Belmar History + Art

A Public Art & Civic Commemoration Project

The Belmar History + Art (BH+A) project commemorates the history of the African American residents and business owners of, and visitors to, the historic Belmar and surrounding neighborhoods. Once a thriving community, this area was razed through eminent domain in the 1950s in order to make way for the Civic Auditorium and the Civic Center campus. BH+A was founded upon three co-equal elements: art, community, and history, each working in concert to creatively and collectively celebrate the legacy of African American contributions to Santa Monica life.

Rich conversations and storytelling with community members, historical research, and a lengthy design process led to the resources on this website, and the onsite elements at the new Historic Belmar Park (opened 2021). The park contains a sports field, a series of historical interpretive signs along an encircling .4 mile walking path, and a monumental new sculpture near the entrance to the field. That entrance is located midblock on 4th Street between Olympic and Pico Blvds, at 1840 4th Street, Santa Monica CA 90404. For more about the sports field, click here.

Artist April Banks is an artist, educated as an architect. Her unconventional career has straddled conceptual art, social practice, and exhibition design, with a transmedia practice that sits between photography, installation, and collaborative experimentation. Her social practice focuses on engagement that seeks to amplify and preserve hidden community stories. In pursuit of joy, yet often enraged, her work usually begins with a question. Recent projects have focused on historical archives and memories, posing what we think we know of the past and how it informs our cultural positioning systems. Her work has been exhibited in Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Minneapolis, Cleveland, Daytona Beach, New Hampshire, Maryland, New York, Switzerland, Colombia, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Senegal and Ethiopia. In February 2021 she completed her first permanent public art sculpture “A Resurrection in Four Stanzas” in Santa Monica, CA. aprilbanks.com

Historian: Alison Rose Jefferson M.H.C. | Ph.D. is an independent historian, cultural producer and heritage conservation consultant. A third generation Californian, her research interests explore the intersection of American history, the African American experience in California, historical memory, spatial justice, commemorative justice, and cultural tourism. Dr. Jefferson uses her work to connect with the concerns and interests of present-day communities who have been underserved and aims to engage broad audiences through varying styles of Applied History projects in the struggle for social justice. Her book, Living the California Dream: African American Leisure Sites during the Jim Crow Era (University of Nebraska Press, 2020) was awarded the 2020 Miriam Matthews Ethnic History Award by the Los Angeles City Historical Society for its significant contributions to the understanding of region history. Her work has garnered attention in KCET-LA programming, the Los Angeles and The New York Times, The Guardian and Le Monde newspapers, CBS TV "60 Minutes+" news program and other media. Learn more about Dr. Jefferson’s work at alisonrosejefferson.com.

Site Guide/Guia del Sito  
Images from the Project  
Further Educational Resources  

Project Overview

In late 2019, the Santa Monica Arts Commission confirmed artist April Banks as the project artist to join Belmar History + Art project historian Dr. Alison Rose Jefferson. Utilizing themes gathered from the public engagement activities and historical materials, Banks collaborated with Jefferson to gather the stories, memories, and dreams of Santa Monicans and the descendants of those who were displaced from the neighborhood.

In-person activities with the community, and the development of the Belmar educational materials and public art design elements began in early 2020 and continued virtually after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The historical interpretive signs were installed at Historic Belmar Park in fall 2020, and the art sculpture is set to be installed in spring 2021. 

What began as an exploration of the history of a particular site, became a wider exploration of the African American neighborhoods of South Santa Monica and their contributions of African Americans to the city’s historical and cultural heritage.

Belmar History + Art (BH+A) is a project of the City of Santa Monica, commissioned through its Percent for Art Program and made possible by Santa Monica Cultural Affairs and the City of Santa Monica’s Public Works Department. We recognize and acknowledge the Gabrielino/Tongva peoples on whose lands we are gathering, celebrating, and learning.

Events and Programs

“RE/GENERATION was a series of events for the community. Below is a selection of the milestone events, both in-person and online, that took place during this project.