EVENTS
In Conversation with Opal Lee and Sedrick Huckaby
March 9, 2024 at 3:30pm
National Portrait Gallery
Join us in Washington, D.C. at the Smithsonian Institution National Portrait Gallery on Saturday, March 9th for a historic conversation between legendary activist Ms. Opal Lee and internationally renowned artist Sedrick Huckaby.
The 96-year-old, former Nobel Prize Nominee, Ms. Opal Lee will be in discussion with longtime friend and fellow Fort Worth, Texas resident artist Sedrick Huckaby. This event is in connection with the museum’s Women’s History Month Celebration and marks the portrait of Ms. Lee by Sedrick Huckaby entering the museum’s permanent collection.
Having known the community leader since childhood, Huckaby is the only artist to have painted Ms. Lee from life. A graduate of Boston University and Yale University, Huckaby has spent much of his artistic career painting and celebrating ordinary people and families within his Fort Worth community and beyond. The artist recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Nacimiento, Mexico where he created portraits of residents that have celebrated the Juneteenth holiday since its inception in 1865.
Together the artist and activist will discuss their respective roles as community leaders and the significance of Juneteenth as a national and international holiday. This is a rare opportunity to hear the charismatic and inspirational Ms. Lee in dialogue with the insightful Mr. Huckaby, as they speak to the importance of Juneteenth, their work, and their respective visions.
Free registration is encouraged. Click here to register.
About Ms. Opal Lee
Known as the “Grandmother of Juneteenth,” Ms. Opal Lee was present on June 17, 2021, when President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act bill establishing June 19 or “Juneteenth” a federal holiday. Ms. Lee is the oldest living board member of the National Juneteenth Observance Foundation (NJOF) started by the late Dr. Ronald Myers to have Juneteenth declared a National Holiday. At 90 years of age, she started her walking campaign, and in 2019, she launched an online petition campaign that garnered over 1.6 million signatures to continue the crusade for holiday observance.
Ms. Opal currently serves on the board of Unity Unlimited, Inc. and Transform 1012 N. Main Street and is a Board Member and Honorary Chair of the National Juneteenth Museum. She has received seven honorary doctorates, has been named 2021 Texan of the Year by the Dallas Morning News editorial board, the 2021 Unsung Hero of the Pandemic, Fort Worth Inc.’s 2022 Person of the Year, is a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and most recently became the second African American to have her portrait hung in the Texas State Senate.
Having known the community leader since childhood, Huckaby is the only artist to have painted Ms. Lee from life. A graduate of Boston University and Yale University, Huckaby has spent much of his artistic career painting and celebrating ordinary people and families within his Fort Worth community and beyond. The artist recently completed a Fulbright Fellowship in Nacimiento, Mexico where he created portraits of residents that have celebrated the Juneteenth holiday since its inception in 1865.
Together the artist and activist will discuss their respective roles as community leaders and the significance of Juneteenth as a national and international holiday. This is a rare opportunity to hear the charismatic and inspirational Ms. Lee in dialogue with the insightful Mr. Huckaby, as they speak to the importance of Juneteenth, their work, and their respective visions.
Free registration is encouraged. Click here to register.
About Sedrick Huckaby
Sedrick Huckaby’s paintings, drawings, and sculpture metaphorically express universal themes of faith, family, community, and heritage. Huckaby focuses on the subjects of quilts and portraits in his quest to glorify everyday people. Huckaby received his BFA from Boston University and his MFA from Yale University. Huckaby is the recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Fulbright Fellowship, and American Academy of Arts and Letters Award. Additionally, he is the recipient of a Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant, Elizabeth Greenshield Award, a Davison Family Fellowship from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Elaine De Kooning House Residency and the Art for Change Residency in New Delhi, India. Huckaby’s work has entered the permanent collections of numerous museums and institutions including the American Embassy in Namibia; Amon Carter Museum of American Art; Art Institute of Chicago; Harvard Art Museums; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Nasher Museum at Duke University; National Portrait Gallery, Washington D.C.; Yale University Art Gallery; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Born in 1975, Huckaby lives and works in his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas. He is married to artist Letitia Huckaby and is the father of three children, Rising Sun, Halle Lujah and Rhema Rain Huckaby.