THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 28, 1996 TAG: 9607280090
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS LENGTH: 68 lines
On Saturday, the grounds of the Mariners' Museum and the Peninsula Fine Arts Center resembled an Impressionist painting of carefree picnickers in a park.
The event was Jubilee on the James, an outdoor arts festival that was billed as celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Newport News. But there was more art on exhibit than city spirit.
It was a radiant scene, from the sun-dappled artists' tents erected beneath trees to the remote-control model sailboats lazily tacking across Lake Maury, which is visible from the entrance to the Mariners'.
The family-oriented gathering of no more than 1,000 appeared as easygoing as the boats. Visitors meandered past the hands-on workshops, where kids could make masks or hats, to the main stage, where a nonstop schedule of entertainment was presented by area arts groups who receive grant money from the Newport News Arts Commission.
JoAnne Crematie's grandmother was born in 1875, about the same time as Impressionism. The daughter of a freed slave, Crematie's grandmother, who lived to 100, would not have been among the well-bred picnickers depicted in an Impressionist painting.
But she was a quilter, and now her granddaughter is a quilter. Crematie, 45, began quilting four years ago, when she helped found an African-American quilters guild, which has 10 members.
Crematie, a registered nurse who teaches nursing at Portsmouth Naval Hospital, sat with members of her group at a table piled high with quilted items for sale, from pillows to tote bags. She had her sewing machine set up, and she was piecing together a reversible bed quilt.
``I remember when I didn't like quilting,'' Crematie said. ``I just thought it was old-folks stuff. Now, we know quilting is more than something to keep you warm. Quilting has taken a turn. There's a resurgence.''
Crematie showed off a quilted vest she made that features the group's logo - a square made of nine smaller squares, with a four-point star at the center - which dates to the era of slavery.
The group adopted the logo ``because slavery is part of our history,'' she said. ``And when you lose your history, you lose yourself.''
Some of that history could be found at Civil War encampments set up at the one-day event. One entire family - the Howlands of Virginia Beach - was dressed as a Confederate clan. Dad was in a gray wool uniform, and mom and daughters were in long cotton dresses with bonnets.
Dan Howland admitted he was out of character eating a roast beef sub while at camp. ``Back then, I would be eating salt pork and hardtack.''
Contemporary Newport News also was in evidence. Peninsula artist Barclay Sheaks sat in a gallery inside the Fine Arts Center, where his paintings were among a series of shows looking at the city's history.
Sheaks' art depicts the Peninsula wetlands and wildlife; one of his landscapes is on the city's centennial poster, and Sheaks was there to sign posters as well as copies of his latest book.
Jenny Braband of Carrollton bought a poster and had Sheaks sign it, ``because I like the picture. The marshes are one of my favorite places to be.''
She said she brought her son to the festival for the dose of culture. ``More and more, music and art are being budgeted out of the school systems. And they're so important,'' Braband said.
``It's what makes us human.'' ILLUSTRATION: BILL TIERNAN/The Virginian-Pilot
Mary F. Smith, left, works out the kinks for her Newport News
neighbor Pauline Thornhill as they look at photographs Saturday in
the Peninsula Fine Arts Center during Newport News' Jubilee on the
James. The arts festival was held in celebration of the 100th
anniversary of the city's founding. by CNB