San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
‘Keepers of the Culture’ event honors uplifting Black artists
In thinking of how to honor the artistic and cultural work of the elders in the community, the board of the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art started the “Keepers of the Culture” event four years ago.
“(We) really wanted to do something for those people who have helped keep Black culture alive in San Diego. We really try to recognize some of the elders and we want to make sure that we highlight people who’ve been doing their work for a long time. Those two things really guide us in terms of who we choose each year,” said Gaidi Finnie, executive director of the museum.
“San Diego has been changing, with regard to Black people. When I first got here, there was Black radio, there were nightclubs, there was more than one Black newspaper, there were places where people went on a regular basis. Now, depending on where you live, you might not see a Black person at all. We really want to … be a place where people can have more knowledge of African American history in this area. It’s really important that we point these people out and point them out every year because there are more and more people who need to be recognized.”
This year, “Keepers of the Culture” will be held at 5 p.m. on Fridayat Quartyard in downtown San Diego. The honorees include storyteller, actor and writer Alyce Smith Cooper; Nathan East, jazz musician and a founding member of the contemporary jazz group, Fourplay; visual artist and playwright Calvin Manson; and painter and sculptor Andrea Rushing. (Although this free, ticketed event is sold out, people can still make donations to the museum to support its work.)
Rushing, 64, is originally from Chesapeake, Va., and has lived in San Diego for more than 30 years. After a few years serving in the Navy as an aviation structural mechanic, painting logos and insignia on aircraft, he worked for General Dynamics and Rohr before returning to art and earning a degree from San Francisco’s Academy of Art University. He’s since had his work featured at San Diego State University; California State University, San Marcos; the San Diego Museum of Art; the Michael J. Wolf Gallery; Sparks Gallery; and others. He currently teaches art at his San Diego Art Academy in Liberty Station, and took some time to talk about his work and what it means to be honored as someone uplifting Black culture in San Diego. (This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)
Q:
What does it mean to you to be recognized as one of the “Keepers of the Culture” this year?
A:
I’m particularly pleased with this award. It feels as though my efforts have not gone unnoticed. I certainly try to uplift people of my race, but also people in general, to offer them a better understanding of their place in the universe.
Q:
Can you talk about what Black culture has meant to you as an artist and also as an individual?
A:
I was thinking about that this week. I was fortunate enough to grow up in a community where the education system taught Black history when I was a kid, so I’ve grown up informed much more, unfortunately, than many people. I really try to put that knowledge out there and remind everyone, particularly Black people, of their history and of their place in the world.
Q:
Are there examples of your work that you can point to where you’ve done this? Can you talk about your approach in the selection and process of creating those works?
A:
Without trying to get too political, I would say over the last five or six years, I’ve focused on the Black male. I do feel that he is the most disenfranchised of anyone in society and continues to be. I’ve tried to paint the Black male in a way that shows strength and beauty and intelligence, all the things that he possesses. I do think that the Black man is, in some ways, an endangered part of the culture, of the country, and I just like to help in correcting that, in correcting some of those misunderstandings.
Q:
The museum’s executive director has been quoted as saying that the honorees each year are selected because of the way you all are leaders in the expression of Black culture, nurturing it, keeping it alive, expanding it, and in some cases, founding it. How do you see your own work within that context?
A:
I just am trying to always portray Black folks with positive imagery; it’s a personal point for me. I just never painted Black people in a negative way, won’t do it, don’t know why I would. That’s been the main thing. I always try to paint us as we are.