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Seaside Florida Happenings!

Heather Haynes
May 9, 2017
5 min read

It was a whirl-wind... I had just returned from a fantastic 6 weeks in Tanzania when I suddenly needed to get the gallery back up and running, adapt to the time change, visit family and pack up 120 paintings to bring to Seaside, Florida. Why Seaside? Well it's a bit of a story, but here you go!

Shay Bell, with whom I have joined forces - not only in Tanzania but in the Congo - happened to live on the 30A area of the Gulf of Mexico. She sold everything she had 4.5 years ago and moved to Moshi, Tanzania. We joined forces not long after and co-founded the Pamoja Tunaweza Boys and Girls Club.

A friend of hers, Hillary Glenn, went to Moshi this past fall to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. Inspired to help Shay raise funds for the club, they began discussing bringing the Wall of Courage to Seaside sometime during Shay's visit home, mid March through mid May.

As Jeff and I arrived home from Tanzania, we were informed that we had the Seaside Institute confirmed for the date April 27-29th and Anne Hunter Galleries wanted to represent the Wall showing at Seaside and also host my other work at her gallery space in Seaside Square for the month.

So, we had a decision to make...

We decided I would spend the month in Seaside and Jeff would drive me down with a trailer full of paintings... he would stay for a week, fly home for two weeks and fly back to hang the final Wall of Courage show... and then drive the paintings and me home!

We had no idea what our time would bring...

It brought sunshine, beach and a load of creative people into our lives! Artists, photographers, painters, sculptors, architects, playwrights, gallery owners, film makers, storytellers, Playboy bunnies ;)... Connections that will grow over time and a confirmation that the Wall of Courage and I continually need to travel.

It took us two full days of driving to get down to Seaside... We arrived after dinner time on April 5th. I would be staying in the Academic Village cottages across from the Seaside School, just behind Seaside Square. The location couldn't have been better. The cottage was really cute and I came to learn that it was originally made for the people in New Orleans who had lost their homes after Hurricane Katrina.

I hung about 20 pieces of my art in Anne Hunter Galleries gallery space right in the heart of Seaside. It was great to meet and be able to chat with people that felt inclined to come into the gallery space. Those who did come in did so because something caught their eye and intrigued them enough to take the time to see what my art was all about. I also was able to hang some pieces in different private businesses around Seaside and the other beach towns along 30A. It was good exposure for me in the area and all of the business owners were supportive of me, my art and also the fundraiser event that was yet to come.

I ended up spending two weeks on my own (when Jeff went back home to see the kids and work at our gallery) and it was quite an experience. I used the time to get grounded in this town that locals all say is a "bit of a bubble" as compared to other cities and towns. The locals I met - whom I can now call friends - all seemed to know each other and also know pretty much everything I had been up to each day. I thought it was peculiar at first, but then began to get used it. I almost felt a bit like Jim Carrey's Truman character in The Truman Show. It was, after all, the town where they filmed that movie! I had an interesting time "on my own" for the two weeks and was invited to dinner parties, etc., as people were trying to help me feel at home there.

The last Saturday before Jeff came back, I took the pieces of Wall of Courage into the town. Up until then, most of them had been stored in our trailer. It was a dream for me to install the Wall paintings in different and interesting locations around the town centre and down to the beach. I have been wanting to do this sort of installation in a public space since the conception of the wall nearly 4 years ago.

I was able to connect to people by "bringing the art to the people" rather than trying to bring the people to the art. I had many great conversations and interactions with all sorts of people. The Tchukudu kids (the Wall paintings) even had an interesting interaction with a small boy as he proceeded to run across the paintings when they were laid out on the concrete stage in a circular array! No damage done luckily! Whew!

When we finally were able to hang Wall of Courage in the Seaside Institute Assembly Hall, things got a bit strange suddenly. I didn't know what was going on, but all of a sudden there was this weird energy... and some people I met were being very confrontational. I slowly began to realize that this town had never experienced anything like Wall of Courage, with it's message and the story behind it. I believe that the people had been anticipating this installation and were a bit freaked out by it! Subjects that come up when confronted by the stories of the children on the Wall were things that a lot of these people had never talked about with their children, and didn't want to, either! The bubble...

Over the first 2 days while the installation was up, I met a number of people that were so deeply touched by the kids on the wall and their stories. Some were moved to tears and opened up to us, telling us their stories of heartbreak and triumph. Others were inspired to try to start "connecting the dots" and trying to help us connect with businesses and venues to show the Wall. It felt like the wall was a magnet and people didn't quite know what drew them but slowly the connections started to happen for them.

On the 3 rd day of the installation, we had a fundraiser in support of all of our African projects.

When our 3 days to show the Wall was up - well, we left it up for another day and a half! The owners of Vie! Magazine were strolling through Seaside on the final Sunday, ran into our new friends Arix and Jen, who told them to come take a look at the Wall. They sat and watched our mini-doc, took in the Wall and decided then and there to do an article and feature one of the Wall paintings on the cover of their Adventure Issue - coming out this summer!!! WOW! What an amazing feeling! Can this get any better? Yes, it can! We had an amazing brainstorming session with a small group later that day. We watched the mini-doc and then sat in a circle next to the Wall. Ideas flew out of everyone as to how we could get the Wall to a broader audience, raise funds for the charity and basically get it to where I have always felt it deserves to be! These people were BIG thinkers, BIG dreamers, and DOERS. The ceilings and limits were blown off! They were seeing the Wall and my art as big as I see it, and that feels wonderful!

It was such a blissful way to end my month in Seaside. Going home both Jeff and I were flying high, riding the wave all the way back to Lake Opinicon! I feel energized, ready to paint and ready to keep pushing towards bigger and better things!