The Selma Art Guild held a show “Celebration: The Art of Our Black Artists” honoring Black History Month on Sunday, Feb. 12, and much of its success must be credited to The Selma Times-Journal’s generous publicity prior to the show. They featured a great article on Thursday written and photographed by Alaina Denean Deshazo, an editorial promoting the event on Friday and more pictures of the show on Saturday.

The art was created by local and nearby black artists in several different mediums with most of the artists present for the show and more than willing to talk and mingle with our guests. The attendance was tremendous with so many new guests discovering our gallery for the first time and stunned with the quality of the art and that entry was free.

This show is outstanding and goes far in bringing together all the artists in the Selma community and beyond.  It is the first time we have presented a collaborative black show although we have featured individual black artists at “Artist of the Month” shows such as Robert Baynes and Tammye White to name a few.

We have many other talented black artists who had conflicts, we couldn’t reach or just plain did not know about! Next year we will definitely have another celebration of this wonderful art and hope many of our missed or unknown artists will be featured. I can’t forget the addition of the spirited jazz music played on the keyboard by local musician Charlie Porter — a first but not a last.

Again, thank you Selma Times-Journal for your community support. An unabashed plug for the show in case you missed it — we are open every Friday and Saturday at 508 Selma Ave. through the Bridge Crossing Jubilee from noon until 4 p.m.
Jo Pate

Selma Art Guild