Celebrating Black History Month: Forgotten Things Forgotten Times
Artist: Onnie Strother
Curator: Nette Forné Thomas
Opening Reception
Live Music and Refreshments
Sunday, February 1 from 2 - 5 PM
On Display Saturdays and Sundays
Feb 1 - Feb 22 from 2 to 5 PM
1978 Arts Center
1978 Springfield Avenue
Maplewood, NJ
Sponsored by Maplewood Arts & Culture
Free Event
Onnie Strother maintains an art studio at Riker Hill in Livingston, NJ.
His life’s work has been inspiring and teaching young people about art as well as educating people of all ages about the Black experience in America. He is a former art and art history teacher with degrees in fine art, art education, and administration and supervision. He has had a storied career of 24 years as an art instructor at Columbia High school in the South Orange Maplewood School District. Onnie grew up in Newark, attending art classes at the Newark Museum on Saturdays at the age of nine, and later attending Barringer High School. Upon graduating from high school, Onnie attended the New York School of Visual Arts on a scholarship. Afterwards, he attended Rutgers University and became certified as an art teacher, which led to being hired at Columbia High School in Maplewood, NJ. There, he had a storied career for 24 years. At the invitation of Newark Arts High School principal Eleta J. Caldwell, he became the art department chair there. It was a position he held until retiring in 2008. Since that time, Onnie has focused on curating and exhibiting his own art at many venues in the region. He currently teaches printmaking at the WAE Center, a facility for the developmentally disabled in Livingston, NJ. while continuing to create and exhibit his art. The subjects of his work in various styles are derived from the media, popular music, and political and social issues.
His primary focus is print making consisting of lino cuts and monoprints, photography, and mixed media pieces, which at times combine these multiple elements. This has led him to create various series. Some of these are Gospel Divas, The Tire series, Newspaper Vendors, and his current photographs of the closed site of Bethlehem Steel. Onnie has received grants from The National Endowment for the Humanities and The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation. He is an acclaimed historian and lecturer of art history and Black history.
Artist Statement:
I have never wanted to be anything other than a teacher and an artist. My granddad used to say, “Find something that you’re good at, something that you like to do, and you will never have to work.” Well, don’t believe it! Both teaching and creating art demand dedication and hard work. Still, I can say as an artist that I love what I do. As a teacher, I get to share that love with others.
All this fits nicely into my personality. I like to talk a lot. I enjoy sharing what I have learned. I was born in the right place at the right time for my chosen path. Brick City in the 1950s and 1960s was a cultural mecca, an amazing place to be for a Black artist. There was Spirit House and Mosque, the Newark Museum and the Newark School of Fine and Industrial Arts, and the Bamberger’s Department store I saw the art of Romare Bearden and Michelangelo’s Moses, before it was taken to the 1964 World's Fair. (Newark was da Bomb!) Music in every variety filled the city; I couldn’t wait to be a part of it. As soon as I was old enough, I attended Saturday Junior Art School, Arts High, NSFIA, and Rutgers University. Along the way, I have had the opportunity to teach and show artwork in many of these institutions. In my own way, recording, teaching, and remembering -I can give something back.