- [Announcer] This is a production of WEDU PBS, Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota.

- [Dalia] In this special edition of "WEDU Art Plus", we honor Black History Month with artists of color in our community.

A diverse chamber orchestra visits Sarasota.

- All the struggle that each person had makes us stronger and when we share these struggles, we unify our strengths.

- [Dalia] A pioneering photographer captures black life in America and abroad.

- Probably the most famous photo, although nobody knows about it, is the one of the first meetings between then Vice President Richard Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr. - [Dalia] Preserving history and culture in St. Petersburg.

- There's so many talented African American artists who have very few places to showcase their extraordinary works.

- [Dalia] And a local artist seeks honesty and truth through his paintings.

- [Dean] The environments that I do are a window into poverty and a window into that psychological space in which I emerged out of.

- It's all coming up next on "WEDU Art Plus".

(upbeat music) Hello, I'm Dalia Colon and this is "WEDU Art Plus".

Based in Detroit, the Sphinx Organization transforms lives through the power of diversity in the arts.

The Sphinx Virtuosi is a dynamic chamber orchestra that serves as the organization's flagship performing entity.

In this Emmy award-winning segment, the Sarasota Orchestra hosts as they pay a visit to Sarasota.

(dramatic orchestral music) - The Sphinx Virtuosi is an 18 member ensemble of musicians of color and Latinx, and they speak the language of today's composers.

(dramatic orchestral music) When the opportunity came along, we thought, "Absolutely," it made great sense for us to be a host presenter because of the wonderful tradition of the arts here in Sarasota.

- The Sphinx organization was founded in 1997 by Aaron Dworkin.

At the beginning, it was just the Strings Competition, the Sphinx competition.

- It was really the first to showcase African American and Latinx string players in this country.

It was always an opportunity for these musicians to be heard, to network, to be able to meet other musicians of color, which is huge because in this industry you stand out.

- We were looking at the idea of founding Sphinx and beginning this work in this field, which didn't really exist.

It was, "How can we bring about systemic impact?"

- [Bill] Some of the statistics that we've seen from the League of American orchestras, have shown that there's 1.8 to 2.5% representation of black and Latinx musicians in American orchestras.

- I think that a lot of the ways music has been presented has turned it into a bit of a closed off sort of medium, when in fact the communicative power of the music is quite vast.

(dramatic orchestral music) - I don't think I realized how much I stood out until going to Sphinx because you're just kind of conditioned, "This is just how it is, nine times out of 10."

So to find that one time out of 10 where all of a sudden it's like, "Oh, you look like me.

That's great."

(dramatic orchestral music) - A performance by Sphinx Virtuosi is not like any other orchestra performance.

There's, for one, we are a self conducted string ensemble.

We use that word intentionally.

Self conducted, not un-conducted, 'cause each one of us is our own conductor.

It's a hyper democratic process, our rehearsals.

Ghosting that?

- Every single person shares something.

I never played in anything like that.

Like I was very shy in the beginning, said, "Thierry, what do you think about this?"

And I was like, "Really?

They really want to listen to my opinion?"

- Balancing 18 ideas and personal opinions can be tricky, but I think what's so amazingly unique about this group is that we do it.

It's peaceful, it's respectful, and in return, the performances we give, they're live.

And the audience I think really enjoys to see the way that we communicate on stage.

- When we get together at the beginning of our tours, there's no real like icebreakers.

When I perform with other groups, other orchestras, other places, you kind of have to like have small talk.

You talk about the weather, you talk about traffic, all that kind of boring stuff here.

We drop all of that because we already know why we're here.

- It is truly a family.

I mean, you'll hear everybody say that like, "La familia," but it's true.

We are the crazy family.

We are the Thanksgiving that gets outta control every night, and it's just because it's constant laughter.

We love each other.

We take amazing care of each other and happens on stage and off.

- We feel like it represented in each other because we've had to climb over similar obstacles to be at the level that we're at.

- What makes a family is sharing good moments and bad moments.

All the struggle that each person had makes us stronger.

And when we share these struggles, we unified our strengths.

