Built in 1919, the Attucks Theatre is the nation's oldest designed, developed, financed and once operated solely by African Americans.
On Friday, after more than a century of hosting headliners such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and Audra McDonald, it opens the curtain on a new visual arts venue, The Gallery at the Attucks.
Karen Rudd, the longtime director of Norfolk Arts, originated the idea to foster intersections between visual art, performance and community storytelling, and to inject renewed vigor into the Attucks as a "cultural beacon for African American artists and audiences."
The Attucks was built on Church Street, a vibrant hub of African American life and culture, especially during the segregation era. It earned the moniker "The Apollo of the South," because it had a roster of world-class shows like the legendary Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. But it closed in 1953 and was designated as a Historic Landmark in 1977. In 2004, a partnership between Norfolk’s Department of Cultural Facilities and the Crispus Attucks Cultural Center reopened the Attucks after a three-year restoration that returned the Art Deco structure to its former glory.
The Gallery is an outgrowth of converging forces: cultural shifts in response to COVID and Black Lives Matter; a National Endowment for the Arts grant to Norfolk Arts to bring together smaller local performing arts groups for rich discussions; and increased grant funding for these groups from the Norfolk City Council.
The meetings sparked collaborations and a desire to connect with the theater's heritage. The 1,500-square-foot, first-floor Gallery developed within this context as a space that, as Rudd said, "sets the stage for exhibitions that speak to the same spirit of creativity and resilience that the Attucks has long embodied.”
To help shape the Gallery's direction, Rudd turned to Denise Christian of SevenVenues. SevenVenues runs the Attucks and Christian is a seasoned arts administrator with deep ties to community engagement and to the Attucks, having served as a graduate intern with the city in the 1990s. For Christian, the Gallery is a powerful channel for community engagement.
“Black Voices and Visions," which is on view through April 3, 2026, is the inaugural exhibition and includes the “What We Ask of Flesh” performance by INSPIRIT on the closing night of the 48th annual Old Dominion University Literary Festival.
Joan Rhodes-Copeland, executive gallery director of Aspire Gallery in Norfolk, curated the exhibition. From an open call to Black artists with a Hampton Roads connection, she selected approximately 50 pieces, favoring resonant themes and sophisticated approaches from emerging and established artists.
Artist and musician Jackie Merritt called acceptance “quite an honor.” She recalls joining a public tour of the Attucks before it was renovated and how it was “dark, dirty, dingy.” She attended with fellow artist and musician friends, Maizelle Brown and Resa Gibbs, finding the theatre “mind boggling,” including from an on-stage vantage point. From that vantage point, her group, M.S.G. The Acoustic Blues Trio, opened for Eric Bibb in 2009. She's returned a number of times to perform and teach harmonica.
Merritt entered three large pastel paintings, all of which were accepted: "Assurance,” “Freedom” and “Done with the Devil.” The pieces have religious themes in part because the Attucks is “surrounded by churches,” epicenters of many Black communities, and her family church is “right around the corner.”
Clayton Singleton submitted three large acrylic paintings—"Raise Up a Child,” “Ocean in a Drop” and “Hold Fast to Dreams”—because they embody “three things that Black folks have done to … persevere, be one and keep going,” he said.
Through these pieces, he shares his perspective that “you’re going to have to do some work in this world.”
“Ocean in a Drop” is his power anthem. The title references the 13th-century poet Rumi, who wrote, “You are not a drop in the ocean. You are the entire ocean in a drop."
The painting depicts a Black man emerging from a multicolored swirl of a sea, his head arching back, his braids flinging around him.
“Everyone that comes before you is in you. You are not just the foam on the wave. You are the internal workings of the wave that builds from the center of the Atlantic and the center of the Pacific. Then you crash upon the shore. You have that much power within you.”
Singleton believes it is his mission to “share and show” this message. And he laments “that it is still necessary.”
The Gallery at the Attucks will be open during free events and for patrons during ticketed events. Gallery at the Attucks, 1010 Church St., Norfolk. Visit www.sevenvenues.com for more information.