Coming up on State of the Arts, a profound visual memoir, art for all ages, and the evolution of the guitar.

We share these stories from around the country as well as what's happening in our own backyard on this latest edition of State of the Arts.

(electronic music) Hello, I'm Mary Paul, thank you for joining us.

We begin our arts journey this week in Columbus, Ohio, where for nearly seven decades, artist Aminah Robinson depicted the lives of black people through her work, fusing together history and culture.

And now, her legacy is being celebrated in a new exhibition, Aminah Robinson: Journeys Home, a Visual Memoir.

I never thought I was young because I've always thought I lived in a timelessness.

I knew what I wanted to do.

The Springfield Museum of Art has been so honored to be the first stop on the tour for Aminah Robinson: Journeys Home, a Visual Memoir.

So this opportunity came to us through the Columbus Museum of Art and through the Art Bridges Foundation.

As an artist, Aminah was unconventional.

She found art in every aspect of her life.

She could walk down the street and pick up a leaf and see the beauty.

Aminah Robinson holds a central place in our community here in Columbus, and especially at the Columbus Museum of Art.

When Aminah passed away in 2015, she entrusted her life's work to the museum.

And now we're fortunate to be stewards of her home studio, her archives, all of the work that remained, as well as her writings and her library.

The title of this exhibition, Aminah Robinson: Journeys Home: a Visual Memoir, is a perfect title for this exhibition.

Aminah's work focused so much on exploring her history, her past, her communities, her family, her family's histories.

And the way that she communicates to the world is through her works of art.

I would describe her as regal, yet humble, as deeply thoughtful, but also engaging, as a genius who recognized the genius in others, as someone who lived in the moment and was ahead of her time.

So the four different sections were childhood home and then ancestral home, and then spiritual home and journeys home.

And Deidre organized artworks that she felt belonged in each of those sections.

The really big RagGonNon pieces, the panoramic pieces I really wanted on our most visible wall.

And so it was a lot of moving pieces around and trying to understand how to tell the story and keep things in some chronological order.

We had an opportunity through Art Bridges Foundation to create an exhibition based on works that were in our permanent collection.

And Aminah Robinson's works rose to the surface as the first idea.

So instead of 240 works, we have 60 works.

And 60 works come out of our permanent collection.

This we decided to create about home, her search for home in every aspect of her life.

Because of the value of the work and the delicateness of the work, we are working closely with Columbus Museum of Art and their courier, making sure that the work is handled carefully, uncrated exactly as it needs to be and recrated.

Aminah's work is a really important part because she made work for seven decades.

And her work is so deeply rooted in African storytelling and ideas around community, ideas around resourcefulness and scrappiness and resilience.

And I think their stories need to be told.

Robinson's art, rooted in history and storytelling, offers a powerful entry point for engaging younger audiences.

Where Aminah started, she really does credit her early upbringing in Poindexter Village, which was a publicly funded housing complex, one of the first of its kind in Columbus, Ohio.

So some of her early influence as far as her art making came from her family and from the Poindexter Village community in Columbus, Ohio.

She was an artist, but didn't see herself as an artist.

She said, "I'm just walking through life.

"I just walk."

She enveloped her community and she became her community.

And when she expressed it in her art and in her writing, we knew she was ahead of her time.

She did seven decades of work.

We did not know how important what she was doing then would be to us now, but she knew because she also created her future for us to be able to live in.

I recall hearing an interview where she talked about how she had spent a lot of time in the public library and even worked in the public library for a while and she became absolutely mesmerized by maps.

I don't know, sort of a bird's eye view, looking over a streetscape or a city or something like that.

So, you know, paying attention to all those signs and the people that she sees on the streets, I think is really fascinating and definitely very Aminah.

When Aminah traveled, she was known to have an intention.

She would learn the language before she left in order to be able to communicate with the people she would encounter.

When she would go into the spaces, she would sit in the quarters outside.

She would just become part of the community.

She had gone to Egypt.

She had gone to Africa.

But in this particular case, she was in the Middle East.

She was in Jerusalem, Herzliya.

And she sat in the quarters and watched the people, the diversity of the people.

I think there's such a strong sense of community, which I think is, tends to be such an important part of African American culture, but she radiates that sensibility.

And I think that's really evident.

Aminah was such an inspiring presence.

She really is a larger than life presence.

And you would feel that when she would come into the museum and you'd have the opportunity to meet her.

As part of this exhibition, "A Street Called Home," that piece I walk by every day in Columbus is here.

And it's highlighted at the Springfield Museum of Art.

