The History of The Kuumba Artists Collective of South Florida - Part 1

On the one hand,
they resolved to apply the training they were receiving to themes and topics
that were relevant to the Black experience and which built upon the foundations
laid by earlier Black master artists, even as they retained their fierce
commitment to professional and technical excellence in their own works. On
the other hand, they vigorously pressed their demand that the Lowe Art Museum
on the University campus present, without delay, a major exhibition of
works by Black artists, which the museum had never done.

In this they succeeded,
not without a very contentious struggle, but, at the same time, they
recognized that there was a need to bring art into the Black community as a
viable presence. They established a campus-based organization, the Black
Arts Council of Miami, Inc., which located a storefront space in the western
portion of the Coconut Grove area, known as the “Black Grove,” and opened
a gallery and workspace which was named the Miami Black Arts Workshop.

The Workshop made its presence felt almost immediately, and was well
received by the community. It offered after-school programs, which earned
funding from the United Way, it produced movable street murals on large
panels, which were affixed to utility poles, and dealt with such timely themes
as the treatment of Haitian immigrants, the unjust incarceration of Pitts and
Lee, and the vital importance of Black laborers and domestic workers, for
example. The organization also mounted art exhibitions both in the gallery
space and on street corner vacant lots, cleaned up and decorated for that purpose.
One of the most successful gallery exhibitions was an unprecedented
showing of works from Florida prisons, called “Hidden Talent.” Perhaps
most significantly, the Workshop became a meeting place and gathering
place for artists, both local and newly arrived, and it fostered an energetic
process of “cross-pollination” and exchange of ideas and techniques.

Workshop members became an unofficial volunteer “speakers’ bureau,”
visiting numerous schools, particularly during Black History month. One
of its lasting legacies would be the “Graphic Arts Program,” funded by the
City of Miami, whereby the artists undertook a beautification program of
the whole neighborhood, through the renovation of business facades with
African-inspired paint schemes and custom-designed carved wooden signs.
It was around this same time, in 1980, that a parallel movement emerged in
North and Central Florida, as artists from Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Daytona
Beach and Quincy were brought together by a longtime employee of the
Department of State Cultural Affairs Division, and formed the Kuumba Artists
Association of Florida.

It was not long before word of this organization
reached South Florida, and members of the Miami Black Arts Workshop became
fully engaged, as this provided an opportunity to extend its mission and
network statewide, and to be included in this statewide initiative. The new
Association provided new outlets for artists’ works, by participating in various
cultural festivals and organizing its own exhibitions. The first Black Artists’
Showcase in Miami, a one-day exhibition held in a downtown office space in
1980, proved to be a resounding success, and included an auction to benefit
the Black Archives History and Research Foundation of South Florida, Inc.

When the Workshop was finally forced to close its doors, due to lack of further
funding support, in 1985, the Kuumba Artists Association carried on its
work of promoting Black Art, organizing exhibitions, benefiting local causes,
mentoring younger artists, welcoming and presenting outstanding visitors,
and, in fact, became based in Miami. In South Florida, the group worked
closely with the African Heritage (formerly Model City) Cultural Arts Center
and with Gallery Antigua, Inc., the only local African American-owned and
operated fine art gallery, as well as with the Bacardi Art Gallery, until its
closing, and the Bakehouse Art Gallery.

The group also maintained its statewide
focus, constituting a major presence at the annual Harambee Festival in
Tallahassee, as well as festivals in Fort Pierce, Jacksonville and Eatonville.
By the late 1990s, like many arts organizations, most notably the venerable
National Conference of Artists (NCA), of which Kuumba was once a chapter,
the Association experienced a period of decline and eventually a slow
and measured renaissance. Gradually, the old members came together with
energetic younger artists and organized the renamed Kuumba Artists Collective,
as it is known today. Copyright Dinizulu Gene Tinnie All rights Reserved