Boyd Vance: Sweet Remembrance

Photo By Bret Brookshire

The loss of Boyd Vance in April of this year still stings, but the city has managed to honor the late theatre artist, arts advocate, and community activist in a way that sweetens some of the bitterness of his too, too early passing. As noted in last week's Chronicle News feature on the African-American Quality of Life Implementation Plan ("Engineering Quality – and Equality," Nov. 4), one of the seven recommendations in the plan's section on arts, culture, and entertainment was to name the new theatre at the recently expanded George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center after Vance, who was a leading force on the city's arts scene and a pioneer in promoting arts for African-Americans in Austin, for more than 25 years before his death. At the City Council's Oct. 27 meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Danny Thomas made the motion to do just that before a large crowd of Vance's colleagues, friends, and fans, including representatives from Huston-Tillotson University and Lisa Byrd, now the director of Pro Arts Collective, the African-American arts organization that Vance helped found and ran for a dozen years. Thomas recalled meeting Vance in the days when he, Thomas, was a police officer and how he was moved by Vance's concern for the young artists of this city. Council Members Raul Alvarez and Betty Dunkerley also offered testimonials about Vance, both commenting that every time they think of him they smile. "He had that passion and that love and that joy just in living that made all of our lives better and happier every time we came in contact with him," Dunkerley said. The motion passed unanimously.