It was also a moment of courage for Grant, who is usually reluctant to speak in public, but who, Maka\u0161 said, deserved to be \u201cfront and center.\u201d And perhaps above all, it was important that when she read Lewis\u2019s words \u2013 \u201cPhil Freelon was an artist, an architect, and a griot who immortalized our culture in steel, glass, and stone\u201d \u2013 Lewis\u2019s and Freelon\u2019s culture was her culture, too.<\/p>\n \u201cActually reading the passage was terrifying,\u201d Grant said the day after the exhibition-opening reception. \u201cThere were so many people at the opening, and I didn\u2019t want to mess up such a beautiful quote. But, after working tirelessly on this project for the past two years, it was an honor to read John Lewis\u2019s thoughtful words about Freelon, because they really embodied what the Container\/Contained <\/em>exhibition is about and really helped to shed light on why it is so important to us to pay tribute to Freelon\u2019s art, architecture and life overall.\u201d<\/p>\n Grant, who received a B.A. in Architecture<\/a> in 2021 and is now a graduate student in the Master of Architecture<\/a> program, was one of 22 students who joined Maka\u0161 and Snyder to create the exhibition. An associate professor of architectural history and the associate director of the School of Architecture<\/a>, Maka\u0161 had involved students in exhibition work before. In 2019, a class she taught created the Legacy of Lynching<\/em><\/a> exhibition at the Levine Museum of the New South, and the semester-long experience was rewarding for her and for the students who participated. <\/p>\n That same year, Freelon died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, cutting short a tremendous architectural career that included, in addition to the Gantt Center, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in Atlanta, the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, Emancipation Park in Houston, the Motown Museum in Detroit, and the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. <\/p>\n Maka\u0161 decided to build upon her decades of research into the topic of identity and the built environment and investigate Freelon\u2019s masterful ability to design buildings that embody and evoke African American history and culture. And she knew she wanted to bring students into the research project.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m a teacher, and it was a project that\u2019s much bigger than one person,\u201d she said. \u201cThe students bring so much to it and have so many great ideas, and they don\u2019t tend to have the chance to create something real.\u201d<\/p>\n Creating something real was a big attraction for Grant.<\/p>\n \u201cBeing in the School of Architecture is very exciting, but nothing we design ever gets built. So, designing the graphics for the Freelon exhibition appealed to me not only because Phil Freelon was an amazing artist, teacher, and architect, but because we are getting to create something for people to actually visit and experience.\u201d<\/p>\n Like Grant, fourth-year architecture student Tahlya Mock spent the better part of two years assisting Maka\u0161, researching and writing the text that Grant would incorporate into the panels she designed. Mock watched and read interviews with Freelon, studied newspaper and magazine articles about his work, analyzed images and even traveled to cities like Durham, where Freelon lived, to see examples of his buildings.<\/p>\n \u201cBefore being an architecture student, I didn\u2019t have any Black architects to look up to,\u201d said Mock, who grew up in Arkansas and Kentucky. \u201cI think it\u2019s really progressive of the School to fund and organize a project like this. I think it\u2019s important for Charlotte and important for North Carolina. And since it\u2019s an exhibition, it can travel. It could go to Atlanta, to Baltimore, to D.C. It has the potential to reach so many people.\u201d<\/p>\n After the Gantt Center closes the exhibition in January, it will travel to Raleigh, where it will open at the North Carolina Museum of Art in February and be on view this spring to coincide with the expected completion of Freelon\u2019s North Carolina Freedom Park in downtown Raleigh. From there, the team hopes it might move to other cities that host Freelon\u2019s work. <\/p>\n The exhibition presents Freelon\u2019s design strategies in 10 projects, exploring how the appearance of the building \u2013 the way it is laid out, how it situates in the landscape, the colors used, the patterns on the fa\u00e7ade \u2013 reflects specific ideas and connects to both contemporary and historical communities.