Liberty City arts center turns 50. ‘Our communities are always filled with talent’
Getting a cultural arts center in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood was a bit of an uphill battle.
Sondra Julien recalled the efforts she made in the 1970s to bring cultural arts to the area, then known as Model City. At the time, she had recently graduated from Howard University and began working in Miami as director of recreational and cultural projects. Back then, Julien said the area was practically devoid of anything regarding the cultural arts.
Originally called the Model City Cultural Arts Center, the space was established at the insistence of Julien, who petitioned the county in the late 1970s to establish a performing arts program for the children who lived in and around Liberty City, a segregated area that included several housing projects like Liberty Square.
“Our communities are always filled with talent, undiscovered or unappreciated or undeveloped,” Julien, a former Miami-Dade County teacher, told the Miami Herald. “I said they need something in the community to change the community attitude, to change their perspective, to change their perspective.”
The center would later be renamed as the Marshall L. Davis African Heritage Cultural Arts Center, after the director that helmed it for more than four decades. The center became a beacon in Liberty City where many youths learned the fundamentals of dance, song and theater. Several have gone on to have award-winning and world renowned careers — but even for those who didn’t go on to work in the arts, the center taught them important life skills.
The cultural space is now celebrating its 50th anniversary and has planned a celebration for Sunday at the Adrienne Arsht Center to honor alum and those that have had a hand in the center’s history such as Julien and the center’s namesake Marshall L. Davis. Davis said that the center has been around for 50 years speaks to its effectiveness in helping people achieve their goals.
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“They can transform their lives, they can transform their characters. There are other opportunities other than some of the negative things that are out there,” Davis said. “When you grab these kids, and you take them after school… and you put them in a creative environment, their whole thinking and platform of life changed. It’s enhanced. They see different goals and opportunities.”
Davis, a former teacher with a background in fine arts, said he used a sequential method for the teaching arts that involved providing each student with a foundation in dance, theater, music and visual arts. From there, youth are allowed to immerse themselves into a specific concentration.
“My concept is there’s an artist in everyone, whether it’s a speaking, writing, visual artists, fashion, art, dance, drama, what have you,” Davis said. Through sequential learning, he said this meant the children would acquire skills and concepts and invest in a talent. “So if they wanted to go into the arts, they could, but also just using the art as a way to also help them understand the proper use of the academic studies: reading, writing, math, and what have you.”
During his tenure, Davis has overseen improvements like the creation of the center’s after school programs and the nine-week intensive Summer Arts Conservatory as well as several structural improvements including the construction of the art gallery, a music hall with practice studios and renovations to the Black box theater.
Because of his dedication to the center, Marshall became its namesake in 2023. As director, he had changed that name from the Model City Cultural Arts Center to the African Heritage Cultural Arts Center in the mid-‘90s.
Alums of the program include Liberty city natives Academy Award-winning screenwriter Tarell Alvin McCraney and former artistic director of Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater Robert Battle. Former Opa-locka mayor Matthew Pigatt and former Miami-Dade County police department director Stephanie Daniels also attended the program.
READ: ‘Cultural icon.’ Marshall Davis has been nurturing young Black artists in Miami for 40 years
“There are many stories that give the kids confidence and make them competent and give them a sense that ‘I can’ attitude, that if I set my mind to it’s just a process,” Davis said. “That’s what art always teaches us, a process of developing, creating, designing, and they’re doing that thinking even subconsciously. It works for them.”
Sunday’s celebration will share scenes of the documentary An Instrumental Start: A Model for the Nation, which documents the history of the center and featuring alums Battle and McCraney, and past volunteers Phylicia Rashad and Savion Glover.
Theodore Braun, one of the documentary film’s producers, said the vision was to take what Davis has created and spread the message that cultural arts centers, community and childhood organizations with a focus on the arts is a solution to many problems communities, cities, and parents face with regard to childhood development. “When you put an instrument in a child’s hand, you see how that child transforms over the course of several weeks to several years to decades,” Braun said, adding that many children who participate in programming at the Marshall Center from a very young age come back and volunteer.
“The more interesting part is even less about the arts, it’s more about the types of people that these kids become after going through this process,” Braun said of the documentary. “They’re focused, they’re disciplined, they’re fun, and they’re experiencing this in a location that has an emphasis on being away from your phone or your device. They’re there engaged.”
Julien said she hopes in the future the center can have a school associated with it that will be on the caliber of other performing arts schools such as Juilliard or Berklee. “People have done such great things, and I see it attracting even more renowned artists to come in to work with the children,” she said. “There are so many talented children in that area – really, really talented.”
IF YOU GO:
WHAT: Marshall L. Davis Sr. African Heritage Cultural Arts Center’s 50th Anniversary
WHEN: Sunday, Sept. 14 at 6 p.m.
WHERE: Adrienne Arsht Center, Knight Concert Hall, 1300 Biscayne Blvd, Miami, FL 33132
COST: Tickets start at $36
INFO: https://www.arshtcenter.org
This story was originally published September 9, 2025 at 4:30 AM.
