- This week on "Curate".

- [Clyde] The arts is something that brings people together.

And sometimes we find out that in the humblest, at the lowest level of the arts, is where the community really grows.

- [Sandra] My mom had a spirit of God, and that's what she put into her artwork.

- [Truly] Students came together under the mentorship of a teaching artist, as well as their classroom teachers.

(upbeat music) - Thanks for tuning in.

I'm Jason Kypros.

- And I'm Heather Mazzoni.

We can't wait for you to see the artists in this episode.

- And speaking of, if it feels like Clyde Santana is everywhere these days, it's probably because he is.

- From painting murals to teaching theater classes and a little bit of everything in between, Santana is the epitome of a public artist.

- Inspired by life's experiences, he celebrates art's power to unite, heal, and bring dignity to the community around him.

- I'm a public artist.

Public arts mean that you go out there and you don't own the work anymore, it's for the community.

(upbeat music) I went to Springfield College.

I needed a job, and I wandered over to the art department building 'cause I heard they needed somebody to clean up, and I ran into the chair person, and he said, "You think you wanna transfer?

I have an art and urban life program."

I said, "Art and urban life program?

What is that?"

And he said, "You make art relative to the work and the people and the type of environment that's out here.

Plus, I have a job for you too," (laughs) you know?

"I can give you 20 hours a week."

Well, that sparked my interest, 'cause I was broke.

(upbeat music) This first mural was started in 1971 at the African American Cultural Center at Springfield College.

And I started painting it in 1971, I finished it in early spring of 1972, and that was the beginning of me painting murals.

I was a loner.

I was kind of a quiet kid.

After I graduated, I became a traveling muralist, and I ended up down here.

I went to the police department, I tested for the Norfolk PD.

And when I got in, I started to see there was a few people that I saw in the community, they were doing art and they were doing theater.

And I hooked up with a little, small group.

I can design sets and I can write plays and I can work with teaching.

That was my beginning of teaching writers.

And I started taking writing classes and playwriting and screenwriting in New York.

And I was starting to date my first wife, Gail Davis, and she started to go with me, and she got into it.

We met at UMass.

Several years later, I ran back into her after I graduated, and we found out that, basically, both of us needed each other.

And we ended up eventually getting married, and several months later, we had a child, my son, and that was probably one of the happiest moments in my life.

(gentle music) Children's theater didn't have money, but I kept saying, "If you're working with these kids and we can give them a nice program and we can do plays that let them do the work, let them be the hams on the stage."

So, create a fantasy world for them.

And I said, "Well, I know how to do that."

And, you know, as a result, the kids just loved it.

During that time, we had Derrick Williams and Taminita Booth.

She went to the Mickey Mouse Club, and Derrick Williams went to "Wicked" on Broadway and "The Fully Monty" and "House of Mormon".

At the same time now, my wife is getting sick, so I had to run back and forth to chemo.

And she gets worse and worse with the cancer.

She was into working with other people and helping 'em, because some of the young playwrights would come to her and say, "Hey, how do I get this done, how do I do it?"

And she would just sit there, and even when she had to cancer, she would help them through.

When everything went upside down and she really took a turn for the worst, I realized that I was gonna be in the house.

I gotta do something to keep my sanity.

And I started painting, and it gave me something to focus on other than all the death and despair that was around me.

And then she passed, and I said, "I need to do more painting."

(upbeat music) This is from Dr. Valli Meeks, when she was in Rwanda.

You see her with the little mirror and one of the tools that you do for cleaning.

She had gone over to Rwanda to do some work.

Harvard Initiative was doing the dental school.

They were creating the first dental school in Rwanda, you know, right after the genocide.

There's a happiness in this clinic.

So I had to make it so that in this world that they created, it was like I wanted to give her the feeling of happiness.

There was dignity, because that was one of the things that she wanted them to have.

She did not want 'em to walk out of there without their dignity.

One of the patients that she had, they had asked her, "Who was the person that had the most influence on your life?"

And said, "Dr. Meeks.

She gave me back my smile."

So I thought about it, I said, "No, this always has to be about smiling."

There's the teeth here.

They're bright.

There's the toothbrushes.

