Inclusive Public Art Initiative

There is a long history of excellence in art, public service, education, healthcare, and entrepreneurship in Highland that is not widely known.

Born in Gastonia, NC John Thomas Biggers was an African American artist/muralist who came to prominence after the Harlem Renaissance and close to the end of WWII. He created work that was critical of racial and economic injustice. He served as the founding chairman of the art department at Houston’s Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University), in 1957 was the first African American artist to travel to Africa with an UNESCO Fellowship. In 1994, he illustrated Maya Angelou’s poem “Our Grandmothers.” Mr. Biggers childhood home is located in Highland, which remains in his family to this day.

The Highland Neighborhood Association received a grant from the The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation to create an Inclusive Public Art piece that portrays the unique history of the neighborhood through layered imagery in the form of a “Walk of Fame Pathway”. Selected for this sculpture project is the two-artist team of David Wilson and Pamela Underwood. The installation site, the Erwin Center, is a well-utilized community center and park in the heart of Highland. 

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