I think she would be so humbled and willing proud, but not proud in a haughty way at all.

She would have believed that a dream of hers had come true.

Something she set intention upon actually came to life.

And her whole life was about nurturing others, nurturing community.

(gentle music) Giving voice to all of humanity, not just one group, not just one race, creed, color, none of that.

She was about bringing people together, uplifting people, giving voice to people.

And I think she believed, and it's true, that her art did that.

And the fact that she could continue that legacy through this project, I think she would be very, very happy.

The Holland Project is an arts and music initiative based in Reno, Nevada that welcomes people of all ages.

In this segment, we experience their seventh biennial fundraiser, "All In," where the work of a hundred artists was featured.

Take a look.

Good job!

(upbeat music) Holland is really significant to our arts community because it shows a really great snapshot of the artists who are in Holland's orbit.

It's an exhibition where we have pieces up for sale that artists donate to us.

Everybody comes out and they can purchase a piece, first come first serve for $100 to $200 as like a buyer.

You're very lucky to catch a really good piece for a really good price.

And all of that money goes towards fundraising for the Holland Project.

(upbeat music) That's a great idea.

What's this?

Yeah.

The Holland Project is an all ages, nonprofit art and music initiative based in Reno, Nevada.

Our aim is creating and providing all ages access to arts, programming, workshops, skill building opportunities and community-based events.

I'd say the big focus of most of the events are music and concerts that gets a lot of people out here, but it's definitely a notable space for artists locally to be able to show work and to see work and support.

The Holland Project first and foremost to me is like just a wonderful community space that is really open to everybody.

The music scene here, we're really lucky.

There's so many venues where it's only 21 and up, but the Holland Project really gives an opportunity for everyone to be part of that experience.

When I first started becoming an artist, I had my first exhibit at their Youngblood Show when I was in high school.

So at whatever age, if you feel creative, they have space for you.

I am a local shop owner.

I own a toy store and a vintage shop.

My friend volunteered a lot at Holland.

We went to a few shows while I was here.

And everyone was so nice and welcoming.

I was like, wow, everyone's so sweet and so interested, even though I don't know them.

And that was a huge contrast from where I was living at the time.

All In is our biannual fundraiser for the gallery space here.

It's how the gallery gets most of its funds other than grants and other support.

Money that we raise for the event goes back to keeping the lights on, doors open in the gallery.

It pays artists to come to the space and have their exhibition.

And it funds all of the arts programming that we do here at Holland.

Nick Larsen came up with the idea for the All In exhibition back in 2014.

He was on the gallery committee at the time.

And we've done it every two years since.

This year, we had about 140 artists participate, which is like the biggest number that we've ever had.

We select artists to be in an exhibition who have played a role at Holland in some facet.

It's a huge mix of artists between like younger artists.

We invite folks from our Young Blood exhibition and just young artists that we know around.

And also like professional artists that have been in Holland for a decade or more who are like established.

So it's a cool opportunity to have a full encompassing view of Holland's community and who supports Holland and the wide variety and demographic of folks who come here.

I was so stoked when I got a invitation.

Every time like I get an opportunity like this, I'm like, "oh my God."

I just knew this is the one I really wanted to show.

It's actually a portrait of my friend, Starla.

This one was aiming towards anguish and the closeness of nature women inherently have.

There was like November, everything was pretty dead.

And then we just shot there and we just like walked around, just shot and it was just beautiful.

She's such a natural model, it's amazing.

So I was asked to participate in All In.

I've been coming to Holland for years now and being in All In was like a goal of mine.

It can be like a real Reno artist if I get invited to do that.

I'm usually a textile artist, but I'm doing something different.

Whatever it is, I'm thinking I'm just trying to do it.

I am making a bare bench for All In and now I'm applying plaster.

Leading up to the event, seeing all the really amazing artwork that folks donated.

These are things that they put their love and time into.

It was really special.

This was probably the biggest exhibition that I've managed and put together so far along with the support of everyone here at Holland.

Everyone at Holland helps coordinating install, helping plan the reception.

So there's months of planning that goes into this event and the event is just two quick hours, so chaotic.

It's always a lot of anticipation kind of leading up to the reception.

People start to usually line up because they're vying for that piece that they want.

Like I said, it's first come first serve, so they have their eye on the one piece that they want and they want to get in the door and get it before anybody else can.

In line, I'm stressed out because you're mentally preparing.

You're trying to get there early.

If you don't and you see them pick up your piece, it hurts.

It's very much like Black Friday too, where you're running in and you're just trying to grab what you want.

It's kind of competitive.