And, you know, she always used to tell them, "You gotta brush!"

And of course, the sunlight, and they're happy up here, and the angel was up there.

And we don't have enough public servants that care about people.

We need to write more stories about public servants and people, just ordinary people who rise to greatness because of what they give.

We didn't know each other that well.

I was working with a group of alumni people, so we were trying to get a scholarship.

So we were calling around the people we knew, and I happened to know Valli.

You know, we just became, like, phone pals.

But she always encouraged me to keep painting and keep doing this.

She pushed me.

I think it's the support that she gave me.

And finally, I started going up and seeing her, and we ended up, you know, coming together.

She was that voice that was kind of like a grief counselor for me.

Valli was a lifeline to me.

We ended up getting married.

I look at it like, yeah, you know, I will never forget Gail, but I've moved on to a new life.

(upbeat music) I'm just happy that Norfolk gave me this exhibit.

I've had people tell me that they have seen it, you know, and they loved it.

So I think that the arts is something that brings people together, and sometimes, we find out that in the humblest of circumstances, at the lowest level of the arts, is where the community really grows.

- Enjoy a musical journey through five decades with WFOS, AKA, Time Machine Radio, where you'll hear a mix of swing, doo-wop, jazz, beach music, blues, rock, and more, on 88.7, 99.3, and whro.org/timemachine.

If you're a regular "Curate" viewer, then you know the work of Mary Onley, better known as Mama Girl.

- Her story, and her unique and beloved art, was featured in "Curate" season two.

- Now, Mama Girl passed away more than six years ago, but she has not been forgotten.

- Thanks to the Baron and Ellin Gordon Art Gallery at ODU, Mama Girl remains as relevant as ever, with an exhibition that honors this Eastern Shore legend and her divinely inspired creations.

(upbeat music) - She really made a difference in a lot of people's lives that I probably cannot even fathom.

My mom had a spirit of God.

She walked with God, she talked with God, and that's what she put into her artwork.

That's what she put into me and my siblings.

- One of Mama Girl's favorite Bible verses was Psalm 100, "Make a joyful noise."

And she made her own joyful noise through her art and through her preaching and just through interacting with people at art shows.

She made what she saw.

- She's telling you her world, from the crab picking, the oyster shucking, to the fields.

- This is one of my favorite pieces, the oyster shuckers.

With the people working in such close proximity, it was kind of a social scene, and she just did such a great job portraying these things in her art.

- I couldn't help but to cry, because there were so many pieces I hadn't seen in years that were from the beginning, when she first started.

(gentle piano music) - We developed a friendship, and she had just gotten back from a hospital visit where she'd had a biopsy, and her cancer had come back, and she was a little bit more introspective and quiet in this interview, but still, she was resolute in, like, whatever God brings to her life, whatever comes her way, you know, that's what's meant to be.

- He just hugged me, looked like he were gonna cry.

I said, "Not my problem, we got faith."

The spiritual side, from the beginning... - It was really a nice time that we had together.

She died six months later and we never used the interview, so it sat on a shelf, gathering dust.

I gave a copy of it to her son years later, when I saw him.

(upbeat music) - He hands me a thumb drive of his last interview with my mother that I've never seen.

Man, do you know how many tears came from that?

- [Mark] When Cullen and ODU decided to do this show, it became this great resource little piece that we could bring out and see her talking, and talking about her life and talking about her art, which to me is so organic and so beautiful, and so happy that it could have a life.

- So I had no choice but to be a part of this, because these guys are Mama Girl lovers, man.

They really love her!

- Part of it was the spirit telling her what to do.

You know, when the spirit said, "Paint a pig green," she said, "What do you mean?

Why would I paint a pig green?

That's the silliest thing I've ever heard."

But it persisted, and she finally gave in, and she learned over time that if she would listen, then those are the things that people would want to buy.

You know, when chickens weren't selling well, the spirit said, "Put boots on the chickens," and when she put boots on the chickens, she sold out.

A lot of her work was a combination of requests from customers and the spirit talking to her.

- My mother would make a tree and she would put the ladies' heads.

We used to call her the United Nations, the UN, because Mama would say, "Women secretly run everything.

We can't tell the men."

That's what she would say.

