African American History Gems of Time: Augusta Christine Savage

Augusta Christine Fells Savage

Artist of the Harlem Renaissance

February 29, 1892 – March 26, 1962

We remember Augusta Savage, Sculptor, Educator and Civil Rights Activist. Works included a sculptor known as " The Harp". It was influenced by spirituals and hymns, most notably James Weldon Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing."
 

Born on February 29, 1892 in Green Cove Springs, Florida and seventh of fourteen children to Edward and Cornelia Fells.  Most of Augusta's sculptures, in some way, reflect an aspect of African-American culture. Augusta Savage a pioneer a legend in time.

Highlights of Augusta Savage's Journey

1907 - Augusta married John Moore at the age of 16; they had a daughter, Irene.  John died shortly after their marriage. She later married James Savage (1920),  and then Robert Lincoln Poston (1923). 
1915 - Augusta  moved to West Palm Beach.  In her senior year, the school's principal began paying her a dollar a day to teach clay-modeling lessons. 

1919 - She won a $25 award at County Fair for her sculptures.  She started to sell her art work, and made about $175 in total sales.   

1921 - Augusta Savage moved to New York believing that the North would provide her with the artistic opportunity she desired; a belief shared by many blacks during the Migration era.

1921 - 1923 Attended Cooper Union School of Art; Married Robert Lincoln Poston. 

1923 -  Rejected because of her race to attend a summer art program in France while attending Cooper Union

1924 - Savage sculpted a plaster bust of her nephew, Ellis Ford, that is widely regarded as her finest work. The bust, entitled Gamin (French for "street urchin"), won Savage a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship—and with it a year's study in Paris.

1932 - She established the Savage Studio of Arts and Crafts, an arts-education center for adults. She later became the first director of Harlem's Community Arts Center. Funded by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the center invited African Americans to learn about their culture through the study of fine arts.
1940 - Augusta retired to New York State, Catskill Mountain's where she worked on her farm, and taught art to the local children.
1962 - Augusta dies in New York City of Cancer.

Today, Augusta Savage is memorialized in several ways.  Her home in the Catskills is recognized by the National Register of Historical Places as the Augusta Savage House and Studio.  In 2004, the Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts–a small public high school–opened in Baltimore, Maryland.  In 2008, her hometown of Green Cove Springs renovated Savage's old high school building and made it the headquarters of the Augusta Savage Cultural Arts Center. 

Some of the Sources for this article are from : Florida Artist Hall of Fame, Wikipedia