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News 12 Staff

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You are looking at Simone Craig who is CEO of Art in the Atrium Incorporated in Morristown, Candace. Kelly is co-host of the Not All Hood podcast. They're here today to talk about a special event that's gonna be held on Sunday. Yes. Go ahead. Yes. Really, really exciting. Uh It really started with uh our exhibit, as you can see here are wow, women's outside works exhibit. It's our 32nd annual in the atrium Galli Morristown. That was a picture of my mom, one of the co founders of art in the atrium. My parents co-founded it along with some friends and it was really, uh my dad is an attorney for Morristown. He would be in this building all the time for work. And he said, hey, where's the black art? And so they put up a black art exhibit in 1992 and they figured, hey, it'd be a one and done, but the community really insisted that they continue. And so this is our 32nd year here. It is a community event. It is community love, love of arts, love of black culture, um Love of ourselves that we come and we celebrate together through art and through fellowship. Of course, we have food and, and you know, it's kind of like the celebration continues into what we are going to be doing on Sunday. All the energy that you see when you go to an art exhibit, which I've gone to them over the years because we're both from Mars Town. Um It's just really exciting and we're going to be on stage on Sunday talking about art, talking about art in the atrium, talking about the impact of women, the impact of race in terms of art and fine art. What it means to be a collector. We're gonna hear from uh an art art historian to give us some of the background um stories about what makes art work and how to select a good piece of art. It's just gonna be a very interesting conversation. So people will also be able to be in the audience and also be a part of the conversation, ask questions and it's, it's just a good time to get out. We are still kind of post COVID where people aren't getting out as much. And so this is a good time for people to come out and really commune in person. Big question. When did black fine art become a thing or has it always been? We were talking about that? This is your answer because I asked her, when did it become a big I really had to think about that. It's such a great question. I mean, for me, my family, black art has always been, we've centered it um in our family. But I have to say in thinking about it, it was really George Floyd that um put more of um more eyeballs, I guess you could say and more awareness um around the um the struggles, right of, of black folks, the plight of black folks here. Um And art is really how we got through that time, through COVID uh through George Floyd Arts is how we essentially came together and tried to find meaning and healing. We'll talk more about the podcast, not all Hood and their special guest, Malcolm Jamal Warner ticket info is available on News twelve.com under numbers and links.

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When you go outside. Um and just move day to day in the space depending upon where you are. It might be different in Atlanta and Baltimore and Dallas, it's gonna look different in Newark and, and, and Camden, New Jersey and, and, and, and in the middle of Idaho, but someone's gonna tell you on any, on any given day that you're black. Wow, that is one heavy observation. And she's right because we all know it, celebrating art in the atrium, incorporated Women and the arts Simone Craig is Ceo Candace Kelly is co hosts of the Not all hood podcast that you were listening to. Tell us about your special guest and what people can experience on Sunday when this is being held. Yes. Yes. Sunday, September 15th. Um Not a hood Malcolm Jamal Warner. So Malcolm Jamal Warner will be there. Um And you know, people like to hear what he has to say as well as the co-host, but it is interesting to see him in a different light uh just being vulnerable as he puts it and not seeing theo anymore. He's not theo, right? And he likes that people recognize him in that way. And so when we talk about the show and the actual purpose of it, he and the other co-host will you baraka? They really started it to create this counter narrative as to what is out there and how blacks in America are actually regarded because we're not all a monolith, we come from different parts of the country. We're different um heritages, we're different, speak different languages. Uh Well, you know, we're, we're immigrants, we're all of these things. So when we talk about being black, it's not just one thing. And that is the premise of the show. And I think that when we talk about narratives and what blacks do in America, I think it's a really fine connection too with art and the Atrium because when we look at art and the work that's out there, it also is symbolic of what's going on in so society, what's going on in the world and it is a documentation of history, but in, in, in the fine art world. And so these two, you know, not all hood as well as art and the Atrium. I think that they really parallel in terms of the story and the dynamics that are behind it that really are pushing us forward to come to the table and tell our story. Yeah, I, I really love what you said about that, especially how there was this synergy there uh between art and the Atrium and not podcast because for so long, fine art hasn't necessarily been seen as a black thing. Right. And I think what the podcast speaks to so beautifully is, well, what is a black thing? Exactly. And questioning how the associations we make, uh with blackness and with fine art, quite frankly.

