Gordon Community Art Center gives everyone a chance to try music, art and dance

Belmont-DeVilliers, one of the most historic districts in Pensacola, became famous for the arts and energy it wove into the fabric of the community.

The Gordon Community Art Center is looking to add to that legacy and to build bridges between people through the power of music, dance, spoken word and other forms of artistic expression.

“We are here in this community because it is so rich in its culture and its art and its history,” said Christine Kellogg, artistic director for the art center. “So we're very excited to be a part of it and present productions and open the door to people right now.”

The Gordon Community Art Center, named after her father Gordon Kellogg, is located at 306 N. DeVilliers St. right next to the famous Blue Dot restaurant. It opened in the fall of 2020 and offers an array of spaces for artists to practice and create, including a black box theater and rehearsal room, a music room for vocal and instrumental lessons, a library containing scripts and scores, a community garden and a lobby to relax with friends before events and classes.

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Ask Kellogg the purpose of the art center and she will simply say, “We tell stories here.”

After working as a director and choreographer all over the country, Kellogg came to Pensacola to take care of her father. In 2017 she launched PenArts Inc., a nonprofit with a mission to bring theatrical arts to all members of our community.

Kellogg and PenArts Inc. held productions at various available spaces in the city. Eventually they wanted a space for themselves and when their current building was opened they took a leap of faith and rented it out.

They arrived at a time when the neighborhood is undergoing a renaissance.

Centered around Belmont and DeVilliers streets, Belmont-DeVilliers became the cultural and business epicenter of Pensacola's Black community as a result of Florida's Jim Crow laws that mandated segregation. It was also a popular stop on the "Chitlin' Circuit" — a network of venues that hosted Black artists, musicians and entertainers during segregation — featuring musicians such as Louis Armstrong, James Brown, Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and B.B. King.

The area was designated as part of the Mississippi Blues Trail in 2019, with the Mississippi Blues Commission citing Pensacola as an important early center of blues, ragtime, vaudeville and jazz activity.

Recently, there have been efforts to restore the iconic neighborhood through an influx of business and development and a six-part streetscaping project planned to include new vegetation, ornamental street name embeds, crosswalks and LED lighting.

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The Gordon is part of the community's story of resurgence, and volunteer Judy Uchida wanted to participate in the community center's mission of using the arts to bring people together.

Uchida was friends with Kellogg when both were students at Texas Christian University. Uchida jokingly described herself as "talentless" but said she still love everything the art community provides.

“I've always enjoyed the arts and it's not only that, but the atmosphere itself of the Gordon,” Uchida said. “If you ever go there, we have so many people that come in and they just love the feeling and the aura of the theater there. And it's like every time we have an event we'll have someone who's never been there and they're asking questions and one thing they always say is they just love the way that they feel in the theater.”

They had to operate by word of mouth to have people come to shows and classes during the start of COVID-19 but now they are working to bring in larger audiences to utilize what they have to offer.

The studio within the art center can be rented out, and local artists have used the space for singing, open mics events and weekly classes on tango and jazz.

The space is open for creative freedom and Kellogg said she hopes with will build onto the historical significance of Belmont-Devilliers as a place where pioneers created and celebrated their unique identities.

Kellogg experienced the Belmont-DeVilliers Heritage Festival in November and saw how much people embraced the district, once known as The Blocks. There were dancers, singers and large posters of important historical figures on the windows of buildings. The street was blocked off and people were celebrating what was once the artistic and cultural heartbeat of the city.

She hopes soon The Gordon Community Art Center and PenArts Inc. will instill the same joy and pride and help build a walkable place where people stop and enjoy the atmosphere.

“That's the history of this area, people that were born and raised here and that was fascinating, and it was honoring the culture, the people who created this," Kellogg said. "And it is evolving, it's changing, but I think that's kind of life. So, we embrace it and then we go on together.”

For more information about events or to rental information go to penarts.org or their Facebook at PenArts Inc.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Gordon Community Art Center offers theater in Belmont-DeVilliers