1. vitalsigns
BY CANDICE NORWOOD
candice.norwood@newsday.com
I
nside Nassau Community
College’s Firehouse Plaza
Art Gallery, Emmett Wig-
glesworth’s paint-stained
fingers carefully guide a
brush over a section of his
latest project: a 3-D, 22-foot-long
mural.
The nearly completed piece
stands to his left — a collection
of plastic foam cutouts shaped
like humans, each painted with
strips of vibrant colors.
“It all starts with a scribble,”
said Wigglesworth, 79, of St.
Albans, Queens. “If I have a
particular idea in mind, I find
meaning in the scribbles and
work from there.”
Wigglesworth replaces these
“scribbles” with shades of
yellow, blue, pink and brown
to create paintings and murals
that comment on African-
American culture and history.
His intricate work has been
exhibited across the world
during a career spanning five
decades, including at the Phila-
delphia Academy of Fine Arts,
the National Museum of
Ghana and the African Ameri-
can Museum of Nassau County
in Hempstead.
This year, it caught the atten-
tion of Firehouse Plaza’s gallery
committee, which invited Wig-
glesworth to participate in the
gallery’s second summer artist
residency program.
In addition to displaying his
work in the gallery from June
until Aug. 23, Wigglesworth
taught workshops to students,
teachers and local residents.
During his classes, he gave
each group one large sheet of
paper, color pastels and a set of
Inside
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His ‘scribbles’
have a messageThe Long Island Associa-
tion of Generational Ex-
perts for Seniors is accept-
ing nominations for “Savvy
Senior” king and queen,
honoring seniors who
contribute to the communi-
ty. To enter, send 200 or
fewer typed words, with a
photo or video, to AGES
Savvy Senior Award, P.O.
Box 774, Melville, N.Y.
11747, or by email to
savvy2013@ages
resourcenetwork.com. The
deadline is Aug. 31. For
more information call
631-630-9498. Pictured
are 2012 Savvy Senior king
and queen Peter Vannucci
and Sondra Rose.
If you have a creative license
send us a note about what
inspired it, along with a
photo of the plate. Email
your name, phone number,
hometown and photo to
iris.quigley@newsday.com
Attn: Gardeners
The Great Long Island
Tomato Challenge is fast
approaching. This year’s
contest will be held Friday,
Aug. 23, at Newsday
headquarters (235
Pinelawn Rd., Melville).
Bring your heaviest ripe
tomato to the event, where
garden detective Jessica
Damiano will weigh it and
crown the 2013 Tomato
King or Queen.
In his work and
in his teaching,
artist meshes
art and culture
PHOTOBYHEATHERWALSH
Seeking Seniors
Emmett Wigglesworth teaches a workshop that helps students explore creative thinking and create
a collage while working as a team. Ⅲ See more photos and a video, newsday.com/lilife
PHOTOBYSTEVEPFOST
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NEWSDAY,SUNDAY,AUGUST18,2013newsday.comN1LILIFE

2. shapes to draw. Wigglesworth
then instructed them to create
collages that the gallery later
displayed alongside his work.
“It was really about working
together,” said Lynn Rozzi,
director of the gallery. “No
two murals are alike. It was
amazing to see what the differ-
ent groups could do with the
same shapes and colors.”
Wigglesworth said he used
the exercise to not only show
the beauty people can create
when working together, but
also how each person’s up-
bringing and culture can con-
tribute to the whole of society.
Promoting cultural pride
has been the foundation of
his work and teaching since
the 1950s. Wigglesworth, a
native of Philadelphia,
showed interest in art from
an early age, and several of
his high school classes in-
spired him to pursue art in
college.
“I had never seen a black
artist before and had no idea
how to go about doing it,” he
said. “But I knew that if I
was going to make a contribu-
tion to humanity, it had to be
through something I did
well.”
Wigglesworth attended The
Philadelphia College of Art for
18 months, but he found the
formal instruction to be sti-
fling and dropped out. He
joined the Marine Corps and
served in the Korean War
before being honorably dis-
charged. He returned briefly to
the College of Art, but in 1958
moved to Manhattan to pursue
an art career.
During his first few years in
New York, Wigglesworth
joined the civil rights move-
ment, organizing demonstra-
tions and sit-ins in the South,
including in Mississippi and
Alabama. Traveling throughout
the country in the ’60s shifted
the focus of his work from
global issues to African-Ameri-
can struggles.
Though he always brought
paper for scribbling, Wiggles-
worth’s first major pieces
developed in the late 1960s
when he joined the Weusi
Artist Collective, a Harlem-
based group that was a “van-
guard of the Black Arts Move-
ment,” he said.
The collective set up a gal-
lery and hosted outdoor shows
that aimed to foster knowledge
and pride in black culture.
“Unfortunately art, especially
black art, doesn’t get much atten-
tion,” he said. “We were just
trying to allow black children to
see the things and the people we
never did growing up.”
The education of America’s
youth is a constant in Wiggles-
worth’s mission. In addition to
Nassau Community College,
his teaching credits include
The Harlem Parents Associa-
tion, The Children Arts Carni-
val of Harlem and a CORE
Freedom School in Selma, Ala.
Arts education is more than
learning how to paint or write
well, Wigglesworth notes. It
allows children to think criti-
cally and gain confidence in
their own creations. He nur-
tures these qualities by allow-
ing students in his classes to
paint without restrictions.
“You never stifle creativity
by saying ‘that’s not the way to
do it,’ ” he said. “If you do,
you’ll destroy it because
you’ve told the kids there’s
something wrong with what
they have done.”
Now in the later stages of his
career, Wigglesworth said he
often thinks about how Ameri-
can society has changed and the
future of the art industry. To
him people appear less interest-
ed in preserving history and
developing artistic creativity,
both at home and in schools.
Though he believes American
materialism and mainstream
culture threaten individuality,
Wigglesworth said he is hopeful
young people will be more
active in their lives and chal-
lenge the status quo. That hope
is expressed in his colorful
mural for Firehouse Plaza,
which encourages viewers to
look beyond life’s surface and
question the world around them.
“It’s all about what you see,”
Wigglesworth said. “What you
have to dig through to see
truth.”
At the Firehouse Plaza Art Gallery, 3-D murals created by Wigglesworth are displayed, at right, alongside student murals, left.
PHOTOSBYHEATHERWALSH
Free to see
What: Firehouse Plaza Art
Gallery’s Summer Artist
Residency exhibit, which
features a 22-foot-long
mural and several smaller
pieces by award-winning
artist Emmett Wiggles-
worth in addition to 25
murals produced by stu-
dents from his workshop
classes.
Admission: Free
When: Monday through
Friday from 10:30 a.m. to
3 p.m., through Aug. 23.
Left, the artist, Emmett Wigglesworth, with his work.
Above, a detail of students’ artwork, drawn in pastels in a
creative workshop taught by Wigglesworth.
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