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Crealdé’s most unique outreach project,
The Heritage Collection: Photographs and Oral Histories of West Winter Park, is an on-going community based project celebrating the heritage, character, and contributions made by Winter Park’s African American community. Since its inception in 2001, six Community Heritage Days have been held resulting in over 100 framed pieces for the collection. On these special community days, a Crealdé team of historians, cultural anthropologists and documentary photographers collaborate with intergenerational members of the historic Hannibal Square neighborhood.The process:
• Current and former residents bring their family photographs to the Heritage Collection day.
• Anthropologist Dr. Ron Habin and Heritage Collection founder and documentary photographer Peter Schreyer edit and select photographs for inclusion in the Heritage Collection.
• A new negative is made on the spot by taking a new photograph of the historic photograph.
• As the historic photograph is being copied, the contributor is interviewed and taped by historian Fairolyn Livingston.
• A contemporary studio portrait is made of the contributor.
• The photographs are returned that very day—even that very hour!
• The copy of the historic photograph is printed in a conventional darkroom by one of Crealdé’s photographers using archival photographic paper.
• The contemporary portrait of the contributor is also printed in the darkroom by a Crealdé artist.
• The oral history recording is transcribed and a portion is selected to accompany the historic photograph.
• The historic photograph, contemporary portrait, and oral history selection are sent to Baxter Mathews at the Florida Frame house to be matted and framed using archival materials.
• New phases of the Heritage Collection are unveiled and dedicated to the community at the annual Unity Heritage Festival celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King.
This project is modeled after similar efforts conducted by the Los Angeles County Library and represents the first collection of its kind implemented in a Central Florida community. The four completed phases from this on-going project—numbering over 100 framed exhibition pieces—were each dedicated with special ceremonies on Martin Luther King Days January 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2008.
Until the opening of the Heritage Center in April of 2007, the beautiful archival exhibition was housed in the Ruby Ball Annex of the Winter Park Community Center, Crealdé’s oldest satellite teaching site. Today, the Hannibal Square Heritage Center permanently houses The Heritage Collection and its archive!