This cultural arts center in Miami’s Liberty City to be renamed after longtime director

When Marshall Davis decide to rename the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in the early ‘90s, he wanted the community to understand that this was a haven for all Black Americans.

Previously named the Model City Cultural Center, the new name was “reflective of the community where we reside, reflective of the people we’re looking to have in our program,” Davis told the Miami Herald in Dec. 2023 . “We’re not excluding anyone but it’s an opportunity for us to showcase the arts from the Black life perspective.”

Now, more than the 40 years later, the AHCAC will be named after Davis. The Liberty City institution will officially be crowned the Marshall Davis African Heritage Cultural Arts Center on Aug. 1, according to AHCAC representatives. County Commissioner Keon Hardemon, who spearheaded the renaming, later confirmed the news.

Hardemon called Davis “quintessential” to “the development of young talent” in Miami.

“He has opened doors and invested his time and energy to those who have pursued their dreams in the arts,” Hardemon said in a statement. “I am honored to have named this facility on behalf of those whose lives he touched in Liberty City and beyond.”

“I think it’s important to highlight the work and I’m hoping that’s why the name is being changed because my name, to me right now, is a concept on how to operate a program that’s significant and transformative for the community,” Davis told the Miami Herald on Monday morning. “And I hope bearing my name, it will always be that.”

Born in Overtown but raised in Liberty City, Davis joined the then-Model City Cultural Center in 1983, just years after the Arthur McDuffie Riots ravaged the Liberty City and Brownsville communities. His goal was simple – help the community understand the transformative power of art – and through a combination of summer and after-school programs, students get to experience just that.

“The program that’s designed helps out students artistically but it’s not art for art’s sake: it’s art for soul’s sake,” Davis said. “It helps them with their own development, helps them discover their worth, discover their history and culture as well as improve their competence and confidence.”

Thanks to Davis, the AHCAC now offers classes in a variety of areas including dance, drama, music, media and visual arts. The center also has an art gallery, a music hall and a renovated black box theater. It has sparked the careers of many Miami natives including 2017 Academy Award-winner Tarell Alvin McCraney to acclaimed dancer Bianca Brewton to former Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater artistic director Robert Battle.

“Mr. Davis has been an icon within this community for decades,” former Opa-locka Mayor Matthew Pigatt said. Pigatt attended the AHCAC as a kid. “He put his life and soul into the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, building it up to what it is today, impacting so many lives and it’s only appropriate that generations after always know that his work continues to bless his community.”

Among the people he thanked most for this honor, Davis pointed to his grandmother, Mildred Davis-Miller, who funded his college education. She gave Davis the freedom to study art and later graduate with a degree in theater. During his time studying art, he realized that despite his talent, he wasn’t necessarily “ready.”

“I had no concepts of design, colors, painting techniques – nothing,” Davis previously told the Miami Herald.

That experience taught him a valuable lesson about the lack of exposure to art that kids from his community received. He vowed to change that.

“The community often needs someone we can point to as an example for our children and other people who are trying to actualize themselves,” Davis said. “Hopefully my story will have some meaning to them and my name will be something they can look at and say ‘if he can do that, I can do better.’”