Art pioneer mulls next step after gallery closes

Seventeen years ago, with a faith in the transformative power of local artists, Selma Jackson took a gamble.

She left her job as a bank manager to give Fort Greene artists an opportunity to showcase their passions. Her creation was a workspace and store at 704 Fulton St. called 4W Circle of Art and Enterprise.

Jackson, now 63, opened the 1,200-square-foot space after learning that Fort Greene had the highest per capita of artists in Brooklyn.

“When I moved in in ’91, it was a little frightening,” said Jackson. “Check cashing places, drugs, boarded-up storefronts. Very little foot traffic.”

Jackson said her goal was to cater to “artists of the African Diaspora” by offering subleases. “We wanted to focus on what was unique and different,” she said.

Soon, local merchants noticed increased foot traffic and began filling Fulton storefronts. 4W unified the stores by holding merchant association meetings, and Kwanzaa and Black History Month celebrations.

“She celebrated the Afrocentricity of the neighborhood and gave those artists an opportunity,” said Raven Dennis III, who opened CakeMan Raven at 708 Fulton St. in 2000. “If you needed to be known, at one of her events, you would be,” he said.

4W’s success allowed several of its artists to open their own spaces.

In the 90s, 4W spawned Courtney Washington Couture at 674 Fulton St. and Delux Gallery, which now occupies 4W’s old space. Tribal Truths is across the street at 117 South Oxford St. Several stores are open in other parts of the neighborhood and in nearby Bedford-Stuyvesant and Prospect Heights.

But after 9/11, Jackson says, 4W was never the same.

“The artists’ ability to see things on a straight path was gone,” Jackson said. “There was a change in commitment by artists – a tentativeness.” Now, many simply wanted storage, rather than focusing on opening their own stores.

“In 2001 and 2004 I renewed my lease out of a love and commitment for the neighborhood,” Jackson said.

In 2008, her lease was up again and she labored to make a decision. The store, she felt, had achieved its goal of giving local artists a voice, and she wanted more time with her family. And her initial $2,000 a month rent had risen to $5,000. She closed in January.

On a recent Sunday, Jackson arrived at the Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church in a flowing blue African tie-dyed dress. She has just begun the prestigious Charles H. Revson Fellowship program at Columbia University, which helps mid-career urban leaders consider their next steps. Greeting friends in the next pew with a bright smile, her mind was visibly at ease. She joined the church in 2000 after she was drawn to its inclusive style.

“For the first time, I had been to a church that reflected the communities in which I lived,” she said.

“The church is very popular because it’s seen as a place that will open its doors to the community,” said the church’s pastor, the Rev. David Dyson. “Selma is the poster child of what we’re all about.”

Now, as Jackson ponders starting another organization, based around oral histories, she considers what she has done for the Fort Greene arts community, despite never having lived there. She recalls hosting New Orleans artists displaced by Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and organizing a jazz concert in their honor. This event exemplified the spirit of 4W, she said.

Now, on the once-blighted 700 block of Fulton Street, a vibrant, proud culture flourishes.

“There’s an expression at Kwanzaa, to always leave a place better than it was before,” said Jackson. “We started as one place and now there are several. I knew I had done the job I needed to do.”