GIVING

Monthly pARTner opportunity

The King’s Canvas has started monthly pARTners - a program where individuals who give a monthly donation of any amount will receive a quarterly print of original work of art by an artist in The King’s Canvas’ network. Prints will be 8x10, perfect for your own home or office or as a gift for art-lovers and supporters of black artists alike. To become a monthly pARTner and start receiving your quarterly art in the mail, sign up at the button below.

GET OFF THE BUS CAMPAIGN

Washington Park was once a vibrant and thriving community. Residents had a conglomerate of amenities that included commercial, retail, and non-retail developments. However, the construction of interstates i65 and i85 dismantled the neighborhood and became a catalyst for economic disenfranchisement.

Since the mid-60s and early 70s, a community deeply rooted in civil rights advocacy has not recovered. On the Selma to Montgomery March Trail, Oak Street’s once thriving commercial corridors lay vacant.

In 2018, The King’s Canvas converted one of these vacant suites into an art studio. This commercial property has three additional vacancies. Many visual artists have graced the studio with a renewed passion for creating beautiful art. In 2020, during the height of the global pandemic, artists Winfred Hawkins, Nathaniel Allen, and The King’s Canvas’ founder, Kevin King, painted a mural welcoming visitors to West Side Montgomery. Each year, tourists travel from Saint Jude to the Capitol following the Selma to Montgomery March Trail. As they ride past Washington Park, they pass a rich history that isn’t often told.

The King’s Canvas is an organization that employs creative placemaking strategies as an entryway to address economic development issues in historically disenfranchised communities. Creative placemaking is a process where community members, artists, arts and culture organizations, community developers, and other stakeholders use arts and cultural strategies to implement community-led change. Since planting in the Washington Park Community, The King’s Canvas is credited with increasing sales for local businesses and motivating local stakeholders to explore placing their businesses in vacant spaces. The goal of the Get Off The Bus Campaign is to bring in outside dollars by encouraging tourists to pull over, get off the bus, engage in the arts, and patronize local businesses. By increasing community and tourist visibility, the Washington Park small business district can thrive once again!

Our plans

We plan to transform our current shared art studio and gallery space into an art gallery and retail space. The community will continue to use our welcome mural and green space for backdrop pictures, video shoots, and outside events.

Tourists are also continually searching to purchase local art from within the communities that possess such monumental history. We plan to relocate our current studio to the back of the commercial space. The larger and more functional area will host more art students and give a conducive space for artist development and entrepreneurial classes. The community will utilize our green space for art markets, concerts, block parties, and family gatherings.

A local black-owned business will occupy the space adjacent to The King’s Canvas gallery and studio. High school students will have the opportunity to work and earn money while building community as they meet patrons from across the globe. A locally-owned lunch time restaurant, owned and operated by a successful community business owner is also opening. These elements will not only encourage tourists to stop but enjoy themselves as they learn about Montgomery’s history and future.

What will it take to make this happen? Your partnership. In order to go from where we are to where we want to go, we need -

$50,000 – Art Studio Renovations
$30,000 – Art Gallery and Retail Space Renovations
$20,000 – Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning
$15,000 – Green Space Buildout and Deck (COMPLETE)
$25,000 – Façade Improvements and Wood Deck (COMPLETE)
$10,000 – Parking Lot (COMPLETE)
$150,000 – Total

If you would like to donate in-kind through construction, HVAC, landscaping, construction, etc. please contact us at kevin@thekingscanvas.org.

To make a donation to our overall efforts, click the “Donate Now” button in the top right hand corner of this page, or send your fully tax deductible gift to

The King's Canvas
3066 Zelda Road PMB 412
Montgomery AL, 36106

Your gift is an investment in art, an investment in people, and an investment in community. Thank you for your investment.