if I’m being transparent I’ve created a
lot of anxiety just preparing for this
talk but then I realized that I set out
to make a change and my execution
created a movement a movement that found
me as a leader of an arts organization
and I’m a leader of an arts organization
as a non artist so how does that happen
well it’s not very strange my mom is a
classically trained pianist a minister
of music and a music educator and my dad
has been singing in choirs for most of
his life I also have a brother who
practices several genres of art and you
know me I’ve had my attempts at you know
trying to pull out my inner artist from
being the cute kindergartner who sings
to being a teenager who wrote and
recorded my own demo if you want to hear
it talk to me afterwards I can go on and
on about how art has influenced my life
in my formative years but I actually
turned out to be an accountant and so
one of the things that sustains me is
art so this is a picture by Larry Pancho
Brown he is actually an artist and he’s
a native of Baltimore Maryland where I’m
from and this picture depicts people of
color and their natural habitat which is
closest to the Sun and where the Sun
shines the brightest so I hang this
picture in my home and I use it to
remind me that I am light now as I’ve
been going through my creative journey
over the years I have realized certain
things
number one that execution is a form of
imagination versus creativity is a
different thing and number three is that
you must journey into the unknown my
creative journey began on the campus of
bow before University as a student it
heightened as I moved to Columbus Ohio
and it was my conviction to bring a play
to the state that was very controversial
and it was rough rugged and raw though
I’ve quickly found out that there was no
place to actually showcase this art but
my conviction was stronger so what I did
was I pulled together a group of friends
and they bought into my vision and that
created maroon arts group maroon arts
group is a collective of creatives who
have come together to galvanize and
provide a platform for local art their
centers around the preservation and
promotion of cultures of African descent
now you may ask why maroon
well we named it after the maroon people
there may be people who actually know of
the Maroons the Maroons were very famous
for being in Jamaica but their Maroons
all over the world and one of the
significant characteristics of the
Maroons was to fight to keep their
culture and so being in a place where we
where we were founded in the King
Lincoln District it’s where most of us
live work and play
we know that the King Lincoln district
has a lot of history it is a place where
you know formerly known as Brownsville
where you know there’s a lot of art
there’s a lot of culture and there’s a
lot of history and so we took on the
task of actually
working to preserve and protect that
history and also provide a platform for
those artists that are to come now
maroon arts group has been around for a
few years and we provided programming
and done some original works but late
2015 we were offered the opportunity to
occupy some land now you may say and I
probably said we are just we are under
five years in existence that’s a big
undertaking for us to occupy land at
such a young age in our organization but
when you think about preserving and
providing a platform we knew that we had
to step out and take that chance
we not only took the chance but we
decided to bring art and to the King
Lincoln district on a very important
corner in Columbus what we did was we
dropped two shipping containers we
repurposed one into an art gallery and
we repurposed the other into a
performance space we did this to allow
and provide a platform for local artists
in the community to display their works
to also have a platform to respond and
react to the social norms and things
that were going on in our environment
this was my journey along with
everything else into the unknown I did a
we did a lot it took us about two years
for this to happen and I’m going through
things that I never thought that I would
do contracting zoning all kinds of
things that we just that I just never
thought I would be involved in but it
expanded my creativity and how to
maneuver in those spaces now when these
when these containers came came down we
had a lot of people
actually riding by and asking us what
are you guys doing here because as the
construction went along we didn’t really
have signage out to let folks know kind
of what the area was so we had a lot of
people coming by asking us what is it
that’s going on here what are you guys
doing and we would explain but there was
one day that a gentleman came by and he
got out of his car came over and spoke
to us and really asked him one to have
an engaging conversation about what was
going on on this space now little did I
know and telling him what was going on
he actually lit up and he explained to
me that he was an artist in the
community and that he had been making
art out of what he called trash for
years but he had had you know he hadn’t
really had an art show he hadn’t really
been able to be successful and having
people to showcase his art but he asked
us because people have and just happened
to be having a prelim event that night
on the space he asked us if he could
show if he could place his art on our
stage and my answer to him was very much
so yes you may do that this gentleman’s
name is Eric Friedman and not only did
he have art in his car he went and got
the piece of art from his car came back
probably set it on the stage and then he
went home because he actually lives on
one of the intersection streets that we
where our script where the with the
containers lay and so he went home and
got two more pieces and came back and
put those pieces on the stage mr.
