Newtown Alive Celebrates Newtown History and Heroes with Legacy Reception
Jessika Ward
Jetson Grimes, Manasota ASALH presidents, Johnny Hunter Sr., Shelia & Fredd Atkins, Walter Gilbert, and the City of Sarasota Economic Development Office were the 2020 Legacy Honorees.
“It was a great opportunity to thank several leaders who have offered to our team advice, time and support. We cannot do this work alone,” Vickie Oldham, the President of the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition, said Monday.
Lois & David Stulberg Gallery is currently home to a new exhibition that features work created by 23 African-American artists. The exhibition is called Spectrum: A Celebration of Artistic Diversity. Paintings, quilts, prints, sculptures, and drawings created by Benny Andres, E.M. Bannister, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Romare Bearden, Ernest Crichlow, Joseph Delaney, Robert S. Duncanson, Gaye Ellington, Gale Fulton-Ross, Frederick Jones, Lois Mailou Jones, Ronald Joseph, Jacob Lawrence, Richard Mayhew, Eleanor Merritt, Charles Ethan Porter, Faith Ringgold, Aminah Robinson, Therman Statom, James Van Der Zee, and Charles White.
“The event was a celebration for Newtown Alive and a ‘coming out party’ for the Sarasota African American Cultural Coalition, Inc,” said Oldham.
Newtown Alive is a not-for-profit organization, the result of research conducted by historians, a cultural anthropologist, an architectural historian, and a preservationist. These individuals joined volunteers in combing the area’s archives and repositories to collect information about Newtown and Overtown’s history. The initiative is preserving the history of the Newtown community.
“Our next step is to open a center and history museum where black heroes and she-roes are honored. There will be workshops, exhibits and performances celebrating our accomplishments locally and globally,” said Oldham.
This will be the first African American museum in Sarasota. Oldham says her team is settling on a location for the museum and completing a strategic plan before they begin fundraising. Her team is also completing inventory of historic buildings in Newtown, creating a research report, conducting oral history interviews, and creating educational materials.
Doctors, teachers, journalists, community members, business owners, representatives, advocates, and activists filled Ringling College of Art and Design’s Lois & David Stulberg Gallery on January 18, 2020. Art, colors, food, music and African dance were used to celebrate the Newtown community and its heroes at Newtown Alive’s Legacy Reception, kicking off Martin Luther King Jr. weekend in a significant way.
