CAPE MAY – The public is invited to help celebrate Black History Month with a panel discussion on the exhibit, "Wendel White's Schools for the Colored with an exhibit highlighting the life and soul of the Franklin Street School."
Join nationally renowned photographer Wendel White and representatives from the Center for Community Arts and the local community at the Carriage House Gallery at the Emlen Physick Estate, 1048 Washington St., Sunday, Feb. 19 at 4 p.m. as they discuss the exhibit's main theme: racially segregated schools in the northern United States. The panel discussion and exhibit are co-sponsored by the Center for Community Arts (CCA) and the Mid-Atlantic Center for the Arts & Humanities (MAC).
Joining White as panelists are: Vera Smith of Whitesboro, who attended the Whitesboro School; Emily Dempsey of West Cape May, who attended the Franklin Street School; Barbara Blanks Cottman of Rio Grande, who attended the Whitesboro School; and Lois Smith of North Cape May, who attended the Franklin Street School.
Wendel White's Schools for the Colored features photographs of buildings and sites White describes as "connected to the system of racially segregated schools established in the northern United States." His images include schools in he describes as segregated by Jim Crow-imposed segregation, by self-imposed segregation initiated by members of the black community and by de facto segregation.
Alongside White's images is another exhibit of photographs curated by the Center for Community Arts highlighting the life and soul of Cape May's Franklin Street School, which opened in September 1928 as an elementary school for Cape May's black children and operated until segregation was banned in New Jersey. The school is designated as a contributing building to the Cape May National Register Historic District and designated by the State of New Jersey as an African-American Historic Site.
White was born in Newark and grew up in New York, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. He was awarded a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in photography from the School of Visual Arts in New York and a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography from the University of Texas at Austin. White taught photography at the School of Visual Arts, N.Y.; The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, N.Y.; the International Center for Photography, N.Y.; Rochester Institute of Technology; and is currently Distinguished Professor of Art at The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, in Pomona.
Schools for the Colored opened Jan. 16 and is open Saturdays through April 14; Sundays, Feb. 19, April 1 and April 15, Monday, Feb. 20 and Monday through Thursday, April 2 through April 12. Admission is free and gallery hours vary. For information on hours, call 884-5404 or 800-275-4278.
