Arts & Culture

The Suncoast Black Arts Collaborative, a non-profit organization that uses the unifying power of the arts to foster inclusion and diversity in the regional arts and culture landscape, welcomes four new members to its Board of Directors: Dr. Denise Davis-Cotton, Kristofer Geddie, Tim Jaeger and Gregory Rumph II. “Working with this dream team is such an honor,” says Michele Des Verney Redwine, Executive Director and Founder of SBAC. “Our board is made up of artists, authors, academic professionals, arts advocates and community leaders. We have come together to promote diversity and inclusion in programming and leadership in our community. It’s an ambitious goal, but we won’t settle for anything less. Dr. Denise Davis-Cotton is recognized as a leading authority in integrated arts education and an accomplished curriculum designer for culturally inclusive education, arts integration, and the development of new schools/ programs. She is the director of the Florida Center for Partnerships for Arts-Integrated Teaching (PAInT Center) at the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee. North Carolina native Kristofer Geddie traveled to Florida from New York in 2010 to perform “Coalhouse Walker” in Ragtime at the Venice Theater, and never left. He is currently the Director of Diversity and General Manager of Theater. Geddie holds a BFA in Musical Theater from Mars Hill University, is currently enrolled in his final semester of graduate school at Goucher College for a Master of Arts Administration. Raised in Paducah, Kentucky, Tim Jaeger received his Bachelor of Arts with a major in fine art and a minor in modern art history from Ringling College of Art and Design, where he was a Fellow Trustee. For over 20 years Jaeger has maintained a studio in Sarasota while participating in numerous solo and group exhibitions across the United States. He has received several awards and grants, including the Artist Residency and Fellowship at Château L’Hesperit, Monaret, France, and the Arts Leadership Award from the Sarasota County Arts Council. Jaeger’s paintings are in many public and private collections across the United States. In addition to his studio practice, Jaeger is also director and chief curator of the six galleries at Ringling College. Gregory Rumph II was introduced to art by copying his father’s designs in his youth. He nurtured this curiosity and honed his skills and talents over the years. In 1998, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Illustration from Ringling College of Art and Design. After several years of freelance work, Rumph was recruited to teach in the visual and performing arts program at Booker Middle School in Sarasota where he taught for 15 years. He deepened his experiences in the field of education eventually becoming an administrator and is now an assistant principal at Booker High School, overseeing the visual and performing arts program. His work is in the collection of the National Civil Rights Museum and various private collections across the country.

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