One man’s passion for baseball enabled him to bring art and history to Sinclair Community College.
The annual Realizing Ethnic Awareness and Cultural Heritage exhibit, better known as REACH, is entitled “Shades of Greatness,” this year and is on display Feb. 2 through March 12. The exhibit depicts the Negro baseball leagues in the early twentieth century.
“The title is probably a play on words with ‘shades of gray,’” Gallery Coordinator Pat McClelland said. “Just that it’s dealing with the fact that black athletes could not play in the white leagues at the time, so things were defined by the color of your skin.”
Unlike exhibits in the past that highlight work from one or two artists at a time, the Shades of Greatness exhibit has work from an estimated 30 contributors.
Some of the work in the exhibit includes traditional painting and drawing pieces, as well as sculptures and prints.
“Within that art work, we will also be displaying a collection of jerseys from the Negro leagues,” McClelland said.
The jerseys belong to Michael Carter, who is the superintendent of schools and community partnerships at Sinclair.
As an avid collector of jerseys and other memorabilia from the Negro leagues, Carter believes the exhibit is a big part of American history.
“Some will be interested in the [exhibit] and some don’t know they should be interested,” Carter said. “It’s an important part of our history — it’s not just about sports; it’s about life, culture and who we are as a country.”
Carter first started his collection when he saw a Pittsburgh Crawford Jersey at the Salem mall. His brother Darnell has helped add to his collection throughout the years by giving him jerseys as gifts.
Carter described the jerseys as hot, saying that they are made of heavy-gauge wool and long sleeves.
“Jerseys prior to the 1930s were usually two colors and they had no numbers,” he said. “After that they became more colorful and had shorter sleeves, which you will be able to see at the exhibit.”
The baseball jerseys come from a company called Ebbets Field Flannels, where they make authentic baseball jerseys, vintage flannels and vintage baseball caps, according to ebbets.com.
Carter said that in his collection, among his favorite is a jersey from the Dayton Marcos that he received from his brother for his birthday.
“Each year my brother, my friend Tony and I take a history trip in the summer,” Carter said. “Last year we went to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City … we found out the exhibit traveled — from that point on I thought it would be wonderful to bring it to Sinclair.”
The art exhibit, with the exception of the jerseys, came from the museum where artists were commissioned to create the work.
McClelland hopes that the exhibit will appeal to not only Art and Design majors on campus, but to history and sports buffs alike.
The exhibit is on display in the Triangle, Works on Paper and Hypotenuse galleries.
Sinclair’s REACH conference will be held on Feb. 27 from 7 to 9 p.m., and Executive Director of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Dr. Raymond Doswell will attend. On Feb. 28, a panel will take place where Doswell will give a keynote speech.
“I think it’s going to have a broader appeal than most of our normal art exhibits,” McClelland said. “There’s a message to the show.”