Freeman is here I would like to
acknowledge him for for coming up to us
and providing that confirmation that we
were doing exactly what we were supposed
to do and providing that access building
those relationships and building
community
and the king linking it district in
Columbus so Thank You mr. Friedman I
don’t know where you are in the audience
but thank you so much oh there he is
thank you so much for being here mr.
Freeman was the confirmation for me and
for the rest of my learning arts group
that we were doing exactly what we
needed to do we actually every time we
had something going on at the containers
we would pull mr. Freeman’s are out
until mr. Friedman called me and said I
need my stuff back I haven’t I have an
art show I have no idea whether we had
anything to do with that but I am so
grateful for mr. Friedman and his
contribution to maroon arts group so
what we need to talk about that I’m
going to take a quote and say that
execution is my art I have learned that
non artists can create amazing things
and you do not have to be an artist to
create you just need to take the skills
and knowledge ease that you have and use
it to activate the space that you’re in
taking a quote from Maya Angelou who
says I believe that the most important
single thing beyond discipline and
creativity is daring to dare so what I’m
asking you all to do today is there we
have to dare to create create by
definition just means to bring something
into existence so let’s think about what
we are bringing into existence the first
five words of the Bible was in the
beginning God created I am using my
gifts and my talents to create I’m
asking you to use yours now while I
would like to in my quest to be a artist
in this talk with a poem or a song or
something that you guys would enjoy but
instead I’m going to
ended by saying my name is sherry Denise
Neil and I’m a creative who inspired a
movement in the King Lincoln district to
bring arts Commerce and community to my
hood I’ll ask you what are you doing and yours thank you
lot of anxiety just preparing for this
talk but then I realized that I set out
to make a change and my execution
created a movement a movement that found
me as a leader of an arts organization
and I’m a leader of an arts organization
as a non artist so how does that happen
well it’s not very strange my mom is a
classically trained pianist a minister
of music and a music educator and my dad
has been singing in choirs for most of
his life I also have a brother who
practices several genres of art and you
know me I’ve had my attempts at you know
trying to pull out my inner artist from
being the cute kindergartner who sings
to being a teenager who wrote and
recorded my own demo if you want to hear
it talk to me afterwards I can go on and
on about how art has influenced my life
in my formative years but I actually
turned out to be an accountant and so
one of the things that sustains me is
art so this is a picture by Larry Pancho
Brown he is actually an artist and he’s
a native of Baltimore Maryland where I’m
from and this picture depicts people of
color and their natural habitat which is
closest to the Sun and where the Sun
shines the brightest so I hang this
picture in my home and I use it to
remind me that I am light now as I’ve
been going through my creative journey
over the years I have realized certain
things
number one that execution is a form of
imagination versus creativity is a
different thing and number three is that
you must journey into the unknown my
creative journey began on the campus of
bow before University as a student it
heightened as I moved to Columbus Ohio
and it was my conviction to bring a play
to the state that was very controversial
and it was rough rugged and raw though
I’ve quickly found out that there was no
place to actually showcase this art but
my conviction was stronger so what I did
was I pulled together a group of friends
and they bought into my vision and that
created maroon arts group maroon arts
group is a collective of creatives who
have come together to galvanize and
provide a platform for local art their
centers around the preservation and
promotion of cultures of African descent
now you may ask why maroon
well we named it after the maroon people
there may be people who actually know of
the Maroons the Maroons were very famous
for being in Jamaica but their Maroons
all over the world and one of the
significant characteristics of the
Maroons was to fight to keep their
culture and so being in a place where we
where we were founded in the King
Lincoln District it’s where most of us
live work and play
we know that the King Lincoln district
has a lot of history it is a place where
you know formerly known as Brownsville
where you know there’s a lot of art
there’s a lot of culture and there’s a
lot of history and so we took on the
task of actually
working to preserve and protect that
history and also provide a platform for
those artists that are to come now
