• NW 27th Avenue & 79th Street, Miami, FL
Untitled (Northside Shopping Center)
Photo Courtesy Robert McKnight, Roland Woods Jr.
2023 photo courtesy Warren Bailey
Proposal
The images of Northside Shopping Center are very appropriate to the legacy of the Miami Black Arts Workshop, part of which was a very keen awareness that If the people are not coming to the art, or if going to places like museums and art galleries was not part of their general lifestyle, because there would usually be nothing on display that relates to their lives and experience, then we must take the art ton the people.
Northside Shopping Center was an ideal place to stage an exhibition of Black art by black artists reflecting the community, especially at that time, when it thrived with “big box” anchor stores, situated right in the “hood.”
Biography
Gene Tinnie, born South Bronx, NY. Received an M.A. in French literature and linguistics from Queens College. Joined the Miami Black Arts Workshop (1974) and a founding member of the KUUMBA Artists Collective.
Miami Black Arts Workshop Collective (1969-1985) was created
by black art students at the University of Miami. MBAW was founded by artists Roland Woods Jr. and Walter Dennis. Members included, Robert & Donald McKnight, Dinizulu Gene Tinnie, Renee J. Ransom, Sylvia Jordan, Arnett Lee, Kabuya Saffo-Bowens, Arlice Sims, Ernest Cason, Lucius King, George Wrentz and others.