Afton Battle Appointed Director Of The Land School And General Manager Of Rebuild Foundation
Afton Battle Appointed Director Of The Land School And General Manager Of Rebuild Foundation
By Tia Carol Jones
Afton Battle has been appointed to the role of Director of The Land School and General Manager of Rebuild Foundation. She said that being part of Rebuild means a great deal to her. It is the second job she has had where she feels like she can authentically be herself.
“The organization is rooted in authenticity and genuine practice of providing and being the resource, but also the beacon, the foundation, for Black arts and culture and community,” she said.
The Land School opened in September of 2025. It was once the site of St. Laurence Elementary School. Now, it is being used as a space for programming and artistic expression and experimentation. The Land School is operated by the Rebuild Foundation, which was founded in 2010 by Theaster Gates as a platform for art, cultural development and neighborhood transformation. In addition to the Land School, the Rebuild Foundation operates the Stony Island Arts Bank, the Dorchester Art + Housing Collaborative and the Kenwood Gardens.
Battle said her role with Rebuild Foundation can be traced back to Mila Gibson, the Amarillo Opera and the foundation she had as a young person instilled in her. She said she is the administrator that she is now because she was taught the importance of giving back, service, stewardship of gift, bringing community into the things a person is doing and representation. She said, her experiences also grounded the foundation of her personal and professional beliefs.
Battle is a classically trained singer, with degrees in vocal performance. She came to music on her own, but with some support and guidance. A Texas native, she competed in a Miss Juneteenth pageant, singing for the talent portion. She began taking singing lessons with Mila Gibson, Founder of the Amarillo Opera, who Battle says identified her talent as a singer and encouraged her to follow singing as an educational path. Battle fell in love with Opera after seeing La Traviata.
Gibson also encouraged her students to give back and be stewards in the community. Battle found herself in community and being of service in the community, in connection to the arts.
As a professional singer, Battle offered to do outreach to sing at schools and churches as a way to give back and to be a representation of Black girls within the classical music space. Battle moved from singing to higher education, wanting to move into arts administration, specifically opera, which was her chosen art form.
She landed at the National Museum of Mexican Art, then at the Joffrey Ballet, an off-Broadway theatre in New York City. She still wanted to be in the classical music and opera genre. She became the general director and artistic director of Fort Worth Opera, then served as Vice President of Lyric Unlimited and Artistic Operations at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Battle said that as a Black woman in her role with Rebuild and the Land School there is the culmination of the dream she has been seeking for a long time. That dream is to bring arts and culture in with community and in with serving and being of service to Black artists and the Black community. She said it feels like she has arrived and reached the moment that for 20 years she has been seeking to find.
Her vision is to be of service to the artists, the community, the land that the Land School sits on, a steward of the land, of the school, of the programming and the programming partners, as well as being a steward to and for the vision that Theaster Gates has set for the forward trajectory of Rebuild Foundation and The Land School.
“In serving in this role as of Director of The Land School and General Manager of Rebuild Foundation, I have a fantastic opportunity to work so closely with Theaster to bring his vision to life, to be the steward of that on his behalf, while he is here and away, and really to help and support him in charting that course for the organization,” Battle said.
D-Composed and International Anthem are tenant partners at The Land School and offer programming as part of their tenant partnership. The Land School also offers Listening Hours, which are open to the public, from noon to 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday; April Falcon’s yoga takes place Friday mornings and Sunday afternoons.
The Land School is located at 7200 S. Dorchester. For more information about Rebuild Foundation and the Land School, visit https://www.rebuild-foundation.org.
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