In partnership with the community and the City of Winter Park, Crealdé School of Art operates the Hannibal Square Heritage Center as a tribute to the past, present, and future contributions of Winter Park’s African American community. Through innovative programming in the arts and humanities, The Heritage Center is a neighborhood focal point, archive, and home to The Heritage Collection: Photographs and Oral Histories of West Winter Park. Through Visiting Exhibitions, community-based public art exhibitions, and diverse educational programs, the center inspires all Central Floridians and visitors to our area to become more aware of, respect, explore, and participate in their own community’s history and heritage.  The Heritage Center hosts regular tuition-based classes, including a digital photography classroom, but primarily exists as a service to the greater community and an outreach center for youth and senior classes as listed above and for other community arts-based services as follows:

The Heritage Collection: Photographs and Oral Histories of West Winter Park

Crealdé’s most extensive outreach project is an on-going community based project celebrating the heritage, character, and contributions made by Winter Park’s African American community. During annual Community Heritage Days, the Crealdé team of historians, cultural anthropologists and documentary photographers collaborate with intergenerational members of the historic Hannibal Square neighborhood to collect historically illustrative personal photographs and corresponding oral histories to tell the story of the community. 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. Completed phases from this on-going project are dedicated annually during the City of Winter Park’s Martin Luther King Day Unity Heritage Festival. Originally on display at the Winter Park Community Center, the Heritage Collection became the cornerstone and impetus for building the new Hannibal Square Heritage Center.