Pollination of Art: Artist poised to build art opportunities in South Cape Girardeau

Malcolm McCrae isn't just an artist. The Milwaukee native who moved to Southeast Missouri a few years ago is also a placemaker.

What is that, exactly?

"It doesn't matter if you're homeless, in Australia, in Cape Girardeau," McCrae said. "You can build there."

Having a place to build from will revitalize a community, McCrae said, and he wants to bring that energy to South Cape Girardeau with a project he's calling Pollination.

"Pollination is so important," McCrae said. "That's how nature grows, a community grows. Use nature as a blueprint, you can't go wrong."

Submitted by Malcolm McCrae

McCrae was speaking from a vacant lot on South Middle Street, a lot cleared by Cape Girardeau resident Brian Perry and his company after the city tore down the abandoned, vandalized building formerly on the site.

The lot is surrounded by vacant buildings, each with a long history, each with potential, and to McCrae, each with the ability to belong to a newly revitalized community that can bring art and community to the people.

The lot, at 501 S. Middle, is also within view of Southeast Missouri State University's River Campus.

McCrae hopes to build on the success already evident with the Downtown Strategic Plan in Cape Girardeau.

Artists, galleries, shops and restaurants have popped up and filled in a downtown area that needed work, and, McCrae said, that same sense of gathering like-minded people and building a vision could work just a few blocks away.

Andrew J. Whitaker

"Momentum," McCrae said. "We could build on the momentum."

McCrae is looking at several other properties on Cape Girardeau's South Side and in the Red Star district. Both areas have several vacant properties that tend to attract illicit activity, McCrae said.

He'd rather see those vacant buildings become workspace for creatives.

"It's been on my heart for a long time," McCrae said.

When he was 10 years old, living in Milwaukee, he was bullied a lot, he said. He wasn't into sports, and that didn't leave a lot of options for him, he said.

Then he discovered art.

It wasn't in a grand gallery space or a museum, he said, but in the home of a mentor who taught him how to do screen printing and airbrushing.

It's how McCrae made his first $100, he said, on a street corner at 13 years old, airbrushing art for people.

He said he's been fortunate that he's never had to work a straight job, that his art has always been enough to support him.

As an adult, he has a wife and a daughter to think about as well, he said.

His wife, Natalie Sharp-McCrae, a seamstress, said she found the property on Zillow.com, and that was the impetus for Pollination.

A lot of properties with a lot of potential are all over South Cape, Sharp-McCrae said.

McCrae wants the project to be underway in six months, if not sooner.

"The first property is this," he said, gesturing around the lot. "It's key."

It sits on the corner, and it has a concrete retaining wall perfect for a community mural. He wants to see a metal sculpture anchoring one end, and would love to see space for open-air celebrations, including poetry readings and outdoor art displays.

He wants to install a community garden, he said, to give people a sense of growing their own food, of ownership in a beautiful thing in a neighborhood that doesn't have a lot of spaces for people to come together to celebrate the arts.

"People can come to be inspired," McCrae said.

City officials are working with him, McCrae said, and he's involved with civic organizations building grassroots movements toward a sense of real community in South Cape.

Mayor Harry Rediger and Councilman Danny Essner are both enthusiastic about the project, McCrae said.

He's been in contact with banks, VisitCape and others, too.

And he has Brian Perry, whose company cleans up demolished buildings and other sites.

Perry's family has deep roots in the area too, he said.

His grandfather owned a restaurant, and his grandmother was a cook at St. Mary.

Pollination is also about building an infectious energy, McCrae said. As animals go to flowers, leaders can create opportunities and share them, he said.

"I mentor a lot of artists," McCrae said, and a lot of them leave. He wants to create a place traveling artists can use as a hub.

"We can cultivate that energy here," McCrae said.

And it's about establishing a sense of place, starting simple and building, he added.

"Things like trash cans, to start," he said.

It doesn't seem like much to pick up trash on an empty lot, but even that much effort shows someone cares about the property, McCrae said.

He's hoping to do just that -- and from there, build a place whose inspiration will spread far and wide.

More information is available at malcolmmccrae.com.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

501 S. Middle St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.