Sculpture History: Artist Edward Barnes forms a lasting heritage through art and teaching – 225 Baton Rouge

• From Bre Pizzolato
• February 11, 2025

“I’m the best An art teacher you will ever have, “Edward Barnes told a room full of students on his first day at Glen Oaks High School in the fall school. While the desegregation began in the school year 1963-64, it was not until 1970 that the desegregation of schools in East Baton Ruzh began seriously after an order of the federal court.

During the same period, Barnes enrolled in LSU to win a master’s degree in fine arts with a concentration of sculpture. Despite the men’s warnings about a prejudiced department head, he applied for a quiet determination with his signature. This professor was his most difficult critic, rewarding Barnes the only B in his school career -a fact that he is proud of after holding his transcripts for decades to serve as evidence. He recalls a decisive moment in the class when the professor rejects his sculpture as inadequate. Disappointed, Barnes made a bold modification, killing the entire right hand of the bust. “The professor came back and said,” That’s good, “he recalls. “He taught me the way I learned my students then: You have to take the risk.”

In 1972, Barnes became the first black American to win both a master’s degree and a master’s degree in fine arts from LSU. During his 30-year teaching career, he has shaped the artistic trips of students in the parish of Eastern Baton Rouge and serves as a director of the Baton Rouge Magnet High art programs.

Outside the classroom, he works tirelessly on ordered sculptures and paintings, with many parents wanting private lessons for their children. Friends, family and colleagues wondered why he accepted his work at Glen Oaks when so many other artistic opportunities were waiting for him. “I was dedicated to teaching,” he says.

Born in Lakeland, where his father worked as a shareholder, Barnes is old from a room in a nearby church in the fifth grade. He notes that when he grew up, he was friends with Michael Gaines, brother of the famous author Ernest J. Gaines and finds many parallels between their life stories. Recognizing the importance of education, his parents moved his family – Barnes and his two sisters – to Baton Rouge, where he could attend a middle and high school. Early and often his grandfather, a preacher and his father, a mechanic and performer of bricks, planted deep respect for learning. “I was 10 years old when my grandfather died, but he would spend time showing me how to paint mules and little cats,” Barnes recalls. “I mean he was really talented. And he was also a good preacher. “

Barnes behaved firmly about the lessons he had learned from his parents and grandparents. As it often does the calling from above, teaching felt as natural as breathing for him.

Shortly after retiring from the classroom, he opened the Beauregard Gallery and began teaching a Sunday school at the Baptist Church of the great King David, where he still attended and taught. Today, Barnes is a well -known artist and sculptor whose abstract and contemporary works, both in painting and in sculpture, leave a lasting impression. They reveal his intellectual perspectives on social conditions and deep religious beliefs.

For decades, he has inspired students, museums, colleagues, family and friends to see art as an “expression of the human spirit.” Through his work, he captured beauty, preserves history and creates a heritage as a timelessness as the sculptures he appreciates.

This story was originally published by INGISTER February 3 to keep up with INGISTERSubscribe to the free INGISTER@Home E-newsletter here.