Let's get Artsy

by Alexandra McClain
The Jacksonville Creative Arts Awards, also known as “The Artsys” will be held November 9th at The Karpeles Manuscript Museum from 7pm-9pm.The museum is located at 101 W. 1st street, adjacent to Bethel Baptist Church downtown. The awards show will highlight the talents of local artists in Northeast Florida. It will focus on artists in the poetry, art and musical community.
Planning for the JCAA began in June. Love Reigns, a local spoken word artist, along with others have all helped to contribute in putting things together for the show. “It started with just myself and Ill Clinton, a local music producer, but we added the help of several others along the way,” said Love Reigns. Seven SoulJones, A Great Day in Lavilla, Co’Relus Bryant and a host of others also helped in planning for JCAA.
One of the key components to JCAA is using the show to bring greater attention to the local arts. “The creative arts community in Jacksonville is underrated,” said Love Reigns. As an artist herself, Love Reigns feels the show is a way for local artists to stand together and make known to the world their presence. Many of these same artists aren’t just passionate about their own crafts, but the youth who share a similar passion for the arts at a young age.
Because of this, all profits raised from the event will go towards charities that specialize in helping children through arts education. These charities include: Girls Inc., The Performers Academy of Jacksonville, and the Melody and Harmony Foundation. “We chose those 3 charities because they are charities that we worked with this year individually and collectively,” said Love Reigns.
The show will be hosted by Shay Clemens and Onyx Seven. Tickets are $20 in advance and are now available for purchase at Theartsys.com and through Sun Ray Cinema’s website.
Along with several local artists, 4 nationally touring artists are also scheduled to perform at the JCAA. These artists include: Kevin Sandbloom, Georgia Me, Taalam Acey and Abyss Graham.
Some of the categories to be awarded during the show include: Visual arts, Musician of the Year, Producer of the year and Songwriter of the year.
Love Reigns hopes that JCAA isn’t just a one-time event. “Our hope is that this event will be the premier event for the creative arts in Jacksonville every year,” she said.
In general, the response towards the award show has been positive. “I believe that people will love it,” said Love Reigns. “ The response has already been overwhelming and will only get bigger.”
For Love Reigns, the award show is only a piece of the overall picture she envisions for the artistic community of Jacksonville. JCCA seems to be just the beginning.
“Our main goal is to unify the Jacksonville community through the arts,” said Love Reigns.