- She loved portraying groups of women of all different skin colors together, coming together, forming communities, supporting one another.

Watermelon is one of the most pervasive elements throughout all of her work.

When she was little, she would spit the watermelon seeds on the ground, like probably we all have, but because she lived in an agricultural area, she actually had the opportunity to see that what had come out of her mouth was growing into something nurturing, reproductive.

And that was very important to her, it became a metaphor for planting word seeds in other people.

- [David] Mama said, "Every conversation is a seed.

Share your love of God, share your love of community, share your love of just people in general."

- Which again relates to her ministry, it relates to her interaction with people at art shows, because she just loved people, and she loved encouraging people.

So when you see watermelon trees growing in her art, my feeling is that that's a symbol of positive growth for our culture, our society, for us as people.

- Wait a minute, can I do something?

Can I hold that cat for just a minute?

I just wanna bless this cat with a kiss.

(smooches) Woo!

(upbeat music) - At some point, working on the show, my body started waking up at 3:30 in the morning, and I didn't know why.

It was very odd.

And that kept happening.

And I told Sandra, and she nonchalantly just said, "Yep, that was her time of the morning, always the early bird."

And I told David, and David said, "She chose you."

He said, "None of this would've happened if she hadn't chose you."

- Me and Cullen spent about 10 hours on the phone.

And after that, man, I just knew that that was something genuine, more in depth inside of him.

So yeah, so, talking to him, that got into my soul.

So now he gets all the support I can give him.

- Just said, "All right, Mama Girl, here I am.

Let me know what you want in the show."

And, you know, in telling the story of her life, it was a very emotional journey, because she had a lot of challenges in her life, she endured a lot, but she always persisted, she always found a way to just be a champion.

- [Sandra] For anyone who has a piece of her artwork or anyone who even got a chance to meet her or even come into this exhibit to see it, they can feel what she put in there, because every piece, she put a part of herself in it.

- [Heather] Mama Girl's exhibit remains on display at the Baron and Ellin Gordon Gallery through May 10th.

- Welcome to "Curate Presents", I am Kayda Plus, and I am here with Truly Matthews from Virginia MOCA.

How are you, Truly?

- I'm great.

Thank you for having me.

- How long have you been working at Virginia MOCA?

- I've been at Virginia MOCA for over 10 years now.

- Okay, what do you do there?

- I am Deputy Director and Director of Education and Engagement.

So, that means I work closely with the leadership team and our executive director for the kind of the overall strategic vision of the museum.

But I am really deeply engaged in education initiatives, and I have a really great team of educators that I'm so proud to work with, and we oversee things like our interactive gallery space, which is our ARTlab, school and educator programs, studio programs, art camps, and any kind of public talk or event that really brings the artwork to life.

- Maybe I should have asked, what don't you do at Virginia MOCA?

'Cause that sounds like a lot.

What do you guys got going on now?

- We have a exhibition in our main gallery space by the artist, Duke Riley.

It's called "Duke Riley, O'er the Wide and Plastic Sea".

And he's a Brooklyn based artist.

He explores a lot of themes, nautical themes, maritime themes, explores the history of the US Navy, and is really into tattoo culture.

So, we've found a lot of connections to Hampton Roads, so we wanted to bring him to our community.

- How is the museum engaging with the community on this project?

- Students from Seatack Elementary and the Environmental Studies program high school students, came together under the mentorship of a teaching artist, as well as their classroom teachers, and they created nature journals.

So actually going out to Pleasure House Point, exploring the kind of urban watershed that surrounds the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art.

So, going on field trips, observing nature, documenting it in these handmade nature journals, and then that later served as inspiration for this final sculpture.

When we started to work with these elementary school students, they were fourth graders, and now they are fifth graders.

And, you know, that's a long time for a kid that age, you know?

Time is relative, so time feels really, really long when you're that age.

So it actually served as a point of reference for the students to kind of reflect back on maybe what they did last year, because a whole summer went by.

We hope it serves as inspiration for other teachers, for other organizations in the community.

- I hope so too.

I'm inspired by it.

I haven't even seen it yet.

I really feel like the kids are lucky to have you guys.

I wish I had something like that going on when I was in school.

