Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
There are many different ways you might know Juan William Chávez: for one, as a past winner of the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis and the Gateway Foundation’s Great Rivers Biennial competition. You might recognize him from openings at Boots Contemporary Art Space, the Cherokee Street gallery he’s run since 2006. Perhaps, through his many community art initiatives, he’s run an art program at your son or daughter’s elementary school. Or maybe you grew up with him in St. Louis’ Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood, or know his family, which still lives in the area.
If so, you’ll be familiar with his calm, Buddha-like demeanor. This aura earned him the nickname “Obi-Wan” (after the Jedi knight who tutors Luke Skywalker in Star Wars) from one of the students he worked with at the North Side’s Holy Trinity Catholic School in conjunction with the Pulitzer Foundation of the Arts’ Urban Expression project, for which Chávez served as both a curator and the lead teaching artist focusing on abstraction. Lisa Harper Chang, the foundation’s community projects director, recalls being “particularly blown away by his interaction with the students—Juan’s ability to engage the kids while managing the classroom was truly impressive.”
Watching him run a workshop with education and program consultant Kathryn Adamchick on a hot July afternoon at Old North St. Louis’ Urban Studio Café with a group of squirmy children, Chávez’s Jedi powers prove powerful indeed. He shows the kids a laptop slideshow of photographs of snow cones from around the globe, and after they finish exclaiming over seemingly strange practices—such as sprinkling chili powder on the ice or topping it with kidney beans—he encourages them to grab markers and construction paper and design their own flavors. A debate begins about what the flavor “fire truck” would taste like. After the group finishes its designs, everyone samples snow cones exotically flavored with fresh mango, guava juice, and hot pepper jelly.
Thus it is particularly striking when Chávez’s normally easygoing demeanor gives way to passion and he voices feelings of frustration or dissatisfaction. After serving as Boots’ sole director for the past four years, leading it to international acclaim and attention, Chávez quietly closed the space this summer. Despite the gallery’s recognition from such prestigious institutions as the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Bronx Museum in New York, Boots never received the public or private support necessary to truly sustain it.
“Boots always struggled,” says Chávez. “Everyone was a volunteer. The people who maintained it were my parents. They were very much a part of the project. And since my dad passed away, it would be very difficult for us to continue the way we did.”
Chávez’s regret is palpable. Fortunately, though his work with the gallery, and activities such as his collaboration with the Pulitzer, he has earned a strong reputation as an arts programming expert and community builder. For this reason, when Sean Thomas, executive director of the Old North Restoration Group, asked Ken and Nancy Kranzberg, two of St. Louis’s most engaged and enthusiastic supporters of the arts, who he should invite to start a new community arts program in Old North, Chávez was at the top of their list.
Following a tour of Boots and the Cherokee neighborhood with Chávez, a conversation unfolded about the possibility of replicating that success in Old North. “The more that we got to know Juan and saw his track record,” Thomas says, “we thought it would be an ideal fit for the community revitalization we had going here. We want to use the arts in the community here, we want to bring in additional amenities and attractions that could bring people from outside the neighborhood, and we knew Juan had a great record of being able to do that in other places, especially with Boots.”
While Chávez’s new work will be conducted primarily as a practicing artist, rather than as a gallery director, he plans to “take all the successful things about Boots and combine them with what can be done” and what is available now in Old North. The projects there will be “site-specific, public programming, public art, in the street.” If proper funding can be obtained, Chávez will work as artist-in-residence, and collaborate with an educator or social worker on neighborhood art projects, providing opportunities for learning and social outreach. “Everything is research-based,” he explains. “We’re not jumping the gun. We will slowly grow, then hopefully it will lead to a permit location and inviting other artists-in-residence to come and be inspired by community.”
“Our hope is that arts programming will involve the young people in the neighborhood and give them some positive education, some positive role models, and some outlets for their energy and creativity, while also serving as a chance to bring some additional life and activity to parts of the neighborhood that might not be quite as developed, that might not as active right now,” Thomas adds.
Though St. Louis has an unfortunate track record of failing to support its brightest stars and most promising initiatives, Chávez is optimistic about his plans for Old North, especially since he has such a strong collaborative partner in the restoration group.
“What attracted me to Cherokee and the [Boots] building was the brick. I’m kind of a St. Louis brick nerd,” he says. “I’ve always loved the neighborhoods closest to the river. They have the best bricks. I’m not an architect, but I have relationships with brick buildings. I love to create art and programming inside them.
“One brick is useless,” he continues. “You need many to create a strong foundation. I view art as one of those bricks joining the efforts of others to help create a strong community.”
For more information about Old North St. Louis and current details on Chávez’s neighborhood arts initiative, call 314-241-5031 or go to onsl.org.