(dramatic orchestral music) - Well, music in Sarasota's been a long tradition here.

In fact, the Sarasota Orchestra is the oldest continuing orchestra in Florida.

I've been here at the orchestra 22 years.

So I've seen this evolution of the institution, the ability for us to serve a broader and larger demographic region.

It's really been fun to be part of a community where you're part of the growth and the evolution of the art scene.

And that's exactly what's happened here over the last several decades.

(dramatic orchestral music) - It means a lot having this group come to our Sarasota community and bring their passion and their love for the music and their love for all people.

- That's really the key is really making sure that we bring organizations like the Sphinx Organization to these communities so they can see what is possible.

- For me, I have a mission with music to encourage people from my country that they can pursue what they dream.

By Zoom, I teach students that are very far from the big cities.

And my goal in life, actually it's to do a similar organization in Brazil.

I'm working.

- Our community is not just Detroit or Michigan.

We've embarked on this global mission that is the entire world that identifies with our goals.

So if the Sarasota Orchestra or whomever can identify that there are people who can be impacted by having a more global reach and effort in our goals of inclusion, then you shouldn't just stop at your, you know, your town or your neighborhood.

You should be able to go all the way.

(dramatic orchestral music) (crowd applauding) - For more information, visit sphinxmusic.org.

The late Griffith Davis was a renowned photographer, journalist, and US foreign service officer.

Among his friends were giants of the Civil Rights Movement.

And with his lens, he captured many of their public and private moments.

Griff passed away in 1993, but his legacy lives on through his daughter, St. Petersburg resident Dorothy Davis.

(upbeat music) - My dad, Griff Davis, was born in Atlanta, Georgia during segregation or Jim Crow era.

He was born in 1923 and he passed away in 1993.

He started photography in high school in Atlanta, and that's where he met the professor or the teacher who taught him about photography.

And then he became like the student campus photographer.

And that's kind of how he started.

(upbeat music) He took a class with Langston Hughes, who was the visiting professor at what's now known as Clark Atlanta University.

And they struck up a friendship.

And then when my dad graduated, he needed a job and Langston Hughes was working with Ebony.

He was doing stories for Ebony at the time.

And one day he was at a World's Fair where John Johnson, the owner and publisher of Ebony, was asking him, "Do you know anyone I can hire because I'm looking for a roving editor for Ebony?"

He said, "Oh yeah, I got the right person for you."

And then my dad was hired and became the first roving editor for Ebony.

- Ebony Magazine was a monthly periodical that was published about African American life and lifestyle.

For so many African American families it was a reference point for everything that was great about being in the black community.

(upbeat music) - Probably the most famous photo, although nobody knows about it, is the one of the first meeting between then Vice President Richard Nixon and Martin Luther King Jr. And their respective wives, Coretta Scott King and Patricia Nixon, in Ghana during Independence Day celebrations in March, 1957.

That photograph was featured in Tampa Bay Times January 2020 when I opened an exhibition at the Florida Museum of Photographic Arts.

And it was the first time that it had been publicly published.

The reason is that at the time Martin Luther King and Coretta had just finished the bus boycott.

And so the US government did not really want that photograph to be publicized.

And it just so happened that dad grew up with Martin Luther King in Atlanta.

They were, you know, Atlanta boys, right?

And they went to college together at Morehouse.

So it was a real personal and professional moment.

- The uniqueness of this photographer was that he had this connection in two very different lives, and one was his connection with politicians, politicians here in the United States, but also in Africa.

He was very close with the government in Ghana, in Tunisia, and he was very well respected there and parallel with this, he had a very close relationship with poets and writers and actors who represented the top of intelligence in Afro-American culture.

Typically, people who have these artistic connections are not very much connected with politicians.

And so this opened his horizon to photography journalism that is unparalleled by any different journalist.

- As someone growing up with a photographer father, it was a pain in the neck because every five seconds is another photograph, right?

So I now understand he was using me and then my brother as subject to figure out the lighting and the this and the that.

So he did take me to different settings and I did meet a whole lot of different celebrities, I guess you would call 'em, or historical figures, but I didn't know that they were historical figures.

