Woodson African American Museum celebrates Black History Month with new exhibit

Name: Woodson African American Museum
Uploaded: 2025-02-01T12:46:53-05:00
Description: FOX 13's Travis Anthony highlights the new exhibit in honor of Black History Month.

Woodson African American Museum

FOX 13's Travis Anthony highlights the new exhibit in honor of Black History Month.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla - It's Black History Month and the Woodson African American Museum of Florida is offering a two-person exhibition that focuses on the artwork recognizing the value of African American Labor in the past and the present.

"The two artists cover some very different subjects, but they tie in a very important way," shared Danny Olda the Museum Curator.

The exhibit features work by Sharon Norwood and Krystle Lemonias.

"Sharon looks at the invisible labor of enslaved Africans," said Olda. "Krystle looks at the contemporary labor that is behind the scenes that often goes unseen and undervalued."

The Woodson African American Museum is celebrating Black History Month with a new exhibit focused on African American Labor.

Artist Sharon Norwood lives and works in Savannah, Georgia. Her exhibit on Brick by Brick features assembled pieces made up of clay bricks.

"The bricks themselves, they actually look a little bit different, they're actually a little bit larger (than normal ones). Many of them were used to rebuild Savannah after a devastating fire in 1820," said Olda. "When you look at some of these bricks you can actually see the fingerprints that were left over 200 years ago, and you think about the people behind these bricks."

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The historic City of Savannah has many brick-paved streets and homes and monuments constructed with bricks similar to these. Norwood was able to get the bricks from a plantation on the Savannah River.

The artist Krystle Lemonias and her mother both used to be nannies, helping to raise children for other people.

She created her artwork with clothing and materials from those jobs.

"These are large textile works or tapestries as she calls them," admitted Olda, "She really works a lot like a painter. They look like paintings, but they're made out of various fabrics."

In each tapestry, the nanny figures stand out as separate, but still a part of the same artwork but created through medium.

The Woodson African American Museum is celebrating Black History Month with a new exhibit focused on African American Labor.

"She creates these giant wood blocks that take a lot of work and she prints the figure right on the fabric in stark black and white," explained Olda.

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The resulting print creates an eye-catching contrast between the vibrant colors of each piece and the printed black and white figure on them.

"This invisible labor, the unseen work that happens every day that we benefit from," said Olda of the exhibit, "Hopefully we go into February and come out of February with an appreciation of the labor that goes unseen and undervalued."

The Woodson African American Museum of Florida is on display until March 29th.

The Source: Information for this story was gathered by FOX 13's Travis Anthony.

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