"If I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work." These are the words of Augusta Savage, a dedicated artist and teacher who left a unique mark not only on her students, but in the art world as well. She was appointed in 1937 to be the director of the Harlem Community Art Center, the largest center of its kind in the nation. The center provided a place where African Americans could learn about their culture through studying the arts. But Savage also believed strongly that black artists should not look solely to black history for inspiration.

Gamin, by Augusta Savage, 1929

The creation of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a government program that created jobs by paying artists to teach and produce art, allowed artists like Savage to make a living through their art. Her most famous work is Boy on a Stump, made in the 1930s. Savage was too poor to cast her sculptures in bronze (a common practice used to finish and preserve clay sculptures), so only a few of her sculptures have survived.