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I am chatting with two very successful women here celebrating art in the Atrium Incorporated Simone Craig is the Ceo Candace Kelly is the co hosts of the Not All Hood podcast that's being featured in a special event uh today. As a matter of fact, where did that name come from? Well, you know what it, it came from the co host of the show, it came from Willis Baraka and Malcolm Jamal Warner, but their point calling it not all Hood was that if you think about the way that blacks people of color are often portrayed in the media, whether it's the news, whether it's in film TV, shows anything many times, there's this idea about who blacks are in America and often it's not good. Um You can look up any Gallup poll or any pew research to talk about and look into what people think about blacks in terms of how they are looked at in the media. So the whole idea plays off this idea to create this counter narrative that listen, it's not all hood, it's not all bad, it's not all entrenched in trauma, it's not all entrenched in slavery, it's not a, there's so many ways that we can look at being an existing uh as, as a black person in America. And so that's really where this whole idea came from. Also. Um Henry Louis Gates talk, talked about how there is, there aren't, there's not just one way to be black in America, there are thousands of ways to be black. We can't get caught up to think about, you know, this idea of the black vote. For example, there really is no such thing as a black vote. It's so much more nuanced in the way that we are thinking about everything from politics to familial dy dynamics to just anything that is out there, it is not a monolith, it's not one path and um in one way to be Black in America. So technically, we shouldn't say the black experience because we all go through something different. But yet we understand why. Yeah. And you know, that's an interesting point too because we get a lot of comments uh when we post things and people do understand they understand that it's different. But there is kind of a through line, you know, a thread that we do that we all can understand, you know what I mean. So when you go to an area that might be all white, for example, and you see somebody that is African American and you nod, you know what that means. We understand that we're here, you know what I mean, we may not all be the same but we, we certainly have an understanding uh, of, of what it's like to be and exist. It just doesn't all look the same. And I see you, I see you in these spaces where we tend to not see each other. Hey, I don't know you but I see, I see you. Exactly. At noon, Simone shares how art in the atrium gives back in the community and its schools and you can get a link for tickets to their community event today on News twelve.com.

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We are celebrating art in the Atrium Incorporated Simone Craig is the Ceo Candace Kelly is co hosts of the Not All Hood podcast that is being featured at a special event today in conjunction with A T A. You see their lovely logos here. Let us talk about the fact. You're a nonprofit that gives back. Yes, absolutely. One of the co founders of art and the Atrium was my mother Victoria Craig and she was an educator. Uh She taught third grade for most of her career. And so education and the arts were really important to her. So, one of the things that we have done from the very beginning is uh through the proceeds of our exhibits, we would do artists in the schools programs uh programming. And actually just this last year, we our A T A Steam Academy where we worked with high school students who were experiencing some pandemic related learning loss. And we helped them um with programming, arts programming so that they could use the arts as a communication tool and they did an exhibit uh afterwards. And so it was just, it was really um fulfilling to see that play out with, with kids in the arts. So that's something that we uh hold as a, a real value at art in the atrium is to go into schools, school districts and do arts programming. And this last year also exciting is that we got to take the kids out of school and take them to uh art exhibits in uh Morris County of Marts of New Jersey, special field trips for them that they did. They felt they felt very special. As a matter of fact, they said, please do that again, especially the teachers love that, right. Please take them out. You know, and, and that's really important because you have young people in school who function in different ways and sometimes it's not in books but they come alive and they're able to relate to other people through art, you know, whether it's fine art, whether it's photography, whether it's, you know, um, you know, going to see a play, but, uh, they are writing but the arts are very, very important in order to keep young people grounded who may not necessarily be performing in a traditional classroom. It's a, it's a, it's an amazing way just to have them express their way. Uh, they express themselves in a different way because they have that creative streak they need to bring out. That's right. That's right. Uh And also, uh we are, uh using this program for, with the high school students as, uh kind of um fueling those Children on if there's a passion there to major in fine arts in college. So we provide um seniors who are going on to major in fine arts in college with scholarships as well. We have a scholarship student right now down in Sad uh Atlanta. Um and that's also something along with the artists in the school programming that we uh give scholarships to students as well who are majoring in fine arts.

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Not All Hood podcast cohost Candace Kelley and Art in the Atrium CEO Simone Craig spoke to News 12’s Della Crews about a special event. 

Spotlight New Jersey: Art in the Atrium in Morristown

Not All Hood podcast cohost Candace Kelley and Art in the Atrium CEO Simone Craig spoke to News 12’s Della Crews about a special event.

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