Founders Panel Discussion

The exhibition Founders, currently on view, explores the early history of the Langston Hughes Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, and its artist founders. Opening at its High St. location in 1971, the center offered a diverse range of educational workshops, exhibitions, and performances that bought access to the arts and training opportunities to Buffalo’s inner city. Later renamed the Langston Hughes Institute, the organization continued to serve the community for several decades, cementing an enduring legacy that lives on throughout Buffalo’s communities today.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Burchfield Penney will present a panel discussion with co-founder of the Langston Hughes Center for the Visual and Performing Arts James G. Pappas, and former teaching artists Amon Ra Ptah Hotep Imhotep (Deyne Wajed) and Betty Pitts Foster as they reflect on their involvements and experiences during the early years of the center. This event is free with museum admission.

The discussion will be moderated by exhibition curator Tiffany Gaines. Panelists include:

James G. Pappas 

James G. Pappas is a nationally and internationally recognized visual artist and educator based in Buffalo. Pappas received scholarships to study at the Memorial Art Gallery and Rochester Institute of Technology from 1954-1956 before being accepted at the University at Buffalo in 1959, where he received his BFA (1967) and MFA (1974). As a co-founder of the Langston Hughes Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, and a retired professor from the University at Buffalo, where he served as chair of the Black Studies Department from 1977-1988, Pappas is highly regarded for his legacy employing the arts, education, and community engagement as instruments of social change. His work is included in several public and private collections. He is also a Living Legacy Artist at the Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Amon Ra Ptah Hotep Imhotep (Deyne Wajed)

Amon Ra Ptah Hotep Imhotep (also known as Deyne Wajed) is a multidisciplinary artist, arts educator, and community activist from Buffalo, New York. He attended SUNY Buffalo State where he studied art education. A multidisciplinary artisan, he also studied woodworking, jewelry making, and craft art. His works deal with themes of Afrocentricity and African cultural tradition and legacy. He has worked as a jewelry apprentice and designer at Eric Jewelers and then The Gallery of Jewels, a black-owned and operated jewelry store. Imhotep worked as a teaching artist at the Langston Hughes Center for the Visual and Performing Arts and has facilitated numerous workshops and lectures in African history, Islamic Studies, craft, and jewelry-making throughout the community. He is also the father of artists Sufana and Edreys Wajed.

Betty Pitts Foster 

Betty Pitts Foster is an artist and educator whose artworks and religious beliefs are inextricably entwined. She says that “she is fulfilling her desire to express the triumphs of the joy of living and celebrating what God has created.” Pitts Foster earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1962 from the University of Buffalo, and continued at SUNY Buffalo, receiving a Master of Education with a major in Employment Counseling in 1969. Over her career she has been an elementary education art teacher for the Buffalo Board of Education; a librarian trainee at the Buffalo & Erie County Public Library; employment counselor for the NYS Employment Service, and vocational rehabilitation counselor for the NYS Department of Education, in addition to pursuing her art. She is a Buffalo Arts Studio resident and member of the Buffalo Society of Artists. Her work has been exhibited in group shows throughout New York and in Washington, DC.