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FOR RELEASE: March 13, 2002
SOURCE: Carol Traynor, Marketing and
Media Relations,
Lessons Learned from
the Highwaymen:
Author to Speak on the
Power of the Arts to Lift People Out of Poverty
Experts estimate that 6,500 or more people
are living on the streets in Central Florida today, up nearly 10 percent from a
year ago. In an effort to explore a link between education in the humanities and
strategies to help the poor get out from under, Valencia Community College will
offer a series of four public presentations through a grant from the Florida
Humanities Council (FHC), the non-profit statewide arm of the National Endowment
for the Humanities.
The second of these presentations, titled
"The Highwaymen: Transcending Poverty," will take place April 4 from 7:30 to 9
p.m. at the Wells'Built Museum of African-American History and Culture. Gary
Monroe, author of The Highwaymen: Florida's African-American Landscape Painters
(University Press of Florida, 2001), will give a lecture and slide show
presentation to illustrate how art can change lives and empower people through
self-discovery.
The group of self-taught African-American
artists, now known as the Highwaymen because of their marketing techniques,
developed an artistic style that came to be appreciated among wide and varied
audiences. Most of these artists learned by observing their mentor, A. E. "Bean"
Backus of Fort Pierce, who came to be known as the dean of Florida landscape
painters.
The Highwaymen present a case study of the
power of the arts and humanities to extricate disenfranchised people from the
forces that keep them poverty stricken. Alfred Hair, the only Highwayman who
took formal instruction from Backus, with an entrepreneurial spirit, organized
most of the others to mass-produce Florida landscape paintings. These young
African-American painters rose above societal expectation in the 1950s and 1960s
by marketing more than 50,000 of their stylistic Florida landscape paintings
from their cars throughout the state. With a strong sense of camaraderie, the
Highwaymen made their way out of poverty more profound by creating the visual
legacy of our time and place.
Monroe is also a professor of visual art
at Daytona Beach Community College. His presentation will take place at the
Wells'Built Museum located at 511 West South Street in Orlando.
For further information on upcoming
presentations and speakers, call (407) 299-5000, ext. 1468, or visit
www.valenciacc.edu/clemente.
Signing services for the hearing impaired are available upon request.
This program is made possible through a
grant from the Florida Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the
Humanities, 599 Second Street South, St. Petersburg, Florida, 33701-5005.
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To read more Valencia
news, access our Web site at
www.valenciacc.edu
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