- Yeah.

Virginia MOCA's just as lucky because of the amazing teachers that we've worked with, right?

Like, myself and my team can, like, conceptualize this great idea, like, "Oh we have this artist and this idea," but we really rely on the teachers to make that idea come to life.

You know, these teachers know their students, they know what they're capable of, and I think it's really a testament to our strong partnerships with Chris Freeman from the Environmental Studies program, Marie Culver and Maggie Smith from Seatack Elementary, that's really allowed this project to become what it was, because of their commitment over the past two years.

- How long is the Duke Riley exhibition gonna be running for?

- You could come to Virginia MOCA and view the Duke Riley exhibition through August, 2025.

- So, the Virginia MOCA, it has something going on.

There's some type of new move or something like that.

What's going on?

- So, 2026, Virginia MOCA's going to move locations.

We're actually moving to a new building that's being built right now on the campus of Virginia Wesleyan University.

- [Kayda] Okay, so what inspired this transition?

- If you were to say, I don't know, draw a five mile circle around our building now, most of it would be in the ocean.

So, moving to the campus of Virginia Wesleyan, we're almost right in the middle of Hampton Road.

So, more connected to Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, as well as still being in Virginia Beach and connecting to those Virginia Beach communities.

- So what are the benefits gonna be of the new space?

- So, if you look at the square footage of our current museum compared to where we're going, our galleries are larger, and I'm really excited about our larger space for our ARTlab, which is our interactive gallery.

Right now at our current building, it's kind of tucked away.

I call it the second most creative use of a hallway.

(Kayla chuckles) And visitors really, really love that space, and it's something we've recognized.

So we're bringing ARTlab to the forefront of the museum.

It's actually gonna be kind of right there at the entrance when you enter the new building.

So, kind of highlighting all the work that our education team does as far as bringing the work in the main galleries to life in an interactive way.

- All right, Truly, thank you so much for stopping by.

- Thanks for having me.

I enjoyed it.

- So did I.

Now let's check out a film about Virginia MOCA's latest project, Nature's Witness.

- Over the past two years, we've been working with students from Seatack Elementary, and also students from the Environmental Studies program at the Brock Center.

We wanted these students to get outside.

We wanted to see them witnessing sea level rise.

We wanted to see them witnessing the trash that is washing ashore.

We wanted them to see and experience that themselves, and not just walk by it in this cursory way, but, like, document it.

- There are a lot of artists out there who don't really focus on nature, and then a lot of scientists who don't really focus on art, and bringing those together is a great way to not only bring two communities together, but bring the world together.

- I think the most exciting thing about this particular project was the fact that we didn't know exactly where it was going.

Because this whole project was being driven by their observations and their interpretation of the world, that was really, like, the starting place for this, because I couldn't tell them where it was going because they were kind of the captains of the ship.

We were putting some general guidelines on where we thought it was going to go, but it was really their observations that were going to drive the end result.

But I just liked being able to stand up in front of them and be like, "This project is yours.

You are deciding.

I'm not telling you what you see, you're telling me what you see."

(gentle music) - What I hope for them is that life is not just about a standardized test, that life is about learning, of being a lifelong learner, and about appreciating where we are and how fragile our planet and our environment is, and how important they are, even that one person in fourth or fifth grader, that they're gonna become a productive citizen in our world and they're going to want to appreciate and they're gonna want to be a leader with our environment.

We don't know what our future holds, and we want to build our children that are gonna be productive and amazing environmentalists.

- I think on the surface level, it's really easy to see the deliverables of this project, the nature journals and the sculpture, and those could have been the end goal, but for us, I think it was always about the journey for the students and showing them what sort of a merge in a scientific and artistic process could look like.

And I wanted this project, and particularly the topic that we're exploring with this project, of trying to create empathy and understanding for our natural world, for that to be the thing that they carry with them.

- You know, Heather, listen to this line I just made up.

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

- Oh my goodness.

And it feels like we just started.

- There's so many incredible artists in the 757, and we wanna highlight 'em all.

- That we do.

If you know someone who deserves to be featured on "Curate", email us at curate@whro.org.

- We can't wait to see who you submit.

- And we'll see you next time on "Curate".

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