Weeklong exhibit highlights best of Black history posters by graphic arts students
Photos submitted
Photo submitted
By St. Clair Murraine
Outlook staff writer
An art exhibit that concluded last weekend was the brainchild of a FAMU professor who wanted to have graphic arts student do more than come up with a logo design for the Black History Alliance organization.
The poster exhibit of Black history, which featured the work of 22 students in the School of Journalism and Graphic Communication, concluded last Friday. The weeklong event took place at Union Bank gallery downtown.
During the first week, the exhibit coincided with LeMoyne’s Chain of Parks Arts Festival.
The collage of Black history expressions featured work that was based on four requirements, starting with the theme “restoring the African American Oral Tradition.” They also had to produce work around the Alliance’s motto “Black History, an important part of American History,” in addition to a Black History Month logo and the Black History Alliance logo.
Among the work presented by the students, one of them was a map of Africa with a tree sprouting from it. There was also a poster that depicted the Tallahassee Bus boycott and Smokey Hollow, a once vibrant self-contained Black community in an area just east of Cascades Park.
A conversation a year ago between Anosh Gill, division director of graphic communication at FAMU, and Priscilla Hawkins who heads up the Black History Alliance, got the idea going. She was referred to him to have his students design a logo for her organization. He took it on and directed his students last fall to approach it as they would for a client.
Sixty-six students started the project before the field was whittled down to 22.
Gill decided to make a competition out of the project. He called on a field of judges that includes representatives from Sachs Media, 3M and Google. The work presented to the judges received great reviews during a virtual announcement of the exhibition.
“I wish each of you nothing but success,” said Breonna Rodriguez, a designer with Google who was one of the judges. “We couldn’t choose everyone to be a winner today but in every one of you I saw a problem solver. I see talent in each of you.”
Brianna Grant took the overall first-place prize of $500. But all of the artists were winners, Gill said.
“They not only created great design work (but) amazing opportunities await them,” he said.
The poster exhibit will become part of the year-round schedule that the Black History Alliance has embarked on, said Hawkins. She started taking recognition of Black history beyond February in 1991 when she lived in Orlando, where she led the first Black History Festival. Years later she moved to Atlanta, taking the concept of a festival in February with her and keeping the recognition of Black history going for the rest of the year.
She eventually returned to Tallahassee and in 2019 she was encouraged to resume a Black History Month Festival. It got off the ground a year later and eventually led to the birth of the Black History Alliance.
With 23 individual supporting the cause, the group formed an advisory council that backed the idea of celebrating Black history every month.
“Black history takes place every day,” Hawkins said. “It’s not just one month of the year and we know that.”
The Alliance’s plan is to focus on Black history in North Florida and South Georgia, Hawkins said.
“Our mission is to deal with the stories, the legacy, landmarks and the legacy of people in this area,” she said.
