project overview
CHEROKEE HEIGHTS NEIGHBORHOOD SIGNAGE | CHEROKEE LIBRARY
Cherokee Heights is a small residential neighborhood located south of Orange Mound. It is bounded on the north by Harris Avenue, on the south by Sharpe Avenue, on the east by Crider Avenue, and on the west by Amarillo Street. Following the forced exodus of the Chickasaw nation, the area was incorporated into the Deaderick plantation; during reconstruction, most of this property was divided and sold to African American families, creating the Orange Mound neighborhood.
By the 1930s, the parcel of land that would become Cherokee Heights remained largely undeveloped, except for a golf course and a few small farms. Home building began in earnest in the 1950s, with most of the houses in the neighborhood built over the next two decades. Originally a middle-class segregated white neighborhood, following the passage of the Fair Housing Act in 1968, racist attitudes led to rapid change. By 1978, Cherokee Heights had experienced almost complete turnover and has remained a middle-class majority African American neighborhood ever since.
Today, Cherokee Heights is supported by community anchors including the Cherokee Public Library, Cherokee Elementary, Greenwood CME Church, and BPI. The Cherokee Heights Civic Club, founded in 1970, remains a focus of community organizing and social life. An active neighborhood group with a 50+ year history, the Civic Club meets monthly at the local library branch to organize community events, support residents in need, and to advocate for infrastructure and public safety improvements.
After receiving a project grant through UAC’s first iteration of its Neighborhood Art Initiative program, the Cherokee Heights Civic Club and Cherokee Heights Neighborhood Watch Association (CHNWA) released an open call seeking an artist(s) to create neighborhood signage that included words and images relevant to the neighborhood. Artist team Ahmad George and Lawrence Matthews responded with a design featuring nature-themed imagery, the neighborhood name, and the club’s motto, “We Care.” Signworks produced five street sign toppers placed throughout the neighborhood, and Lorenzo Scruggs of LS Designs fabricated a large metal gateway sign installed in front of Cherokee Library.
“Thank you to the Cherokee Heights community for trusting us with this commission.”
gateway sign designers Lawrence Matthews and Ahmad George pose with its fabricator Lorenzo Scruggs
the new 9’ tall gateway sign features nature inspired images
ABOUT THE ARTISTs
Ahmad George & Lawrence Matthews III
Ahmad George
Ahmad George is a conceptual Artist from Memphis , Tn working with different painting mediums to explore scenes about transformation, human shared experience, and place making. They graduated from Memphis College of Art with a B.F.A in design with a concentration in Illustration in 2016. Ahmad’s research and inspiration spans informative psychological texts, folktales from the American south, alchemical manuscripts and Egyptian lore. they/them.
Lawrence Matthews
Lawrence Matthews III is an artist from Memphis, TN working in music, photography, painting and filmmaking. Matthews received his B.F.A. from The University of Memphis in 2014. Since being awarded the Arts Accelerator grant in 2016, Matthews has had many group and solo exhibitions spanning galleries and museums across the mid-south as well as the residency program at Crosstown Arts. Recently acquired by international artist Derek Fordjour and The Kim & Elliot Perry Collection, Matthews’ photo work captures moments of openness and the haunting reminders of things that once were, highlighting the conflict between remanence of the past and the modern-day city imposed infrastructural decay. His work is also a part of The Brooks Museum's permanent collection and UrbanArt Commission's moveable collection. As the former program director, gallery director and curator of TONE (2019-2021), Matthews has led impactful programming and exhibitions providing opportunities for artists in the Memphis area.
