The mascot for the school was a Gladiator, so it made sense to investigate this idea more. The proposal I submitted was accepted and work began on the project.

I collaborated with a lot of people to design and fabricate the artwork, which consists of 25 shields and one video. Daniel Barnhill produced the video. Ben Grubb created the brackets. Heather Mull assisted with the interviews and photo documentation. Leslie Stem designed the flag graphics. Denise Johnson, Grace Taylor and Zoie Pittzarella assisted with the fabrication of the artwork.

We started the project by interviewing 25 people who had a connection to Gladstone. They were Dawn Arnold, Maurice Cole, Andrea Coleman-Betts, Cassandra Carter, Danielle Carter, Jacquay Edward Carter, Edward Poochie Carter, LaVerne Denise Carter, Homer Craig, Ursula Craig, Kristina DiPietro, Vernessa Fuller, Juanita Godfrey Humphrey, Howard H.P. Jackson, Tanya Johnson, Pastor Lutual Love Sr., Jim McLaughlin, Judy McLaughlin, Rev. Michael Murray Sr., Martha Puzio, Pastor Tim Smith, Cenythia Strothers, Sonya Tilghman, Theresa Tullis and Jonathan Ward.

Some of them went to school at Gladstone for as long as 12 years. Other people were only there for a few years as middle school students. Some people had spouses who attended. One person was new to Hazelwood and lived close to the school. The interviews were the basis for the artwork and informed its content.

After the interviews were completed, we assembled some of the Gladstone stories. Most importantly, we started an oral history of Hazelwood on video. But it wasn’t just history. It was people’s resilience, love and care, and profound connection to Hazelwood: the place, the people and this building. You can view the video, “Story Shields: Gladstone,” at vimeo.com/1011196147.

One of the people we interviewed and based a shield on is Andrea Coleman-Betts. Andrea has lived most of her life in Hazelwood and was a student at Gladstone School. She also is one of the first tenants to move into Gladstone Residences. Ms. Coleman-Betts is and has been a fierce advocate for many things over the years. Her focus now is on disability justice, but she is equally passionate about learning, reading, music, movies, poetry and history. I recommend watching the “Story Shields: Gladstone” video to get to know a little bit about Ms. Coleman-Betts and the other people who live and work in Hazelwood.

Juanita Godfrey and Judy McLaughlin shared a 1976 yearbook with me during the interviews. The Detre Library and Archives at the Heinz History Center has 12 Gladstone School yearbooks. I spent a lot of time turning every page of each of these books and looking at the students, teachers and staff. Most of the content screen-printed on the fabric pennants come from these sources.

So, what’s this artwork about?

I think it is mostly about time: Time as a continuum, not time as linear. Sometimes 1976 is happening in 2025. Or maybe 2001 is colliding with 1914. As we move in and out and across the years it is possible to simultaneously occupy many days, years and decades at once. And where we are is not always clear.

The completed artwork is now in the lobby of Gladstone Residences. Like most apartment buildings, this is a private space not open to the public, but the artwork can be seen by looking through the main windows that make up the lobby. I am not sure if it is OK to be peeking in the windows of an apartment building, but I have done it and brought people up there to see it. The view is not the same as being inside the lobby looking at the artwork head-on, but you can see some of the details and get an overall sense of it.

I have been reading a book titled “Our History is the Future: Standing Rock Versus the Dakota Access Pipeline, and the Long Tradition of Indigenous Resistance” by Nick Estes. I’d like to end with a quote from it that I think is applicable.

“Indigenous resistance draws from a long history, projecting itself backward and forward in time. While traditional historians merely interpret the past, radical Indigenous historians and Indigenous knowledge-keepers aim to change the colonial present, and to imagine a decolonial future by reconnecting to Indigenous places and histories. For this to occur, those suppressed practices must make a crack in history.”

Edith Abeyta is an artist and an environmental activist in North Braddock and the co-founder of Hazelwood-based Arts Excursions Unlimited.