The inaugural Nick Davis Visual Artists of the Year Award will be presented at this year’s Tampa Bay Black Arts and Film Festival, happening now through Sunday at the Factory St. Pete.
ST. PETERSBURG — The fifth annual Tampa Bay Black Arts and Film Festival, happening Feb. 23-26 at the Factory St. Pete, will honor the late digital artist Nick Davis and present Carlos Culbertson, aka Zulu Painter and Jabari Reed with the Nick Davis Visual Artists of the Year Award.
Artist Nick Davis
The award these artists will receive is named in honor of Davis, a digital visual artist who quickly rose to stardom for his digital artwork and characters who recently passed away last December due to complications of epilepsy.
Davis gave back to his community in various ways, including making time and sharing his artistic skills with the youth. This will be the first year this award will be presented at the Black Arts and Film Festival.
Having been awarded several grants and opportunities to paint murals on buildings and art installations in various prestigious art galleries, Culbertson and Reed — two African-American artists — have become recognizable in the city, having painted some of the most identifiable murals in St. Petersburg.
The Tampa Bay Black Arts and Film Festival brings four days of festivities surrounding the independent film, music and visual arts community. Attendees will be thoroughly entertained with what this festival has to offer, from its engaging networking mixers to its do-it-yourself workshops and panel discussions designed to help enhance the creative works of Black filmmakers, to name of few things happening throughout this magical weekend.
Also included in the schedule of events are visual arts presentations at The Factory, featuring work by African-American artists Jabaar Edmond, John Montinero, Oliver Jackson, Jr. and Raheem Fitzgerald, sponsored by Gallerie 909’s Carla Bristol.
The weekend will also include special screenings of films such as the much-anticipated documentary “Bartholomew’s Gold,” “Mental Health & Music” and award-winning films “Tuckers War,” “Black Unicorn” and hit web series “Predestined,” “Simi the Series” and “Nothing Else Matters” by award-winning St. Pete local filmmakers Debbie Garrett and Cranstan Cumberbatch.
For more details, schedules, and tickets, visit blackartandfilmfestival.com.