We are limiting it to three pieces per person.

And then if you remove a tack, we're gonna assume you're purchasing it.

So if there's ever a tag list for you to buy.

I would say we always have around 200 to 300 people that show up throughout the course of the night.

We give a guess of about 300, but my guess was between 200 and one million.

(upbeat music) happening within the space.

We had a fun interactive photo booth this time.

Next door, we have a community printmaking lab.

This year we added a new element to it.

We did a cake walk during the reception.

Not everybody can always have time to make a piece or send us a piece.

And we have a lot of friend artists who are also great bakers.

So this year we decided to add that.

Cake walk people, did I tell you?

All right.

When the music starts, you guys move.

You guys are kind of like musical chairs.

You walk around this square.

When the music stops, you stand on whatever number is closest to you.

I will pull a number from the bowl and that person wins the cake.

There's so much stuff happening.

I am excited for the tattoo.

I'm not gonna lie.

I have a raffle tickets for sale for $5 a pop.

You get a tattoo of one of the tattoos available on there.

So I've been wanting to get tattoos forever, but maybe this will be a good first one.

Well, how cool.

That's really cool.

When someone buys a piece, I feel very like, "Wow, someone liked something that I made "and it's very sweet."

And I'm like, always think I'm like, "Where are they at?"

I'm just kind of, they're gonna love it.

And I want to ask them where they're gonna put it.

I feel like Holland is one of the pillars of the Reno community.

So many cool people put this together.

My heart wants to come out.

I literally could not do this without the community I have here.

Plus, I've made so many new friends, which is really awesome through the Holland Project.

And it's just something that kind of binds us all together at the end of the day.

Everyone knows what the Holland Project is.

They know it's a spot.

It's important to support these artists.

The creators in our area help make and keep Reno what it is.

All-ages programming is really important.

No matter what city you're in, I think it contributes to like a really vibrant arts culture and makes a really vibrant city.

At the Bishop Museum of Science and Nature in Bradenton, Florida, the story of the guitar is on display thanks to the touring exhibition, America at the Crossroads.

Up next, we find out more about the show and this popular instrument.

Exhibition is called America at the Crossroads and it's about guitars.

(guitar music) This is one of the coolest exhibitions I've seen in the 42 years I've been coming here as a musician to see all these different guitars and all these state of the art guitars, all these historic guitars.

Really one of the coolest things I've seen here.

So I've been playing guitar almost 40 years and that's one of the reasons I really wanted to bring this exhibit here because I wanted to be able to share with people my passion for guitars.

This is from the National Guitar Museum in New York City and they travel guitar exhibits around the world.

This is one of three they have currently traveling around but this one we thought the people of Bradenton would really enjoy.

So this looks at how guitars came to be in the United States of America, how they really evolved, changed and then in the 20th century, how guitars became a symbol of American social movement.

Well, the origins of the guitar really came from the Middle East and maybe 2000 years ago, they have ouds and they have lutes.

Lots of early stringed instruments where basically they realized that plucking a string under tension over some object would make a musical sound.

By the time we get to the 1500s, you start to see what look like guitars today, just a lot smaller and a slightly different shape but they're very, very similar and that's when the settlers came over, bought them over from Europe and that's when we start to see them arrive in the Americas.

So it starts with the first guitars that came to America that actually were first found in St.

Augustine with the Spanish settlers who came over there.

It then looks at over the next couple of hundred years how acoustic guitars and Spanish classical guitars evolved, became something a little bit louder, got picked up but then it gets really exciting when we get into the jazz age, into the country bluegrass age and then when electric guitars start happening, a very American story and how electric guitars really took over and became something that American social history evolved around the same time as.

Well, you get the Martin Company up in Pennsylvania, they develop a way to make guitars stronger which makes them bigger and makes them louder but still have a great tone but it's really in the 20th century, everything really changes when they start to learn how to electrify guitars, put electric pickups on them, plug them into what were converted radiograms and now the guitars finally get loud enough to compete with a jazz band or a big band and all of a sudden the guitar isn't a rhythm instrument anymore, it becomes a lead instrument and you start to get people like Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, start playing lead jazz guitar, that changes everything.

So what happened after World War II is American society really started to evolve and people had a lot more leisure time, people started to have money again and Americans wanted to go out and dance and hear live music.

So the auditoriums the bands would be playing got larger, that meant the guitars had to get louder.

I definitely think it's an absolute collaboration because it's the needs of the guitar players versus what the manufacturers are putting together.

So the Telecaster and the Stratocaster made by Fender is a perfect example.

