JANS – Brandon Bibby, Senior Preservation Architect for the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has signed on to teach architecture to students in the MS Delta. 

The summer project is made possible by a grant to the Alex Foundation from the Mississippi Humanities Council (MHC).  The $5,729.50 grant, Landmarks in Humanities: Teaching Architecture, History and Culture Using Historic Places, will run July 10-25, 2023. 

A financial gift from the Steve Azar St. Cecilia Foundation to Alex Foundation will give rising 7th grade students in the Delta the opportunity to tour The Belmont 1857 (formerly Belmont Plantation). 

They will also explore the Grammy Museum Mississippi in Cleveland. Historian Catherine Gardner will introduce participants to historic Nelson Street in Greenville.

Bibby’s portfolio includes stewarding the preservation, design, and interpretation of sites, including the John and Alice Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, Langston Hughes House in Harlem, Robert’s Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, and King’s Chapel Memorial to Enslaved Persons in Boston. 

In 2022, he was named among the “Ones To Watch” by the American Society of Interior Design.

The mission of Alex Foundation is to engage students to consider careers and entrepreneurial opportunities in architecture and design, and provide training and resources to support them if they decide to pursue the craft state side or abroad. 

The foundation was established in 2010 and named for the late Alex Courtney who had a love for art and design. 

“We will do as much as we can to inspire other youth as Alex would have inspired,” stated his mother, Angela Courtney who serves as executive director. “We will encourage, enlighten, and engender the causes that Alex would want. And we will work patiently, with honesty and integrity, to ensure that our Alex memory is not just a keepsake but a reality through the lives of others.”