Heritage Collection: Photos and Oral Histories

Crealdé School of Art, the Community Foundation of Central Floirda, and the Winter Park Community Center proudly announce the unveiling and dedication of the Hertage Collection: Photographs and Oral Histories exhibition of Monday, January 20th, 2003, Martin Luther King Birthday Weekend, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. at the Ruby Ball Annex of the Winter Park Community Center. The Heritage Collection exhibition is the culmination of a year-long community-based history project celebrating the character, the cultural identity, and the contributions of the West Winter Park community. The Heritage Collection Project Team and Dedication Committee invite the public to the Winter Park Community Center to participate in the unveiling of this important documentation of African American life in West Winter Park.

Over the last decade, the African American neighborhood of West Winter Park (also known as Hannibal Square) has suffered from rapid commerical development, which threatens the rich identity of this historic neighborhood. In an effort to collect and preserve the treasured personal photographs and oral histories of the neighborhood's residents, the Heritage Collection Project Team invited the community to three Community Heritage Days, each held at the Winter Park Community Center. At thses events, professional staff members from Crealdé Scholl of Art expertly copied the old, often fragile, photographs, while oral historians recorded personal stories and memories of the people and places shown in the photographs. Residents shared photographs depicting everyday life in West Winter Park from the 1920's through the 1970's, including historic businesses, churches, family members and community leaders, and neighborhood celebrations. Supported by a generous grant from the Community Foundation of Central Florida, a team of historians, documentary photographers, an anthropologist, and nuberous community volunteers collected and researched over one hundred photographs and oral histories. From this unique collection, over fifty photographs and oral histories were chosen to become part of the exciting Heritage Collection on permanent display at the Winter Park Community Center.

The Heritage Collection: Photographs and Oral Histories Project, the first project of its kind in Central Florida, expands on Crealdé School of Art's ongoing role of providing free, hands-on art insturction to underserved communities by integrating documentary photography, oral history, and visual anthropology to create a permanent heritage exhibition. This permanent exhibition, will create a focal point that speaks of pride in family, community, heritage, and in the positive contributions made by the residents of West Winter Park.

For more information on West Winter Park visit there website at www.hannibalsquare.com

Outreach Update: Recently Completed Programs

Neighborhood Pride: Public Mural Project was recently completed at the Winter Park Community Center. This a community partnership between the Winter Park Community Center and Crealdé's School of Art, is an artistic collaboration by young people from West Winter Park. Led by instructor Rachel Simmons, the students' mural pays homage to some of the important historical events and figures from the Hannibal Square area. The students prepared for the project through lectures by local historian Fairolyn Livingston, documentary photographer Peter Schreyer and community member Ron Moore. Armed with a new perspective and new information, the young artists designed and painted images from the past and present of Hannibal Square. Represented in the mural is the election of 1887 which resulted in the only two African American Aldermen (Frank Israel and Walter Simpson) ever to be voted into office in Winter Park, two of the oldest churches in the neighborhood (Mt. Moriah Missionary Baptist Church and Warner Chapel), and Hannibal Elementary School (now the Winter Park Community Center).N

Storytellers VI, Crealde's award-winning photography outreach program, brought Crealdé together with the teenagers from the Tajiri School of Performing Arts and Academics, located in historic Sanford.

Tajiri School Newest Outreach Partner

Crealdé School of Art is pleased to announce our latest segment of the award-winning photography outreach program, Storytellers. Storytellers VI brings Crealdé together with the teenagers from the Tajiri School of Performing Arts and Academics, located in historic Sanford. The Tajiri School provides academic tutoring, an entrepreneurial training program and a performing arts program for children ages 3 -17 years. The school’s mission is to foster self-respect, self-discipline and self-worth through an integration of their educational programs. The ten-week program is lead by Orlando Sentinel photographer and Crealdé outreach instructor Angela Peterson.
The participants are introduced to storytelling through photography, and use this new skill to explore their community and document their surroundings. The hands-on classes uses photography to give students an opportunity to express themselves in pictures and in words while rediscovering their heritage, neighborhoods, families and friends. They learn how to use professional 35mm cameras, which allow them to complete assignments and field trips to tell the story of their everyday life. The teens develop their film and learn how to print their own photographs in Crealdé’s darkroom facilities. They gather information about their subjects and work with their instructor to develop picture ideas. The resulting photographic exhibition give insight into the student’s perspective of their lives, including images of their environment, children, friends and families. The finished images and words created by the participants will be on display at The Tajiri School in September with an opening reception for the young artists at Tajiri’s Open House on Saturday, September 9, 2000 from 8:00 am - 2:00 pm.
Storytellers serves special populations of at-risk youth and teens from Central Florida’s traditionally minority, inner city and rural communities. This program has been generously sponsored through grants from the Orlando Magic Youth Foundation and the Fanny Landwirth Family Foundation.

Crealdé School of Art is a community-based not-for-profit organization founded in 1975. The school's outreach programming, including the Storytellers series of student exhibitions, is dedicated to bringing community arts to individuals throughout the Central Florida area.

Finally, through funding from the City of Winter Park, Crealdé is now offering an Art Sampler course to the active senior class at the Winter Park Community Center. The seniors, under Outreach Instructor Camilo Velazquez's tutelage have produced wonderful work and are looking forward to continuing the class after the holiday break.

For more information on our classes, workshops, and gallery offerings or to become a Crealdé member please contact our business office.

Please call the Crealdé office at (407) 671-1886 for more information on any of our classes, workshops, or programs.

Neighborhood Pride: Public Mural Project was recently completed at the Winter Park Community Center

Two young outreach participants work on the Winter Park Community Center mural

Story Telling by Denisha Powell, age 15, now on exhibit at the Tajiri School in Sanford, Florida

Peace sign sculpture from Monument Builders Outreach project, led by instructor David Cumbie and installed at the Winter Park Community Center.

The Last Harvest
Traveling Exhibition