Welcome back here.
At noon we are almost to February,
which marks Black History Month.
And for the second year in a row,
original work by college artists
are honoring Black History Month,
and it will be proudly displayed at
Westminster Canterbury on Chesapeake Bay.
Here to tell us more about it,
we have Ellen Duckworth and Solomon E CKJ.
Thank you both for being here today.
Let's talk about this very important
event that not just helps students,
but is also really
valuable for the community.
Tell us about just this whole thing.
Wrap it up. For
sure. So Westminster Canterbury,
as many of you may already know,
is a resort retirement community right
on the Chesapeake Bay in Virginia Beach.
So the conversation started a couple
of years ago just about what was
going on in the country and how could
we as a community do more to show
our support for bringing more people
in instead of being so divided.
So we came up with the idea of let's
focus on our young people because we
have a lot of professors, educators,
business people that are residents.
At Westminster.
So between Solomon's assistance at
Norfolk State and the Virginia Beach
Art Gallery, who jurors the work,
we developed the idea and then we turned
it into this wonderful second year event.
And it's a wonderful opportunity for the
students to not only gain experience,
but also for our residents to
see life from their perspective.
For sure. Just to be able to go
and witness what our students,
students are doing here out
through this display is fantastic.
Solomon, I gotta ask, you know,
of course you have a few
universities participating.
Why did Norfolk?
Decide to get involved.
Well an office state has a unique ad program.
We are community oriented.
The program allows students to go
into the community and work with
individuals, corporate entities
and the community at large.
So it was natural for us
this was a match make.
It made in heaven
that we were talking about that partnership
just between Norfolk State and and
of course just the event in general.
Can you tell us more about how this
came to be for the second year?
Well of course their support
help but it's really about.
Our residents as well as Westminster,
Canterbury overall just loves the idea
of being able to honor our young people.
But also I go back to again about looking
at life from different perspective.
We have so many years of history
from our residents and so many new
ideas coming from the young students
that it's it's an opportunity to
have conversations about diversity
and a need for inclusion and how
do we help make that happen.
So it was a wonderful way to look
at a young people's perspective.
Our life experience.
Expect experiences.
Thank you. Settlement. And how do
we bring it all together? And, and
I love the fact that the students
benefit so much from this.
I understand they get
scholarships. They do can
sell their paintings. So
talk about that benefit to the students
as well. Sure. You wanna
go? Let me take that. Yeah.
Very excited about that.
Great partner. Yeah, exactly.
So this is a juried exhibition,
which means that, you know,
students get to prepare their works,
they fill out the necessary
paperworks and they submit.
It's totally different from
what happens in my classroom.
I give you an assignment
and I grade the assignment.
This gives the students the opportunity
to learn to be professional
in their practice as artists.
That's one too,
an opportunity to build their
resume if they apply for a job.
If you have a couple of
exhibitions or like your belt,
you look like you know what you're doing,
right?
So so it's a great opportunity for
students to get ready for the job market.
It also gives students
this amazing scholarship.
You know,
the students walk away with prize
money and sales is one thing to say.
I like your work.
It's another thing to say I
like your work with a check.
Yeah man, that does it a lot
better. Exactly. It also
gives the the program an
opportunity to assess the students,
to see how ready they are.
So we want to make sure that if
they need a little extra training,
a little development in the particular area,
we can offer that before they leave us.
We want to make sure when they
leave they are ready for success.
They're ready for the real world.
Fantastic. And this is happening
February 3rd at 10:00 AM there.
At Westminster Canterbury,
Ellen, give us the website one
more time for people to get
WC bay.com. If you need
directions, you can call
757-496-1785. And of course,
you can also go on the website,
click on events and then
RSVP through there as well.
So it'll be our residents and
the general public attending
for the public exhibition.
Fantastic. Make sure you get out there,
support our students, support our
emerging artist, Ellen Solomon.
Thank you so much. Thank you.
Awesome. We'll be right back.