Want to learn more about Juneteenth? The Spady Museum is offering a five-day workshop that allows you to engage and collaborate with others while gaining a deeper understanding of what the holiday means.
From June 15 to 19, the Delray Beach museum is hosting a free mural workshop for both young and older adults to dive deeper into the meaning of Juneteenth.
“Juneteenth is really about Texas emancipation, but it is the culmination of all of the states’ enslaved people understanding that they were free,” explains Khaulah Nuruddin, the museum’s curatorial consultant.
While this event is structured to be a workshop, Nuruddin says it is much deeper than that; by focusing on how African design can be brought to life through art, the workshop is aimed to emphasize the importance of the Adinkra symbol. These symbols date back from the Gyaman people of Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire and are used as visual tools to represent things such as concepts, proverbs, and aphorisms. You might stumble across these symbols on walls, poetry or even advertisements, as they are heavily used by other cultures now.
“Each individual symbol has meaning,” Nuruddin says. “For example, the sankofa image is a popular one that we see around, and that symbol means that the ancestors are looking back and they’re holding this precious egg for the future.”
The five-day workshop focuses on these symbols because Juneteenth is about celebration, history and learning. Therefore, it is only right to acknowledge the Andirka symbols as they are a huge factor in Black history. Additionally, this workshop will not only leave participants with knowledge of Black history but also a new understanding of art, design and sustainable outdoor work.
After completion of this workshop, the group will have crafted three murals that will proudly be hung outside on the museum’s fences. Opening on June 19 (Juneteenth) from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the “Juneteenth Outdoor Installation” will act as a semi-permanent exhibit. Nurrudin shares that this event is ultimately “a celebration of togetherness.”
But there is certainly more to check out on Juneteenth this year. The “New Beginnings” exhibit opened on May 18, honoring Florida’s Emancipation of enslaved people on May 20, 1865. Much like how the new “Juneteenth Outdoor Installation” focuses on the Adinkra symbol, this exhibit focuses on the orange blossom, which is Florida’s state flower and embodies the idea of new beginnings—hence the name.
Nurrudin explains that this exhibit and the one opening on Juneteenth share commonality, as the orange blossoms, much like the sankofa, “have meaning that extends well beyond the object.”
The Spady Museum is the former home of Solomon Spady, a prominent educator, and the building is celebrating 100 years. Now a museum, the space is “dedicated to discovering, collecting and sharing the Black history and heritage of Palm Beach County.”
If you are interested in the workshop, visit their Instagram, Facebook, or call 561/279-8883 and sign up quickly, as there are only limited spots left.
