“Black Legend Heirloom is the first whole whisper of skill I have been able to express as a visual creator. I am making solid my voice. I put painting, collage, design, Decoupage and paper mache to use in a way that captures memory in alter form to house memory, legacy, heritage, and inheritance.”
Camika Spencer
About the artist: Camika Spencer M.A., M.F.A is an Oak Cliff native of Dallas, Texas. She is a best-selling author, award-winning playwright, and educator. In 2019 she was announced as a Lee Daniels/Represent OMV creatives winner, and she is currently scripting a one-woman show titled, One Year in Egypt. The Black Legend Heirloom Project is a first for Ms. Spencer and she hopes to continue evolving the art as a teaching practice beyond the borders of Dallas, Texas.
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All forms of jungle life can be seen through the eyes of designers Taylor Sharper, J Romero, and Monsieur Alexander. Within the South Dallas Cultural Center’s Arthello Beck Gallery will live the Jungle Oasis. Guests will be immersed Into the Jungle as they journey through the exhibit. With inspiration taken from every form of life, the exhibition includes 20 original haute couture garments, as well as photographs, sketches, and accessories.
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“I have created nothing really beautiful, really lasting, but if I can inspire one of these youngsters to develop the talent I know they possess, then my monument will be in their work.”
Augusta Savage, 1935
Augusta Savage took to art as a small child, carving small figures out of red clay in her hometown of Green Cove Springs, Florida. Savage’s father did not want his daughter to pursue art but she continued her practice, participating in clay modeling classes in school. By 1919, Savage’s skills earned her a booth at the Palm Beach County State Fair and that booth earned her a $25 prize for most original exhibit.
The burgeoning artist attended Cooper Union on a full scholarship, studying under renowned American sculpture, George Brewster. There she excelled in her coursework, completing the four-year program in just three years.
In 1923, Savage was awarded a prestigious scholarship to the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts in Paris. She was one of the 100 students selected to pursue a summer fellowship in France to study sculpture. However, upon learning that Savage was a Black women, the all-white, all-male selection committee rescinded her offer. Devastated, Savage appealed the decision several times to no avail. The controversial incident made international news with reports in the New York Amsterdam News, the New York Time, and the Negro World.
A souvenir version of Savage’s 1939 sculpture The Harp, which was inspired by “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” 
Gamin by Augusta Savage 
The Diving Boy, August Savage 
Portrait Head of John Henry, Augusta Savage 
Six years later, one of Savage’s most recognized sculpture, Gamin, garnered her a second opportunity to study in Paris, this time through a Rosenwald fellowship. She studied with master artists and exhibited at the Grand Palais and other prestigious venues. Her works continued to earn her notoriety and she received a second Rosenwald fellowship while in Paris as well as funds from the Carnegie Foundation and various community members. This support afforded Savage the opportunity to travel to Belgium, France, and Germany.
By the time she returned to New York in 1932, the Great Depression was at its height. Yet Savage wanted to share what she learned during her travels. She opened the Savage Studio of Arts and Craft in Harlem, offering free or pay-as-you-go courses in drafting, painting, printmaking, and sculpture. The studio became a model for the Harlem Community Art Center which she formed and directed in partnership for the Works Project Administration. During the institution’s first 16 months, 1,500 Harlemites received free art instructions. Savage’s leadership and creative vision influenced African American art history as we know it. Her students and colleagues included artists such as William Artis, Romare Bearden, Robert Blackburn, Gwendolyn Knight, Jacob Lawrence, Norman Lewis, and many others. (Source)
Learn more about Augusta Savage:
- Article: Sculptor Augusta Savage’s Towering Impact on the Harlem Renaissance
- Video: The Life and Sad Ending of Augusta Savage Biography
- Article: Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman
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“I am alive, and I am Black! Therefore, I am motivated to paint the human elements and conditions that affect humanity. Truth has motivated me to paint along with a desire to express myself. Because I am life, I am compelled to paint the realities of life.
Arthello Beck, Jr., 1970
Arthello Beck, Jr. was an American artist who often painted scenes of places he had visited using a variety of mediums, including oils, watercolors, and charcoal.
Beck was born in Dallas, Texas, and attended Lincoln High School where he received his only formal art training. Beck is considered one of the leading Black artists in the Southwest. In 1971, he opened Arthello’s Art Gallery at 1922 South Beckley in Dallas, which is still being operated and managed by his wife. The gallery became a centerpiece of the Dallas art scene in the 1970s and 80s, and was instrumental to the careers of many black artists. In 2007, SDCC’s art gallery was named after Beck to honor his work and legacy.
He is possibly best known for his works from the 1960s dealing with the Civil Rights Movement, although Beck commonly featured other subjects, including children, religion, and human interaction, particularly in the African-American community. Beck was also a member of the National Conference of Artists and the Southwest Alliance of African American Artists, and was one of the founders of the Southwest Black Artists Guild. (Source)
Learn more about Arthello Beck, Jr.:
- Photos: Arthello Beck Jr.’s “Humanization” Exhibit at the African American Museum of Dallas
- Video: “Humanization – The Artistic Eye of Arthello Beck, Jr.” Artist Talk
- Video: 2022 MLK Black History Month Celebration: Unsung Artist, Arthello Beck, Jr.
