Book details

  • Genre:biography & autobiography
  • Sub-genre:Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / African American & Black
  • Language:English
  • Pages:204
  • Hardcover ISBN:9798901557334

ARTISTIC AND OTHER ENCOUNTERS

By Valerie G. Coddett

Overview

Artistic And Other Encounters is a journey in collecting artworks by artists from the African Diaspora. for over four decades, while working as a legal secretary and elsewhere, I managed to navigate the galleries of New York City ... and on vacations abroad, I visited museums and other places of interest. I acquired a substantial collection of artworks by unknown as well as celebrated artists of the African Diaspora. My attempt is to share, with the reader, the magnitude of aesthetic creativity from the imagination of people from African origin.

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Description

This book is a Memoir of my journey in collecting artworks by artists from the African Diaspora. Very early in my childhood I was introduced to the Arts through music - my mother played the violin. I remember awakening on Christmas mornings to music emanating from that instrument; and during weekends my father played classical records on the gramophone. I then learned to play the piano from my godmother, Edith Pieters, a prominent teacher in the town of New Amsterdam, Guyana. This passion sparked my interest in other disciplines of the creative process. Consequently, for over four decades, while working as a legal secretary and elsewhere, I managed to navigate the galleries of New York City ... and on vacations abroad, I visited museums and other places of interest. I acquired a substantial collection of artworks by unknown as well as celebrated artists of the African Diaspora.

Some of these works are in this book and most of them will be in the permanent collection of a museum in Guyana. In reading this memoir, it is my hope that the reader will discover the magnitude of aesthetic creativity from the imagination of people from African origin. I trust that this book and the permanent collection at the museum will serve as a catalyst for greater appreciation to support the arts by folks of African descent

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About The Author

Valerie Coddett Born in New Amsterdam, Guyana, on January 9, 1942. Valerie attended Berbice High School, and Bishops High School in Georgetown. She simultaneously obtained additional certificates in Music from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. At age 22, Valerie immigrated to the USA and settled in New York. She graduated from Albany Business College in 1965. Valerie worked as a typist in the United Nations Secretariat, and the Kenya Mission to the UN, ending with the position of Secretary to the Ambassador. She subsequently worked as a legal secretary in the real estate law firm of Dreyer and Traub, New York. She received a Certificate of Accomplishment from the Frederick Douglas Creative Arts Center in recognition of successfully completing a Short Story Workshop in 2006. Other publications by Valerie Coddett are: Living with the Masters, The Arts Journal, Guyana 2014-15; Guyana Cultural Association of New York "GCA" Vol. 6, Jan. 30, 2016; Celebrating Guyana's Golden Jubilee: The New Amsterdam I knew, GCA 2015; GCA - Celebrate Black History Month Art Collector - Introduction to an Exhibition at Forsberg-Riverside Galleries, Center for the Arts, Waterloo, Iowa, Sept 26, 2013; How the Warraus Came - The Wings of Iere, Celebrating Our Indigenous Heritage by Doris Harper Wills, Sept 2, 2017; I do Feel Love for the Arts be it Poetry, Music or Writing Stories, Guyana Folk, Third Quarter Edition, July 2021.
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