Creative Pinellas introduced youths to local artist Dr. Dallas Jackson’s artwork as he delivered a presentation and examination of his art and what it represents. Pictured above is an example of Jackson’s art featured at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum.
BY DACIA JACKSON, Teen Journalist
“Life imitates art more than art imitates life” – Oscar Wilde
ST. PETERSBURG — Recently, in the art community, there have been several events devoted to educating Tampa Bay residents about our art community and providing an opportunity for an open discussion.
The events provided the opportunity for individuals to voice their concerns, opinions, and ideas related to how our government represents the arts and informs people of certain issues they might not have noticed. Creative Pinellas organized and hosted these events.
Creative Pinellas is an organization devoted to creating a more inclusive and educated county by exposing people to the arts. According to its CEO Barbara St. Clair, “the mission [of the company] is to foster and sustain artists and the art community.”
They work diligently to host events where people can share their opinion on certain components that make up the art community in Pinellas County.
This program is mainly needed because people of specific cultures and backgrounds aren’t always welcomed with open arms into different types of art. The challenge is exposure. They want to expose people to the arts that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to access and create a community that actively participates in a less looked at field.
One of the techniques they use is giving a group of people a topic and allowing them to discuss it. The group I joined talked about equity. We talked about how it needs to be involved in the school curriculum and how it needs to be an open opportunity for all people, no matter their physical features.
We argued the point that very often, people don’t know about their history, and teaching them that will make them more open to coming to museums that feature what life was like for their ancestors.
One of the ways they introduced the topics was by first educating the group about the artwork of a local artist Dr. Dallas Jackson. He delivered a wonderful presentation and examination of his art and what it represents. On top of that, he spoke about programs and ways he’s personally helped to expose youths to the art community.
As an educator, Jackson is an accomplished artist who has greatly helped to expose our community to several different topics and things that have already helped to benefit us.
This event was just the start of several. St. Clair is confident that allowing the community to be exposed to more will enable them to become closer and more informed. Making a stronger and healthier community as well as an educated one.
From a teen’s perspective, this event was a wonderful opportunity for the community to engage with the government on issues involving everyone. I hope they continue to better our community from now on.
Dacia Jackson
Dacia Jackson is a teen journalist, author, and artist with aspirations of becoming an attorney. She is currently pursuing an interest in journalism while attending a Florida online school. Dacia is honest, ambitious, and tenacious, so her column will always be truthful, extraordinarily unique, and hopefully impactful.
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