THE DEDICATORS PRESENT THEIR 11th ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF THE BLACK ARTIST
The Dedicators, the 53 year old organization that provides educational opportunities for young people seeking undergraduate degrees, will honor three accomplished leaders in the world of African American art: celebrated
veteran landscape artist, professor Richard Mayhew; world renown printmaker, metalsmith and weaver, Evangeline (EJ) Juliet Montgomery and Laurie A. Cumbo, founder and Executive Director of the Museum Of Contemporary African Diasporan Arts (MoCADA), at a
grand luncheon and art sale at Brooklyn’s Grand Prospect Hall, on Saturday, October 21, 2006 beginning at 11 A.M. As has been their custom, the Dedicators have invited a host of celebrated New York area established artists as dais guests, as virtual
who’s who in Black Art.
By the young age of twenty, Sarah Anesta Pond, the fifth of twelve children, went into business for herself, opening the first of what would become a chain of beauty parlors in her native Panama. She married fellow
Panamanian Henry Samuel, and in the early 1950s migrated to the United States. Their Brooklyn home was a beacon and “holding pad” of sorts for other family members and Panamanians who came to the states. She helped other family members to get an
education and create a better life for themselves. Along with some of these friends, Anesta, seeking to assist other young people coming to the U.S., in the quest to get a better education, formed a group to raise funds for scholarships. That group,
formed in 1953, was Las Servidoras, which later became The Dedicators. She led that group for 51 years, until her death in August 2004. Among those founding members who are still among the Dedicators are Grace Y. Ingleton, Velma Armstrong, Jane
“Shirley” Isaac, and Ruthwin Samuel.
Over the past 52 years, the Dedicators have awarded over one million dollars in scholarships to young people who are now prominent contributors in every walk of life. The first scholarship granted was to a young Panamanian
immigrant, Robert Reid, who went on to become Chief Urologist at Albert Einstein Hospital in the Bronx.
This years honorees include two distinguished veterans and one new young rising star. Mayhew, is an impassioned landscape and abstract painter who paints the shapes and linear planes of life on canvas with thick strokes of
color in a free-form verse of his thoughts and vision of reality. Richard is a former member of the famed “Spiral Group” organized in 1963 which included Romare Bearden, Norman Lewis, Charles Alston,
Reginal Gammon, Al Hollingsworth, Bill Majors, Felrath Hines, Perry Ferguson, Calvin Douglass, Merton Simpson, Earl Miller, Jimmy Yeargans and the only female artist, Emma Amos.
Montgomery, or E.J., as she is affectionately called, is also an experienced independent curator to museums, university galleries and art centers. She served as art commissioner in San Francisco in the late
70;s before becoming a program development officer for the U.S. Information Agency’s Arts America Program specializing in putting together international touring exhibitions of American artists throughout the world. A long time member of the National
Conference of Artists (NCA), she has devoted a lifetime commitment to art awareness, particularly to the promotion and development of African American artists.
Laurie Cumbo is a true patron of the arts. She has exemplified the efforts of an art benefactor through her tenacious demeanor and distinguished successes in creating MoCADA. Her innovative fundraising events
that have made MoCADAs creation in a relatively short time, a model to be studied by all community organizations.
Upon completing her graduate studies in Visual Arts Administration at New York University, she delved into the creation of a space where Black artists could exhibit their work, a much needed space in the
most populated borough - with the most African American and Caribbean artists, living in the African Diaspora, the People’s Republic of Brooklyn. Her dream came true this May, 2006, when the Museum of Contemporary African Disaporan Arts opened in its
brand new, thriving edifice at 80 Hanson Place, in the heart of Brooklyn’s cultural district.
For tickets, contributions and corporate tables, contact: Velma Armstrong (718) 789-9037 or Grace Y. Ingleton (718) 276-7259.
