Toilynn O’Neal\ , Founding Director of the Robert O’Neal Multicultural Arts Center\, host s a discussion about the significance and importance of Black Art Collect ives and movements\, with a distinguished panel of Black artists and hist ory-holders including artist Jimi Jones\, artist/educators Annie Ruth and James Pate\, and Cincinnati-born Kamoinge Workshop photographer\, Beufor d Smith. (Please see bios below.) The panel will explore African American cultural and historical experience through their creative lens\, and the transformative ways African American artists use their voices to make an impact in their communities and beyond.
\n6:30–7 p.m.: Black Futures Series: Creativity in Dialogue spoken word performances in the Western and Southern G
alleries (G232 and G233)
7–8 p.m.: Panel discussion in Fath Auditori
um
8–9 p.m.: Public reception in the Castellini Room\, adjacent to F
ath Auditorium.
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Free. Limited seating.
\nThis event is part of the
O’Neal was recently recognized as one of the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber's "We Are Making Black History" campaign honorees. Other awards and recogni tion include the MAC Award for Diversity and Leadership in the Arts from the Multicultural Awareness Council (MAC) of the Cincinnati Symphony Orch estra\, Gold Star Chili's "Flavor Maker\," the NAACP Arts and Education A ward\, Cincinnati USA Convention &\; Visitors Bureau's "Wendel P. Dab ney Spirit Award\," Cincinnati Who's Who in Black Cincinnati for the Arts \, Kenton County (KY) Award for Art Education\, Leading Women Award for A rt/Entertainment (Women Fund Greater Cincinnati Foundation)\, Cincinnati YWCA Rising Star Recipient\, Cincinnati Herald Nefertiti Award\, Eye of t he Artist Foundation "Dada Rafiki" Award\, Outstanding Woman of America\, and an Applause ImageMaker Emerging Leader Recipient.
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Jimi Jones\, is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Design\, Architecture\, Art\, and Planning and a retired P&\;G Art Director. A founding member of the Neo-Ancestralist art movement in Cincinnati\, he has had numerous shows including at the Contemporary Arts Center\, the Wi lber Jennings Gallery in New York\, and a one man show at the Springfield Museum of Art. Jimi has a studio at the Carl Solway Gallery building in downtown Cincinnati. \n
James Pate was born in Birmingham\, Alabama\, and raised in Cincinnati\, where he attended the Art Academy of Cincinnati. Pate has been a recipient of an Ohio Arts Coun cil Individual Excellence grant and two Montgomery County Individual Arti st Fellowships. For the past ten years\, Pate has created large-scale cha rcoal drawings and scratchboard pieces\, and is widely known for his idio syncratic Techno-Cubism style\, which fuses immaculate realism with spati al abstraction. Pate currently lives\, works\, and teaches in Dayton\, Oh io\, where he designs instructional methods for encouraging at-risk stude nts to stay in school for the Dayton Public Schools. He is also engaged i n graphic design projects and fine arts production.
\nAnnie Ruth is an internationally respected artist and arts educa tor. Her work positively influences audiences in Europe\, Africa\, and th roughout the United States. Her arts curriculum sets are used in educatio nal and cultural institutions around the world. She earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies from National University in San Diego\, California and studied graphic design at the University of Cincin nati\, College of Design Architecture and Art. Annie Ruth has received cr itical acclaim for her work in the community.
\nBeuford Smith—one of the fourteen early members of the Kamoinge Worksh op featured in the major museum exhibition Working Together: T he Photographers of the Kamoinge Workshop —was born and raised in Cincinnati\, Ohio. A self-taught photographer\, S mith began freelancing in the late 1970s. He is the founder of Cesaire Ph oto Agency and a founder and chief photo editor of the Black P hotographers Annual (1973-1981). He has t aught photography at Cooper Union\, Hunter College\, and the Brooklyn Mus eum. Smith served as staff photographer for Emmanuel Baptist Church from 1995-2007. He is a former President (1997-2003) and member (1965-2005)\, and now president emeritus of Kamoinge\, Inc. Smith spearheaded the Kamoi nge collective’s effort to achieve 501(c)3 status and facilitated collect ing photos by Kamoinge members for the book The Sweet Breath o f Life\, edited by Frank Stewart. Smith s erved on the curatorial committee for the Committed to the Ima ge exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 2 001 and on NYFA’s photography panel in 2002. He is also a former Advisory Board member of En Foco\, Inc. (2005-2012). Smith received a New York Fo undation for the Arts Fellowship in 1990 and 2000\, a LightWork Artist-in Residence Fellowship in 1999 and an Aaron Siskind Foundation Fellowship in 1998\, among other awards. Smith’s collection of photographs and archi val material forms a key historical document on the creative and collabor ative landscapes in which he has been involved in the twentieth and twent y-first centuries.
\ nIf you need accessibi lity accommodations for this program or event\, please email acc ess@cincyart.org. Please contact us at least two weeks in advance to ensure accommodations can be made.
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