I just thought, "Oh, that's dad's and mom's friend."

That's it.

- There's a photograph of a Sidney Poitier with Griffith Davis standing next to him.

And what's so magical about it is that it is the presence of two men of African descent standing proudly and powerfully in their craft.

So you get an idea of the influence of Griffith Davis because at that point, Sidney Poitier had an acting career and was being recognized as a great actor.

- The winner is Sidney Poitier.

- And there he is side by side with Griffith Davis.

It was a great moment to capture.

- His work was very pioneering.

I think that now is the perfect time to bring it back to our attention.

- We need to be informed about our history and sometimes that information is uncomfortable, but it's also important.

So in the case of Griffith Davis, what's so wonderful is that he fills in the blanks.

- He is bringing light to our existence in a multidimensional way, and I think he's like painting us back into the picture.

(upbeat music) - To learn more, visit griffdavis.com.

Dr. Carter G. Woodson is known as the father of Black History Month.

At the museum of his namesake, visitors can learn the history of African Americans in St. Petersburg and beyond.

Featured artist and USF Professor Dr. Gary Lemons shares his abstract paintings in an exhibition called, "Touch In the Spirit of Love."

(upbeat music) - The Woodson African American Museum is housed in what was once Jordan Park's community center residents of Jordan Park decided late in the 1990s that they would forego their community center so that we might have a space in the city of St. Petersburg that we're calling an African American museum.

(upbeat music) - Celebrate.

The great scholar.

- Dr. Carter G. Woodson, a native of Virginia, was the second African American to graduate from Harvard University.

He was a historian whose passion drove him to preserve African American history.

In 1926, he started what was Negro History Week.

And it wasn't until 1976 that we began celebrating Black History Month.

- He was a profound revolutionary educator, and he was one of those black educators who was willing to stand out for the belief of social justice within an educational arena to teach for liberation.

And that's exactly what he did within an academic context.

So I admire him so much to where the whole idea of naming a museum after him was about an archival representation.

Hold on to those black folks who have changed your life and educated you to believe in African American Black history.

(bright music) - There are so many talented African-American artists who have very few places to showcase their extraordinary works.

We currently have on display the works of Dr. Gary Lemons, and we are excited to host this fabulous array of work.

(bright music) - As an undergraduate student, many, many years ago, I was a studio art and English major.

So I combined my study of literature with my practice of art.

And even though I was trained as a realist, I started to think about painting from a graphic design standpoint and my connection to African ancestry.

And from an abstractionist standpoint, I use patterns of African designs and colors and intermingle those together in the representation of whatever the thematics are that I want to focus on in my paintings.

(bright music) - A body of work created by Dr. Lemons that he introduced me to, I found extraordinary.

The missing element of the human touch during the time of COVID.

And he came up with this body of work where we are reaching out and we're touching.

But more importantly, in his works of art, there are mirrors so that we see ourselves and become a reflection of that spirit of love and the need and the desire to touch - This magnificent moment.

- Since 2016, the city of St. Petersburg has rose a flag in honor of Dr. Carter G. Woodson celebrating Black History Month in a way that it's not celebrated anywhere else in the country.

- City Hall for the entire month of February.

(upbeat music) - Okay, we'll raise the flag now.

(upbeat music) - The Carter G. Woodson Museum is a center place for gathering not only the black community, but the entire community of St. Petersburg as we seek to uplift the history and learn from it so that we can go and do better and create beloved community.

- This is an inclusive city.

We are St. Pete, so that acknowledgement is important on an ongoing basis, - African American museums are locations that represent more than spaces where art is displayed.

They become hubs for community and sharing the stories and passion of the voiceless so often.

We continue to embrace our space in elevating black history and its culture 365 days out of the year.

(bright music) - For more information, visit woodsonmuseum.org.

Dean Mitchell is a watercolor artist who grew up in the small town of Quincy, Florida during the sixties and seventies.

As a young African American, he faced many obstacles.

Inspired by his grandmother who raised him, Dean has become a voice for those who live in poverty and inequity.

