Elma Lewis, 82; Arts Educator, Mentor to Blacks in Boston
Elma Lewis, 82, a leading arts educator and champion of black culture in Boston, died Jan. 1 of complications from diabetes at her home in the city’s Roxbury section.
Lewis, among the first to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, was a mentor to hundreds of black children at her Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, which she founded in 1950. For more than 30 years, the school offered a variety of courses, including dance, drams, art, music and costume design. At various times and institutions, Lewis taught speech therapy, dance and drama before opening her own school.
Lewis also founded the National Center of African American Artists, a repository for black culture, in Roxbury.
A Boston native, Lewis took voice, piano and dance lessons as a child, and worked her way through college by acting in local theater. She graduated from Emerson College and earned her master’s degree at Boston University’s School of Education.
In 1983, President Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal for the Arts. She was a trustee of Boston’s WGBH, one of the nation’s leading public broadcasting stations.
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