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“If you are unhappy with anything…whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you’ll find that when you’re free, your true creativity, your true self, comes out.”
Tina Turner, 1986 November issue of Ebony
Tina Turner, born as Anna Mae Bullock, is an American-born singer and actress. Widely referred to as the “Queen of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, she rose to prominence as the lead singer of Ike & Tina Turner before launching a successful career as a solo performer.
In 1960, she was introduced as Tina Turner with the hit duet single “A Fool in Love”. They released hits such as “It’s Gonna Work Out Fine”, “River Deep – Mountain High”, “Proud Mary”, and “Nutbush City Limits” before disbanding in 1976.
In the 1980s, Turner launched multi-platinum album Private Dancer contained the hit song “What’s Love Got to Do with It”, which won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and became her first and only No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100. At age 44, she was the oldest female solo artist to top the Hot 100. During her Break Every Rule World Tour in 1988, she set a then-Guinness World Record for the largest paying audience (180,000) for a solo performer. Turner also acted in the films Tommy (1975), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Last Action Hero (1993). In 1993, What’s Love Got to Do with It, a biopic adapted from her autobiography I, Tina: My Life Story, was released. In 2009, Turner retired after completing her Tina!: 50th Anniversary Tour, which is the 15th highest-grossing tour of the 2000s.
Turner is one of the best-selling recording artists of all time. She has received 12 Grammy Awards, which include eight competitive awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. She is the first black artist and first female to be on the cover of Rolling Stone. Rolling Stone ranked her among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time and the 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Turner has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and the St. Louis Walk of Fame. She is a two-time inductee into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, with Ike Turner in 1991 and as a solo artist in 2021. She is also a 2005 recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors and Women of the Year award. (Source)
Learn more about Tina Turner:
- Article: Tina Turner Interview
- Video: Ike & Tina Turner Revue “Proud Mary” on The Ed Sullivan Show
- Article: Tina Turner’s Most Empowering Quotes
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“It’s fun to fail. You learn something: how not to fail.”
Artist Sam Gilliam
Sam Gilliam, an African American color field painter and lyrical abstractionist artist, passed away on June 25, 2022 at the age of 88. He worked on stretched, draped and wrapped canvas, and added sculptural 3D elements. He was recognized as the first artist to introduce the idea of a draped, painted canvas hanging without stretcher bars around 1965. Gilliam was associated with the Washington Color School, a group located in Washington, D.C. area where artists developed a form of abstract art from color field painting in the 1950s and 1960s. His works have also been described as belonging to abstract expressionism and lyrical abstraction. This was a major contribution to the Color Field School and has had a lasting impact on contemporary art today. His later works are textured paintings that incorporate metal forms.
Gilliam was born in Tupelo, Mississippi in 1933, attended the University of Louisville, and moved to Washington, D.C in 1962 where he lived and worked out of his studio for the remainder on his life.
Sam Gilliam, Double Merge (1968) at DiaBeacon. Photo by Ben Davis. 
Sam Gilliam with his 1973 painting Autumn Surf ART FRISCH | COURTESY SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE 2018 PROLITTERIS ZURICH 
Sam Gilliam, Close to Trees (detail), 2011. Acrylic on polypropylene. Image courtesy of Sam Gilliam 
Courtesy photo 
Sam Gilliam, an American Color Field painter, at his studio in Washington in 2018. Credit Sam Gilliam Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York; Gabriella Demczuk for The New York Times
Learn more about Sam Gilliam:
- Video: Abstract Art is Political | Artist Sam Gilliam | Louisiana Channel Interview
- Article: Visual Artist Sam Gilliam has Died at 88 | NPR
- Article: Sam Gilliam ‘Took a Step Most People Didn’t Understand Was Possible’ | New York Times
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This class was part of SDCC’s New Years, New Skills creative workshop series.
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ART214 showcases the works of artists who live in Dallas and the greater North Texas region. Through this exhibition, OAC hopes to discover and develop relationships with new artists, provide opportunities for artists to exhibit their work for the first time in one of our cultural centers or for the first time, and give artists who have previously exhibited at one cultural center an opportunity to show their work at a different center.
The Jurors for the 2022 ART214 exhibition are Marilyn Waligore, Raul Rodriguez, Narong Tintamusik, Gerald L. Leavell II, and David McCullough. Daisha Board was the Curator for the exhibitions for each of the participating art venues.
During Dallas Arts Month, the five cultural centers of the City of Dallas Office of Arts and Culture (OAC), Bath House Cultural Center, Latino Cultural Center, Moody Performance Hall, Oak Cliff Cultural Center, and South Dallas Cultural Center.
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Craft was the first African American woman to vote in Dallas County in a public election and used millinery to support her activism. Instructor Cassie MacGregor from The House of MacGregor walked through the construction of feather flowers on a vine using glue, wire, and wooden beads. The workshop concluded with nice music, floral tea with sweet biscuits, and a fun photo op.
This class was part of SDCC’s New Years, New Skills creative workshop series.
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This class was part of SDCC’s New Years, New Skills creative workshop series.
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