THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507080086
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
THE EXHIBIT of art by the Rev. Anderson Johnson opening today at The Newsome House in Newport News celebrates a rescue mission.
Fans have spent nearly a year trying to save and relocate Johnson's former home, which is slated for demolition to make room for a recreation center. But supporters consider the house a ``folk art environment'' filled with valuable murals.
Now, armed with a $30,000 federal grant, art lovers and city officials are preparing to act.
In the next few weeks, Johnson's walls will be dismantled, and stored in a climate-controlled room provided by the city. The storage phase could be a long one, because a destination for the walls has yet to be named.
Deborah McLeod, curator at the Peninsula Fine Arts Center in Newport News, was involved from the start. Among her efforts: McLeod staged a Johnson exhibit at her center, and went before Newport News City Council on June 7 to obtain the $30,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
This is McLeod's account of the rescue:
In the fall, a coalition of folk art appreciators began looking for ways to save Johnson's Ivy Avenue home, where his family had lived since the 1940s. The home was among several in southeastern Newport News slated for demolition to make way for a new city recreation center.
Johnson moved from the home in September. The city gave him $52,000 for his house and property; he spent $13,000 to buy a new home on 26th Street, less than a mile away.
Folk art lovers felt Johnson left behind a major cultural legacy.
Since the mid-1980s, Johnson covered holes on the outside walls of his home with painted panels. He also painted murals on inside walls. His subjects included Jesus, airplanes and Bible verses.
In response to pleas from folk art fans, the city made plans to dismantle Johnson's walls and place them in museums statewide.
Then McLeod started a campaign to keep the murals together and in the neighborhood. She lobbied City Council members to relocate Johnson's entire house next to the new rec center.
Ellin Gordon, a major folk art collector in Williamsburg, got national art experts to write letters to Newport News Mayor Barry DuVal supporting the preservation of Johnson's home.
In February, the Committee for the Preservation of the Anderson Johnson Faith Mission was established, and began meeting regularly at The Newsome House. The committee took Johnson's art into the schools, and met with city and community leaders on Johnson's behalf.
Meanwhile, Johnson's Ivy Avenue home had become a haven for vagrants. One mural was completely ruined since Johnson's departure, McLeod said. The committee feared that if the walls weren't removed soon, there would be nothing to save.
``The first objective is to ensure the murals will be preserved and protected,'' said Billy Mitchell, assistant city manager for Newport News. ``In the long term, much as it has been in the recent past, the decision about how they will actually be exhibited will be a community decision.''
By now, Mitchell said, city officials have come to see Johnson's funky folk art as ``of good quality, and valuable.''
From McLeod's perspective, the rescue's not quite over. ``We have had Anderson Johnson's angels above us all along, though,'' McLeod wrote. ``We are hoping for their continued assistance.'' by CNB