February 19, 1996
Lewis had only two years of full-time teaching experience. His background included work as a plumber, sous chef and newspaper vendor to support his art; pushing a broom around the edge of Manhattan as part of an art installation; and founding an art space in the South Bronx.
But he has also administered a $1.2 million public art program for Los Angeles's Department of Cultural Affairs; curated and mounted more than 35 exhibitions and 120 performance events nationwide; published 16 books by artists and an art and literary journal; and served as artist in residence and printmaker in residence.
Phil Handler, dean of the School of the Arts, says it was that varied background, Lewis' reputation as a serious, important artist, his experience in working with the community and his people skills that earned him his new job.
"We had reorganized four separate departments into one. We needed a good unifying force," Handler said.
That meshes with Lewis's background. "In the late 1970s," he says, "I began to see that my art was more about bringing different kinds of people together than about making an object. I was always involved in making the thing work, building ideas and concepts, and getting and keeping people enthusiastic about the project."
His early artistic experiences were actually theatrical. As a child, he acted, sang, and danced in movies and plays He worked with Alvin Ailey's dance troupe and at a young age served as lighting technician for an opera company.
But art wasn't his first career choice. He initially dreamed of becoming a doctor. "A young black man going to school in the late '60s and early '70s was supposed to become a professional," he says. "But I ran into organic chemistry, which cut my medical career short."
So he turned to art instead.
After a brief flirtation with painting, he turned to a new kind of collaboration -- performance art, where he could work with others. For one piece, he and about 10 other people created a living depiction of aspects of celestial theory. In it, he imitated a galactic process called a "celestial sweep," circumnavigating Manhattan with a broom, photographing and collecting interesting objects.
His epiphany -- that art for him arose from bringing different kinds of people together -- occurred when he was co-founder and co-director of Fashion Moda, an out-of-the-way space in the South Bronx.
"Another artist, Stefan Eins, and I got fed up with the art scene. We decided to go where people who were trained in art and those who weren't trained in art could get together." The money for the new space came from plumbing: He and Eins installed toilets and washing machines for well-known New York artists.
What resulted at Fashion Moda was a wildly varied collection of high art, low art, and folk art. "We had untrained people showing photographs or objects or doing performances. A big graffiti show put us on the map; people who were doing subway cars came and did panels.
Although Fashion Moda remained open through 1992, Lewis stayed involved for only its first five years. "I got burned out. It became my life. I became the place. The artist as art."
His later experiences combined the more conventional (completing an MFA, teaching at Carnegie Mellon and California Institute of the Arts, curating large exhibitions) and the nontraditional (helping guerrilla artists put on shows in abandoned buildings).
But his experience at Fashion Moda has stayed with him and helps him cut through current confusion about what art is or isn't. "I did not come to modernism easily," he says. "When I graduated from college, I believed what I had been taught: that there was no significant painting after 1500. Two years later, at Fashion Moda, I would go into a cold sweat because I had no idea what I was looking at.
"I didn't understand it, I didn't want to put a value on it. The only thing I knew was that people were doing it, and if people were willing to put their time into it, there had to be something to it.
"For me, if someone calls something 'art,' that's fine for me, and I don't want to spend time arguing about it."
How does his experience shape his views of what a university art department should offer?
"Cal Arts was a cerebral place. It emphasized articulation, dialogue, history, criticism, theory. It believed that if you can articulate what you want to do, you can figure out a way to do it. We give people an opportunity to learn how to see, to visualize, to draw, to make things in three dimensions.
"Here it's the other way around. The department is skill based. We give people an opportunity to learn how to see, to visualize, to draw, to make things in three dimensions.
"I believe there's a middle ground. Artists need those skills, but they also need to speak about what they're doing, as well as a good idea of what's happened before and what's happening now."
"As for what we offer, I defer to the department. My vision is not specific to any media. My vision is about training someone to be well rounded and articulate and creative, who knows who they are and who knows their relationship to their community."
How does he see the future of the department?
"Art departments take on the characteristics of the people who work in them. I expect that in a few years, the faculty will be more oriented towards technology. But I like having a broad range of ideas. The liberal arts background -- that's what's most important to me.
"I hope the department becomes more involved with the university. I want to have interaction with computer science and engineering and business management. We're thinking of putting together an animation program and a public art program here. Either of those might have a minor in engineering or business. I'm looking forward to building these connections."