News of June 11, 2005
Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts Opens in Stone Mountain
From a paint store to a dance studio: On June 11, 2005, Afeni Shakur's foundation opened its art center in Georgia.
On June 11, 2005, the Tupac Amaru Shakur Center for the Arts opened in Stone Mountain, Georgia. It became the headquarters of the foundation that Afeni Shakur had established in 1997, one year after her son’s death. According to Rolling Stone, the site was located just down the street from the six-bedroom house that Tupac had purchased for his mother.
A Center in Construction Phases
A former paint store became a dance studio, with Tupac’s gold and platinum records hanging on the walls. The former movie theater next door was gutted for the renovation. The grounds included a peace garden with woodland trails across six acres. In September 2005, NME wrote that the first of three planned construction phases had opened.
The launch cost around four million dollars. According to attorney Dina LaPolt, 80 percent of that came from proceeds of Amaru Entertainment, meaning Tupac’s posthumous releases. The model was Tupac’s own school days at the Baltimore School for the Arts, as LaPolt had already explained in 2003. Prior to that, the foundation had already hosted an annual performing arts summer camp in the Atlanta area, where actress Jasmine Guy was among the instructors.
What Became of It
The center did not last permanently. Rolling Stone reported in 2016 that the property had been sold the previous December and cleared out by family members. The full story: Foundation and arts center.