Grand Rapids, like cities throughout the country, is facing a declining school population. An immediate consequence of this is the issue of school closures. The Grand Rapids School District has slated eleven school buildings to close by 2029, and each building faces an uncertain future. The most recent public school to be demolished was the Kensington School Building, built in 1925 and closed in 2012. In a series of 35mm photographs, I photographed the demolition from start to finish, including the sale of its terra cotta at Pitch Sanitary Landfill and the school site’s conversion into meadow.
Since that demolition, the first two of the eleven schools scheduled to close have shut their doors. Furthermore, Aberdeen Academy, built in 1929, is the next slated for demolition. In this moment of rapid change in Grand Rapids, I seek to use photography to give Grand Rapidians a chance to pause and reflect on what we value and what we will fight to save.
Kensington School Building
1925–2024
Demolished
August 2023
October 2024 at the start of demolition.
November 2024
January 2024
The final resting for pieces of the school façade, separated from the building and sold by Pitsch Demolition.
The school site, now a meadow, in July 2024.
Photos of the school in October 2024 at the very start of demolition. The first step in the demo process is to remove choice pieces of the school to be sold at Pitsch Demolition headquarters.
“Grand Rapids Ruins” was featured in the group exhibition Lucky 13 at ArtRat Gallery in September of 2024 as part of the large-scale art event, ArtPrize. ArtRat tied for best venue out of 163 venues at ArtPrize.
The local news network WoodTV8 ran a story about the series for ArtPrize in September as well.
I delivered an artist talk at ArtRat gallery about the past and present of building preservation in Grand Rapids.
Aberdeen Academy
1929–2027
To be demolished in 2027
The Grand Rapids school board’s plan is to build a new school in the park next to Aberdeen Academy in 2027. Then the 1929 school will be demolished to create new park land.
Last summer I set out to try and save the terra cotta ornaments of Aberdeen Academy, the latest school to be demolished in Grand Rapids. I thought about the beauty and craftsmanship that this school has contributed to public life since it construction in 1929. Thinking about history, I wondered, are these the oldest public sculptures in our neighborhood? With that in mind, I photographed the school and used those images to launch a “Save Aberdeen” campaign. The effort brought me into local democracy and activism, brand new worlds for me. I found myself building an advocacy website, meeting with my school board rep for advice, creating campaign fliers, calling a terra cotta fabricator for intel, knocking on neighbors’ doors, teaming up with another spirited advocate, meeting with my neighborhood association staff, and attending meetings with school officials.
As of this year, it sounds like we’ve succeeded 🦅 The last few things I’ve heard from the board of education is that the plan is to save all of the 97-year-old ornaments and incorporate them into the interior and exterior grounds of the new elementary school being built next to the 1929 one. My last few steps in this process are to submit my photographs of the school to the library local history archives, photograph the interior of the school, and capture the eventual demolition.
Rhodes Ruins. 2019.
Grand Rapids Ruins. 2024.
Roman Ruins. 2026.
Throughout my life I have occasionally heard fellow Americans say, "We have no culture." The statement always causes me concern. If we cannot take the first step in seeing our culture, how can we take the next step in cultivating it, or more importantly, protecting it? The Roman ruin photographed above sits on prominent display within Grand Valley State University's sixty-five million dollar Pew Library. The Greek ruin sits in the Rhodes Acropolis, whose restoration is decades long and continues today. The Grand Rapids ruin sat in the rubble of the demolished 98-year-old Kensington Elementary School and was intended to be sent to the dump of Pitsch Demolition and ground into road gravel. In the different fates of these three objects, it becomes clear whose culture we value and whose remains both invisible and unprotected.