(upbeat music) - When I was a kid, I experienced racism very early on, and it's an irony that I used to pray, "If I could do anything with my work, it would help us heal those wounds of racism and segregation."

A lot of these things have shaped my sensibility about what I do.

So a lot of it is not just because I think it's interesting in terms of light and this and that and shadow, which does interest me, but the main overture of about the work is about poverty and the marginalization of people and how those spaces affect our whole sense of self and a space that's been just a part of who I am.

- My name is Matt Cutter.

I'm with Cutter and Cutter Fine Art in St. Augustine, Florida, and I'm also a painter.

We've got a good track record over 10 years of selling hundreds of paintings from Dean.

So I think he's a very strong worthy artist, and I do think he stops people in their tracks and it's very contemplative.

He's not grabbing you with the brightest color.

He's not grabbing you with bells and whistles.

He's grabbing you in a different way.

He's asking you to like come in very slowly, examine what's going on, feel that nuance, and that's what he brings to the table.

If you're 30 feet away, you would say, "That's realism," and it is, it conveys that emotion.

When you look really closely at how he's laid down the watercolor layers, there's a lot of abstraction, there's a lot going on with the design.

What he does, he plays with this dark and light and everything, in my opinion, with Dean's work is keyed in on a strong design that sets up everything for the painting.

(bright music) - Dean Mitchell is beyond that of a master.

If you had one where you say, "This is apprentice and this is a master," well, the apprentice learns how to do this or that, and then once they're able to demonstrate that, then they say, "Oh, okay, now you're a master."

Dean Mitchell is an enigma.

Dean Mitchell was born to do what he does.

When I look at Dean Mitchell's work, I do see science, I do see philosophy, I do see religion because some of those pieces like "Rowena", when you see that particular piece, that is a religious piece, that is an icon that is an actual Mary that you say, "Oh my God, she speaks of humanity."

We're in the world with someone painting like a Andrew Weiss, and in some cases better than Andrew Weiss, come from.

And therein I think lies the, the spiritual quality.

Because if you look at Dean's background, Dean achieved not because of, but in spite of, in spite of is when God takes place.

Therein lies the miracle.

(bright music) - I was raised by my grandmother from 11 months old, and so I was sort of a highly active child, and so I would often walk to town with her, you know, 'cause I grew up in the panhandle of Florida in a little town called Quincy, and I had no idea of the kind of wealth that was in Quincy because we basically stayed in the black community.

A lot of us, when we first got our first bikes, we would ride over in the area and we would see these huge mansions.

And so I began to look at the wealth discrepancy, and I said, "How could somebody have a house that big?"

Really didn't, you know, didn't really understand it.

But I think through the years, as you become more educated, more socialized, you begin to recognize how you fit into the social structure or the social order of things.

And then when Martin Luther King started emerging on the scene, and we would watch him on television.

So a lot of these things have shaped my sensibility about what I do because I do a lot of things.

A lot of the environments that I do are a window into poverty and a window into that psychological space in which I emerged out of.

As a teacher Tom Harris, there was four of us who were really interested in art, and he introduced us to local art competitions.

And so we were often the only black people at these shows with Mr. Harris and his wife, who were Caucasian.

- I called it a crucible of competition, you know, which can be good or bad because it puts pressure on kids.

He was even as focused then as he is now, but there was so many negatives.

A lot of it was the black white thing.

He paints what he wants to paint because it feels the need in here to make a visual statement about what's going on.

And that's the strength of Dean Mitchell's painting.

Half of his focus and intensity is based on, "What I'm doing is is extremely important and it's never been done before.

And whenever or however, whatever the recognition is, I have to do it my way."

Which to me is almost a definition of what art is and what art's supposed to be.

- I will be gone at some point, but what I leave, will it really make the world better in some ways and make us examine our own human behavior toward one another?

It's that kind of troubling world that feeds my passion to try to figure out how to derail some of the destructive behavior.

(bright music) - Explore more at deanmitchellstudio.com.

And that wraps it up for this episode of "WEDU Arts Plus."

To view more, visit wedu.org/artsplus, or follow us on social.

I'm Dalia Colon, thanks for watching.

(upbeat music)