ART
A HOME FOR THE
HIGHWAYMEN
Efforts are under way to develop a center to
recognize the Highwaymen, a group of artists
An obelisk featuring mosaic replicas of Highwaymen paintings was created by noted Florida artist Stephanie Jaffe Werner and placed in a roundabout at
North 15th Street and Avenue D. The first Highwaymen Festival was held there in November, with exhibits by Highwaymen artists. The Highwaymen hope
to soon find a permanent home for 50 years of their history and art.
STORY AND PHOTOS BY SUSAN BURGESS
Mary Ann Carroll looks thoughtfully at the
28
plaques on her wall. They honor the decades
she’s been the only female member of the
Highwaymen, a group of African-American
artists.
The plaques are good, but they’re not enough. “All the
SUSAN BURGESS
plaques on my wall won’t do anybody any good after I’m
gone,” she says. “There’s too much behind this to let it all just
die in the sand. It’s sort of sad that we’ve been here all this
time and still don’t have something that represents all of us.
It’s time we had a place to call our own.”
Carroll, with other Highwaymen artists and friends, wants
to create a center in Fort Pierce, the city often called the
birthplace of Highwaymen art, that will serve as a permanent
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whose movement began in Fort Pierce