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Gaidi Finnie & Carolyn Smith of SDAAMFA
PART 1: What brought us here
We invited Gaidi Finnie, the Executive Director of the San Diego African American Museum of Fine Art (SDAAMFA), and Carolyn Smith, a founding member of SDAAMFA, to MCASD and spoke with them inside the Giants exhibition galleries.
SDAAMFA is a "museum without walls," meaning that they collaborate with museum spaces and institutions across the region and globally to showcase the art of Black people and the Black diaspora. Although SDAAMFA isn’t necessarily focused on contemporary art, we wanted to highlight them and their work as a pillar in San Diego, especially after seeing their most recent exhibition, San Diego's Lost Neighborhoods.
In the conceptual stages of this series, our team visited Lost Neighborhoods at the SD History Center as a starting point into our research about San Diego as a whole and how its community came to be. We learned that several predominant POC neighborhoods in San Diego transformed over the course of several decades due to redlining, gentrification, and nationwide highway projects—one of which was La Jolla, where MCASD’s flagship currently stands. Moved by its depth of knowledge and in confronting these truths, we created “Giants of San Diego” as a response to what was lost by creating an opportunity to zoom in on what remains and what was built in San Diego, particularly in relation to its Black creative community.
We tell this all to Gaidi and Carolyn prior to our meeting and are thrilled that it resonated with them enough that they agreed to join our project.
Now, with Gordon Parks’ iconic photographs as their backdrop, our conversation with them unfolds, first touching upon how tremendously SD’s current creative community has evolved over the years. Carolyn mentions that there were very few Black artists being recognized throughout the 60s–90s, but now, you see people on all platforms using nontraditional ways of getting their art out, expanding the experience of what Black art is. SDAAMFA’s work in particular has also helped to fill that void over the years, as their collaborations bring fine art to new demographics across the region.
This momentum also gives way to more transformation in the community, like the fruition of the San Diego Black Arts and Culture District located in Encanto. SDAAMFA’s unique position has allowed them to be named their managing entity, emphasizing the benefits of an artistic-led economic development, and spaces like The Mental Bar, The Block Club, and Graffiti Gardens are filled with art.
Gaidi and Carolyn also share with us their thoughts on why collecting works by Black and Brown artists is so valuable. Not only are you contributing materially to an artists’ livelihood, but you are also “keeping memory” for generations to come, bringing that artist into the mainstream.
“It’s correcting an imbalance. It shows that Black art isn’t a niche art... Collecting is not just about having it. It’s about keeping memory... You’re actually saying that this is gonna be around for a long time. You’re validating African American art.”
–Gaidi Finnie on why collecting art by Black artists is so valuable
Towards the end of our conversation, we thank Gaidi and Carolyn for their time and everything they’ve contributed to this vibrant community. We highly recommend that you check out Lost Neighborhoods on view at the SD History Center, SDAAMFA’s current exhibition in New York and upcoming exhibition in Ghana, and all the exciting programs the Black Arts and Culture District has planned.
“We try to integrate that history so that we understand what got us there... You can’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’re from.”
–Carolyn Smith on what she hopes people take away about the lost histories of San Diego
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