They're only a few years apart in their production but Fender took the advice from the musicians and put all that advice and work into the Fender Stratocaster and now that's the most popular electric guitar to this day.

Every type of movement needs a new guitar and that's one of the things we look at here in the exhibit is you have the guitars that made rock and roll, you have the guitars that made jazz, you have the guitars that made country, western and bluegrass.

But then later on in the exhibit, you get into things like Eddie Van Halen's Frankenstein guitar that became a symbol of heavy metal.

Particularly one of the most interesting objects we have is a guitar designed by Annie Clark of St.

Vincent and that was by the Ernie Ball Music Man Company, the first time a female artist actually designed a guitar from the ground up.

Before then women had played the same guitars as men but quite often had problems with the scale lengths being big, the bodies being big and this was the first time a female artist actually designed a guitar to be based around a woman's body.

So as guitars got louder and you could start focusing on the lead guitarist, they started presenting a story to America.

So through the civil rights movement, through women's rights movements, through just whatever's going on, we could tell other people our story and try to fix and solve problems and make change by just playing that song.

But how emotional do you get when you hear that favorite song of yours and it makes you want to act on something?

I think guitars are always gonna be there and I think there's something about getting up on stage, playing through an amplifier, playing through a big open G chord and feeling that air moving behind you and the sense of the vibration through your body.

The first time any young player does that and makes a chord that sounds good, there's just no feeling like it.

I love electronic music too, but when you actually get a guitar strapped on, when you play it, there's just something visceral about it and physical about it that you can't replicate and there'll always be a place for people playing those big loud chords through big amplifiers and getting that feeling and what that invokes in an audience.

It's the loudest.

All the other instruments, they can only go so far but with amplification, the electric guitar can outplay anything and that's why it takes the spotlight when you're going to concerts.

It's bold but it's very expressive.

You can be quiet with it, you can be soft with it, you can be dramatic with it, you can be mad with it, you can be angry, you can be happy, you can be cheerful, but you're gonna be loud or soft.

I think there's lots to take away from this exhibit.

I think if you like music, you get a chance to see the guitars up close, that your favorite musicians have played.

If you play guitar, you get to see some guitars here that maybe you've never seen before, which is my experience with this exhibit.

But what I would love people to take away is understand what a really amazing American story the electric guitar was particularly and I would love it if people went away and thought, you know what, I'm gonna give that a go.

I think there's something special here, there's a lot of variety and I would love people to actually go buy their first starter guitar.

It's never been a better time because starter guitars now are better quality than they've ever been.

I would love some people in three or four years' time to come back to the museum and say, I came to your exhibit, I started playing guitar and I'm still playing today.

Before we wrap up this week, let's take a look at our Southern Arizona Arts Calendar.

It's the time of year that light displays are popping up around Tucson.

For a Sonoran Desert spin on traditional holiday lights Tohono Chul's Holiday Nights combines music with its illuminated cactus gardens beginning on Friday, December 5th.

The Tucson Botanical Gardens: Lights Up!

A Festival of Illumination is currently underway and features over one million lights and luminaria along its curated pathways.

The gardens feature sculptures and colorful displays built by local artisans.

The Festival of Illumination runs six nights a week through January.

Now we take a trip back in time.

The year was 1985.

In a story you'll find only in the vaults of AZPM, we look back at Tucson's holiday tradition, once known as the Ho Ho Hotline.

Since December 9th, Santa Claus and the Mrs.

have taken up residence at the Devon Gables Healthcare Center in Tucson.

They left the elves in the workshop and they answered the phones, the Ho Ho Hotline, listening to the Christmas wishes of good little girls and boys.

Hello there, how are you this morning?

Are you waiting for Christmas to come?

And what would you like to have for Christmas?

Well, we'll bring you whatever you want.

And it'll be under the Christmas tree.

And bye bye, be a good girl.

Santa Claus, how many little boys and girls did you hear from this holiday season?

About 3,000, all the way from two to nine.

Mrs.

Santa, what was the most requested gift that they asked you for?

Cabbage dolls.

Boys want trucks.

They mostly asked for bicycles and trucks and some, well they can't have no sleds down here, but maybe roller skates.

Mrs.

Santa, what was it like to talk to all those children on the phone?

I think it's wonderful.

It's just wonderful.

It's made me very happy.

I asked them if they've been good and all of them said they would have been good and I hope they have.

Santa Claus, what would you like for Christmas?

Well, I would like to have peace on earth and goodwill to men.

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

And that wraps it up for this week's edition of State of the Arts.

I'm Mary Paul, thanks for joining us.