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s so cool about all of Freelon\u2019s work is you can look at these projects and understand the concepts so easily,\u201d said architecture student and Levine Scholar Quinton Frederick. \u201cHe takes a simple, really powerful idea and makes really beautiful architecture with it. But when you try to make a model of it, it\u2019s so complicated. There are so many nuances.\u201d<\/p>\n With Associate Professor of Architecture Greg Snyder as their mentor, Frederick and other architecture students designed and 3D printed small models of a half-dozen of Freelon\u2019s buildings, which are displayed on special lighted shelves that Snyder created for the exhibition. Like the 199 wall panels of text, diagrams and images, the models demonstrate how concepts take shape in Freelon\u2019s designs.<\/p>\n \u201cGreg has been really awesome to work under,\u201d Frederick said. \u201cHe has such expertise. With the pandemic, I hadn\u2019t made any models since freshman year.\u201d<\/p>\n Frederick was assigned the Gantt Center and Smithsonian Museum models \u2013 nine pieces in all. <\/p>\n \u201cThe two model projects I did are really mine, and to have something I did in a museum is really awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n That enthusiasm and sense of ownership were especially evident, Maka\u0161 said, during the week before the exhibition opened at the Gantt Center, when students showed up day after day to hang boards and place models and correct last-minute mistakes. <\/p>\n \u201cI was just so impressed. They were so eager and helpful and excited to be part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n They came, too, to the grand opening \u2013 almost all 22 of them \u2013 and watched with pride as visitors moved through the gallery, reading their panels and admiring their models.<\/p>\n \u201cI know it\u2019s Emily\u2019s exhibition,\u201d Mock said, \u201cbut I kind of feel like it\u2019s mine, too.\u201d<\/p>\n Get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the installation process in this 49-second video.<\/p>\n![\"Sierra](\"https:\/\/cws.charlotte.edu\/backup-coaa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/807\/2024\/06\/FREELON-EXHIBIT-AT-THE-GANTT-2021_080.jpg\")
First, it marked the culmination of two years of work by Grant and a team of fellow UNC Charlotte architecture students, under the direction of architecture faculty Emily Maka\u0161 <\/a>and Greg Snyder<\/a>, to develop, design, and install the exhibition at the Gantt Center honoring the acclaimed North Carolina architect Phil Freelon. Second, Grant (pictured right) was standing in the soaring atrium of a building designed by Freelon and named for another celebrated North Carolina architect and statesman, who was in the audience that night. <\/p>\nCreating something real<\/h3>\n
![\"Harvey](\"https:\/\/cws.charlotte.edu\/backup-coaa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/807\/2024\/06\/FREELON-EXHIBIT-AT-THE-GANTT-2021_064.jpg\")
Architect and former Charlotte mayor Harvey B. Gantt in the <\/em>Container\/Contained exhibition at the Gantt Center<\/em>. Photo by Ortega Gaines.<\/em><\/p>\nArtist, architect and griot<\/h3>\n
![\"Tahlya](\"https:\/\/cws.charlotte.edu\/backup-coaa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/807\/2024\/06\/Gantt_Center_Phil_Freelon_Exhibition_10-26-2021_Tahlya-2.jpg\")
Tahlya Mock (center) and fellow architecture students during the installation of the exhibition at the Gantt Center. Photo by Wade Bruton.<\/em><\/p>\nCulture immortalized in steel, glass and stone<\/h3>\n
![\"Quinton](\"https:\/\/cws.charlotte.edu\/backup-coaa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/807\/2024\/06\/Gantt_Center_Phil_Freelon_Exhibition_10-26-2021_Quinton-2.jpg\")
Quinton Frederick (left) with professors Emily Maka\u0161 and Greg Snyder during the installation at the Gantt Center. Photo by Wade Bruton.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"models](\"https:\/\/cws.charlotte.edu\/backup-coaa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/807\/2024\/06\/FREELON-EXHIBIT-AT-THE-GANTT-2021_020.jpg\")
Models of the Harvey B. Gantt Center, created by Quinton Frederick for the exhibition. Photo by Ortega Gaines.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"group](\"https:\/\/cws.charlotte.edu\/backup-coaa\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/807\/2024\/06\/FREELON-EXHIBIT-AT-THE-GANTT-2021_029.jpg\")
The UNC Charlotte student team with professors Maka\u0161 and Snyder at the opening reception for <\/em>Container\/Contained. Photo by Ortega Gaines<\/em>.<\/p>\n