The People’s Art Center began as a Works Progress Administration Missouri Artists’ Project for artists registered on federal relief. An interracial Sponsoring Committee, meeting in 1941, decided to form a community arts center to serve all races, creeds, and colors. Using WPA art teachers and workmen, and private funds for supplies, the committee rented a building from the Episcopal Church of Holy Communion, where interracial art classes were held for children and adults. After the termination of support from the WPA in 1943, the members of the Sponsoring Committee incorporated the People’s Art Center Association as a non-profit organization. At the time of incorporation, Elizabeth Green was the acting chairman, Anna Hensley was the secretary, and Henry S. Williams was the treasurer. Elizabeth Green maintained strong ties to the People’s Art Center, serving on the Executive Committee and the board of directors. Green also raised funds for the center through her connections with wealthy art patrons in St. Louis and around the country. In 1945, the board of directors read like a “who’s who” of influential black and white St. Louisans, including President Charles Nagel, director of the City Art Museum; John T. Clark, executive secretary of the Urban League of St. Louis; Fannie Cook, noted author; and Reverend Hohenschild of the Episcopal Church of Holy Communion. In 1949, Mabel Curtis (1896-1988) served as president of the board of directors. The following year marked the beginning of her salaried employment at the People’s Art Center. Mrs. Curtis served as the executive director from 1950 to 1963. As an outspoken critic of racial segregation and discrimination, she ran into trouble with the more conservative members of the board of directors. Although cognizant of the fact that they served an interracial organization, these board members nevertheless were wary of too hasty a program for ending racial segregation and in some cases refused to respond to areas deemed as outside the “proper” provenance of the People’s Art Center. In 1962, Mabel Curtis resigned as executive director of the center, and briefly came back to serve as an unpaid director in 1963. Ultimately, her advanced age and her refusal to be mollified on racial issues led to her break with the center. As a small interracial group operating in a segregated city, the People’s Art Center depended upon financial backing from its members and students through membership dues and class fees. Ultimately, these funds were not enough to support the center. The center was granted financial support from the United Charities, which in 1945 became known as the Greater St. Louis Community Chest. The People’s Art Center applied for and received funding from the United Fund, which by 1956 included the Greater St. Louis Community Chest. In 1960, the United Fund eliminated funding for the center. The Spirit of St. Louis Fund was formed in 1960 to provide resources for the People’s Art Center and other social and cultural groups dropped by the United Fund. A 1963 survey commissioned by Civic Progress, Inc. led to the formation of the Greater St. Louis Arts Council. Coincidentally, around this time the Spirit Fund dissolved and future funding for the center from the new Arts Council was doubtful. According to Mabel Curtis, a probable factor in the center’s funding problems was the hostile racial climate in the city of St. Louis, which in turn was reflected in the leadership of the various civic groups. The People’s Art Center was not immune from these divisive struggles. Mabel Curtis was censured by the board leaders for her outspoken condemnation of segregation and her refusal to let the hypocrisy of board meetings held in segregated facilities go unnoticed. Racial tensions and financial uncertainties proved to be the downfall of the People’s Art Center. Mabel Curtis’s association with the center apparently ended in 1963. A newspaper notice dated March 21, 1968, provides the final story on the People’s Art Center. The notice is for a trustee’s sale of the property belonging to the center, due to a loan default.