'Forgotten Communities Collection' 'Preserving & Promoting Culture and Heritage Through Art.'
Historic Georgetown, Washington, D.C.
Johnson Beach, Pensacola, Florida
St. Helena Island, South Carolina
In 2009 Sonja Griffin Evans was a major contributor to creating the Forgotten Communities Program. The Forgotten Community Program was created as a community based tourism project to support talented painters and performing artists to re-capture the spirituality and dignity of "Ordinary People"; who once and now,inhabit cultural and historic communities that are neglected by mainstream society. Only through the arts, can the spiritual moment and importance of a culture be recreated and conveyed to another culture.
The Forgotten Communities Program is a call to all artists, particularly those of African descent, to begin painting their visions and memories of their culture and historic communities, and share them with the world. It is a call to singers and musicians, to remember the great works of masters in the art of gospel, jazz, blues, and poetry and to sing, play and perform those creative masterpieces of our culture. It is important for us to remember and preserve the great works of our ancestors and make a major effort the preservation of these past contributions to our culture and our history so future generations can use them and find their way in our multi-cultural society.
The Forgotten Communities Program is also a cultural heritage tourism and marketing program. The program assists community tourism leaders and artists in the development of Community Festivals and Events to expose others to cultural heritage arts, the history and traditions of our culture in the communities they were created. The festival and events will assist in the attraction of investors and new businesses that will create jobs by catering to the needs of tourists and the artisans of these planned art and entertainment districts. This program a major platform of the National Cultural Heritage Initiative sponsored by the National Black Chamber of Commerce, Washington, D.C.
"The Spiritual Foundation Has Been Laid and the Hard Work Has Been Done!”
"Come with me as I discover and capture, through art, the culture and heritage of the African Diaspora!"