Book Signing and Vocal Awards Celebration
If These Walls Could Talk Event
September 1, 2020 | 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM CT
This event has sold out, but you can still watch live through our Facebook Page!
We are proud to present the If These Walls Could Talk Art Catalogue. To commemorate the release of the catalogue we will be hosting an If These Walls Could Talk book signing! Come get a catalogue, meet the artist, and have your copy signed!
In addition we will be presenting the long awaited Malindy Awards honoring the contributions of local vocal artists Sara Hickman, Geneva Marie Rawlins, Courtney Santana, and Pamela Hart to Austin's vibrant cultural life!
The event is free; however, capacity will be limited due to COVID-19 restrictions, so please register in advance. When you register, you also have the option to pre-order the catalogue. Catalogues are $40 with General Admission and $35 with Member Admission.
Come enjoy a Texas evening with art and music.
To protect the health and safety of visitors, the artists, and our staff, this event will take place outdoors with social distancing precautions, including required face masks while on site. Attendees will have the opportunity to explore the If These Walls Could Talk exhibition, with group entries staggered every six minutes.
Malindy Award Honorees
Pamela Hart Hartbeat Productions. "Austin's First Lady of Jazz"
Pamela Hart was born in Los Angeles, California, and is passionate about singing and about the artistry of vocal jazz. She has devoted over 25 years of her life towards singing jazz and keeping the jazz genre alive. Pamela’s influence for jazz began at an early age when jazz was played in her home in Los Angeles, CA. Pamela used to leave for school after the DJ Brad Pride, Jr.’s signing off the air with Nancy Wilson’s “I Had A Ball.” Pamela’s mother, Christine Whitehead, always encouraged her to sing in front of family and friends. After graduating from UCLA in Economics, Pamela moved to Austin in 1982. She began using the Austin Public Library to check out jazz vocalist records and learn more about Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald and others. The library became her source for learning more about jazz and vocal stylings. Pamela began to participate with Boyd Vance and other groups to make public appearances for exposure and learning to perform. Her first regular accompanist was Sandy Allen, whom she worked with from 1991 until his untimely death in 2008.
Sara Hickman Singer-Songwriter, Social Activist:
Sara Hickman is the quintessential musician with a social conscience. She is also one of the most beloved singer-songwriters, not only in Texas but in all of America. Hickman is an avid supporter of numerous charities and organizations benefiting children, women, and health. She helps these organizations by creating awareness, donating her time and, often, contributing portions of the proceeds from her record sales. She has been awarded the Humana "Women Helping Women" award for her generous work with such organizations as Safe Place, Habitat for Humanity, House the Homeless, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, the Race for the Cure, and many other animal and human rights organizations. She was also made an honorary member of the National Association of Music Therapy because of her work in that area.
Courtney Santana Musical Artist and founder of Survive2thrive
Courtney Santana is the CEO of Survive2Thrive, a nonprofit she founded in 2006 to provide direct services for victims of domestic abuse. Courtney has a diverse background in volunteerism and community philanthropy and has been invited to speak about the power of empowerment over victimization as the best method for victim success globally. Santana has been in the music industry for over 22 years. She has been a featured vocalist and background vocalist on over 15 albums and has performed or recorded with and alongside Brannen Temple, Guy Forsyth, Patrice Pike, Strings Attached, Malford Milligan, Matt Wilson, Nakia, Chanel Haynes, and more. She has also opened for national acts like Kirk Whalum, Kyle Turner, Salt N Pepa, and Musiq Soulchild. She released her single Survive in 2017 and will release a full length album in Fall of 2020. She has been nominated by the Austin Chronicle for best cover band 3 times.
Geneva Marie Rawlins Vocalist, Pianist, Music Director and Instructor
Geneva Marie Rawlins (1930-2020) made her life in Austin, beginning with a 1965 gig headlining Geneva and Her Gentlemen at the Jade Room downtown and then as the house band for The Club Seville at The Sheraton Crest (now The LINE Austin) at E. Cesar Chavez and Congress Ave. for the first half of the 1970s. After Geneva and Her Gentlemen went their separate ways at the end of the 1970s, she continued to perform as a solo jazz pianist and vocalist in Central Texas throughout the 1980s and 1990s, often giving her time and musical talents in support of Austin’s Women & Their Work. From 1977 to 2007 Geneva was also Director of Music for the historic Wesley United Methodist Church in Central East Austin, mentoring generations of upcoming musicians.
Meet the Artist
Jennifer Rousseau Cumberbatch
Jennifer Rousseau Cumberbatch is a pastor, counselor, actress and playwright from Austin, the owner and founder of JR Cumberbatch Productions, and Cumberbatch Confections. Jennifer is sent out from Agape Christian Ministries, where she was an associate pastor, to found and establish Full Measure Ministries. She has written, starred in, staged and produced several productions, in Austin and throughout Texas. She has starred in her one woman show “R3: Real Life, Real Women, Real Stories”, “and performed as “Sadie” Delany in “Having our Say, the Delany Sisters First 100 Years”, and Sally Burditt in “The Bluebellies in Austin: Readings from the Travis Country Slave Narratives”. Jennifer worked with and was directed by the late and venerable Boyd Vance, founder and artistic director of the now defunct Pro Arts Collective. The Boyd Vance Theater at Austin’s Carver museum is named after this great artist and visionary and is the inspiration for Jennifer’s Production Company and passion to tell the stories of African Americans, Black people and all peoples with authenticity and depth in the context of the American landscape. A graduate of Brown University and Austin’s Seminary of the Southwest, Jennifer also preaches, teaches, leads retreats, and is a vocalist and published writer.
Ginger Geyer
Austin artist Ginger Geyer grew up in Springdale, Arkansas, attended the University of Arkansas and earned BFA and MFA degrees in painting and art history from SMU. She also has a lay degree from the Seminary of the Southwest in pastoral ministry. Formerly an art museum professional (Dallas Museum of Art and Kimbell Art Museum), she occasionally consults on collection management and architecture. For 15 years she directed artist workshops and curated the gallery for the H.E. Butt Foundation retreat center, Laity Lodge. All of this, plus being a mother of two and grandmother of one have informed her avid studio practice. Writing, serving as adjunct professor at both Seminary of the Southwest and Concordia University, and making art with homeless people have also influenced her art. For thirty years, porcelain sculpture has been the primary medium for combining her quests into art history, museology, spirituality, and culture. A large body of “not quite trompe l’oeil” works are accompanied by ever-changing narratives. A retrospective of her work in early 2020 at the Neill-Cochran House Museum in Austin takes it beyond the gallery scene into an immersive experience throughout the historic house and its slave dependency. “If These Walls Could Talk” is a collaborative with a performing artist to explore both the privileged and the enslaved who graced these grounds. More information can be found at www.gingergeyer.com, Instagram and Valley House Gallery & Sculpture Garden in Dallas.