Artist Malcolm McCrae to debut mobile community center next week

Airbrush artist and culture enthusiast Malcolm McCrae will unveil a renovated 40-foot community center on wheels during the first Community Art Day on June 30 at Ranney Park in Cape Girardeau.

The bus — Pollination Station — was originally built in 1980 and it’s McCrae’s second to repurpose. It already has accrued more than 200,000 miles, but McCrae has big plans for its immediate future.

“I’m using the blueprint of Mother Nature,” McCrae said.

The reveal and festival events all tie into McCrae’s vision of Community Art Day, and Cape Girardeau is the first stop on the tour. McCrae said a trip to Connecticut is up next.

At each event, a nearly 20-feet-by-30-feet shelter will be added to the side of the bus to serve as a venue for community art painting, live art demonstrations and “actual work space,” he said.

Food, a community drum circle, a DJ and a film showcase highlighting McCrae’s recent black history documentary also will be featured at each event.

The inside of the bus will serve as more of a lounging area, McCrae said.

“When we get there, we can set everything up built around what we need,” McCrae said. “This is our portable pavilion. It’s a portable community center.”

McCrae said he and his wife, Natalie, decided to make the bus inhabitable, allowing for broader art exposure and connecting communities throughout the nation.

Housing is “so expensive here,” which also forced McCrae to innovate, he said.

“When I would talk to other friends, whether they were musicians or artists, there wasn’t any rehearsal space or any space you could just gather and create,” he said.

And that’s when the idea of the bus started becoming more and more relevant, he said.

McCrae said for him to be successful in helping, he’s “got to meet the people half way.”

“I’ve got to go into the communities, do the work and have it where people can just walk out their door and be able to engage and share, create and grow,” he said.

It took McCrae nearly three years to find the right bus, he said.

“I found it on Craigslist. There was a guy in East Prairie; he was a truck driver,” McCrae said. “As a creative individual, I knew I had an opportunity to inspire others. And I knew that if I could do it, other people could do it.”

McCrae said he’s honored to be able to unveil the project and start the tour in Cape Girardeau, “specifically now with things being so divided.”

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