maroon arts group has been around for a
few years and we provided programming
and done some original works but late
2015 we were offered the opportunity to
occupy some land now you may say and I
probably said we are just we are under
five years in existence that’s a big
undertaking for us to occupy land at
such a young age in our organization but
when you think about preserving and
providing a platform we knew that we had
to step out and take that chance
we not only took the chance but we
decided to bring art and to the King
Lincoln district on a very important
corner in Columbus what we did was we
dropped two shipping containers we
repurposed one into an art gallery and
we repurposed the other into a
performance space we did this to allow
and provide a platform for local artists
in the community to display their works
to also have a platform to respond and
react to the social norms and things
that were going on in our environment
this was my journey along with
everything else into the unknown I did a
we did a lot it took us about two years
for this to happen and I’m going through
things that I never thought that I would
do contracting zoning all kinds of
things that we just that I just never
thought I would be involved in but it
expanded my creativity and how to
maneuver in those spaces now when these
when these containers came came down we
had a lot of people
actually riding by and asking us what
are you guys doing here because as the
construction went along we didn’t really
have signage out to let folks know kind
of what the area was so we had a lot of
people coming by asking us what is it
that’s going on here what are you guys
doing and we would explain but there was
one day that a gentleman came by and he
got out of his car came over and spoke
to us and really asked him one to have
an engaging conversation about what was
going on on this space now little did I
know and telling him what was going on
he actually lit up and he explained to
me that he was an artist in the
community and that he had been making
art out of what he called trash for
years but he had had you know he hadn’t
really had an art show he hadn’t really
been able to be successful and having
people to showcase his art but he asked
us because people have and just happened
to be having a prelim event that night
on the space he asked us if he could
show if he could place his art on our
stage and my answer to him was very much
so yes you may do that this gentleman’s
name is Eric Friedman and not only did
he have art in his car he went and got
the piece of art from his car came back
probably set it on the stage and then he
went home because he actually lives on
one of the intersection streets that we
where our script where the with the
containers lay and so he went home and
got two more pieces and came back and
put those pieces on the stage mr.
Freeman is here I would like to
acknowledge him for for coming up to us
and providing that confirmation that we
were doing exactly what we were supposed
to do and providing that access building
those relationships and building
community
and the king linking it district in
Columbus so Thank You mr. Friedman I
don’t know where you are in the audience
but thank you so much oh there he is
thank you so much for being here mr.
Freeman was the confirmation for me and
for the rest of my learning arts group
that we were doing exactly what we
needed to do we actually every time we
had something going on at the containers
we would pull mr. Freeman’s are out
until mr. Friedman called me and said I
need my stuff back I haven’t I have an
art show I have no idea whether we had
anything to do with that but I am so
grateful for mr. Friedman and his
contribution to maroon arts group so
what we need to talk about that I’m
going to take a quote and say that
execution is my art I have learned that
non artists can create amazing things
and you do not have to be an artist to
create you just need to take the skills
and knowledge ease that you have and use
it to activate the space that you’re in
taking a quote from Maya Angelou who
says I believe that the most important
single thing beyond discipline and
creativity is daring to dare so what I’m
asking you all to do today is there we
have to dare to create create by
definition just means to bring something
into existence so let’s think about what
we are bringing into existence the first
five words of the Bible was in the
beginning God created I am using my
gifts and my talents to create I’m
asking you to use yours now while I
would like to in my quest to be a artist
in this talk with a poem or a song or
something that you guys would enjoy but
instead I’m going to
ended by saying my name is sherry Denise
Neil and I’m a creative who inspired a
movement in the King Lincoln district to
bring arts Commerce and community to my
hood I’ll ask you what are you doing and yours thank you
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