Video by Rheannah Wynter, Article by Suzanne Smith
The key to getting women interested in pursuing STEM Careers is to reach them when they are young. The summer camp program called Scigirls does just that. Begun back in 2006 by WFSU and the Florida State University Mag Lab, the program has had years of success We explore how the program started and what the results are today.
UPDATE! Applications are open for the 2023 camps!
Here are some quick facts you need to know if you are interested in signing your child up to participate in 2023:
Application Deadline: April 8, 2023
Camp Cost: $200 with scholarships available (see application)
Camp Location: National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee
Camp Times: 9 am- 4 pm EST
Camp Dates: July 24- 28, 2023
Who can participate: Girls who will be heading into 6th, 7th, and 8th grades in the fall of 2023.
How does my child apply to be part of this year’s Scigirls camp?
It was a majestic oak tree thought to be about 160 years old that graced the front grounds of the Leroy Collins Public Library. But it was diseased. And it was a danger to both pedestrians and property. Was removal the only option? Enter chainsaw artist John Birch. Local Routes followed the transformation of the stately old oak into an homage to reading, childhood and the human imagination.
2024 marks Tallahassee’s 200th year as a capital city. We explore the celebrations, the history, and the tributes to the past including an inside look at the recreation of the log cabin that served as the first Florida capitol.
Ella Leaman is the 2024 Kathryn Belle Long Scholarship Winner
Ella Leaman is the first winner of the new Kathryn Belle Long Scholarship. Long was a local musician and middle school educator who championed the arts in the Tallahassee community. She passed away in 2023. In the Spring of 2024, a former student of hers, Ella Leaman, was named the recipient of the first Kathryn Belle Long Scholarship. The photo below is Ella with the father and brother of Long at Leaman’s Convocation ceremony. Check out the video to learn more.
Railroad Square Art District Mural announces the name and purpose of the area.
There have been lots of businesses, organizations, and evolutions at the Railroad Square Art District. WFSU’s Local Routes has explored a lot of them over the decade. Go back in time and check out some of our other stories about Tallahassee’s Art Hub.
Empowering Art: A Mother’s Journey with Autism and Art (Season 10, Episode 4)
The story of Betty Proctor and her Obsessions Gift Shop in Tallahassee’s Railroad Square is a personal one. Betty created the business with her daughter, who is on the autism spectrum. As the business grew, Betty added special art courses and projects that helped her daughter and others on the spectrum increase their communication skills.
Water Ice in the Panhandle|The Spirit of Rebuilding (Season 10, Episode 4)
ay Jennings built a business in Tallahassee’s Railroad square dedicated to Water Ice, a treat very similar to ice cream or gelato. But a tornado in Spring 2024 tor that dream down. We follow him as he attempts to rebuild his business.
Theater With A Birthday Mission (Season 9, Episode 5)
Tallahassee traces its history back to 1824. That is when the 13 members of Florida’s territorial legislature, appointed by President James Monroe decided to make it the new territorial capital. To commemorate the Capital City’s bicentennial, the troupe from Theater With A Mission is interpreting scenes from our local history at Railroad Square in this video.
Skateboarding at Tallahassee’s Skateable Art Park (Season 9, Episode 2)
Skateboarders, cyclists, inline skaters and more come together to experienced a new park just for them in downtown Tallahassee. With the tricks also comes a unique art experience created by Blueprint Intergovernmental Agency.
Spotlight| Matthew “briteso” Forrest(Season 9, Episode 2)
Muralist Matthew “briteso” Forrest has been doing graphic design for years and for the last several he has been focused on painting large murals around town. His work is easy to find around Tallahassee, primarily in the Railroad Square and the southern part of the city. Check out this video highlighting his story or learn more about his murals at Railroad Square by checking out this link.
Virtual Reality Has Gone RotoLoco (Season 7, Episode 8)
WFSU Public Media’s Mike Plummer introduces you to Nick Suttell, founder of New World Rides and designer of the RotoLoco VR motion platform which can be found at Railroad Square. See what makes the RotoLoco different than most other motion platforms and get a local look into the wild world of virtual reality.
Cat Family Records and Musicians Seek Alternatives to Live Music (Season 6, Episode 6)
Nonprofit record label Cat Family Records was founded in 2016 to help do-it-yourself local musicians deal with all aspects of the music industry. The largely events-based organization hosted over 200 shows prior to COVID-19. A year into the pandemic, volunteer-led Cat Family Records still has live music on hold, but is seeking new avenues of creation, including video production.
Celebrating Art & Culture with First Fridays (Season 2, Episode 13)
The First Friday Gallery Hop at the Railroad Square Art Park in Tallahassee brings our community together to celebrate the local art and culture found in our area. Patrons can enjoy food trucks, open galleries, live music, and more. WFSU’s Rebecca Alvis introduces us to some of the folks that make this monthly event so popular.
Wacissa Springs Adventure | Kayaking a Wildlife Rich River (Season 2, Episode 9)
While this video is about an Ecoadventure on the Wacissa River with WFSU’s Ecology Producer Rob Diaz de Villegas, it starts out at Harry Smith Ourdoors which at the time was in a location in Railroad Square.
Exploring Art and Culture at Railroad Square (Season 2, Episode 9)
WFSU’s Rebecca Alvis introduces us to a few of the folks at the Railroad Square Art Park in Tallahassee. We find out how the park plays a role in bringing art and culture to our area, while bringing the community together.
Go With The Flow for Art & Exercise(Season 1, Episode 13)
The Flow Movement Arts Studio in Tallahassee’s Railroad Square works to help people find the balance between exercise and entertainment. The studio teaches classes on various performance arts activities like Poi, Hula Hoop, Silks, Juggling, and more. WFSU Producer Brian Rochet talked with teachers and students at the studio.
The story of Betty Proctor and her Obsessions Gift business in Tallahassee’s Railroad Square is a personal one. Betty created the business with her daughter, who is on the autism spectrum. As the business grew, Betty added special art courses and projects that helped her daughter and others on the spectrum increase their communication skills. One specific type of project uses a record, a golf tee, and a bunch of paint to create art and opportunity for people of all ages and skills.
Video edited by Alex Campbell, Produced by Freddie Hall.
Article by Suzanne Smith
“My favorite thing about spin art is watching the faces of people doing it. Because spin art is the messiest art we have.”
–Betty Proctor, Co-owner, Obsessions Gifts
The “spin art” that Obsessions Gifts co-owner Betty Proctor is talking about involves an old vinyl record, a golf tee, and a willingness to make a really big mess. “Their reaction to it is like *gasps* or either “Oh my goodness!” or “Wow!” or something like that. So it’s really cool seeing the actual paint fly off the record,” she says with a smile.
Creativity can be a messy. Left: Paint covers a record and a hand after a spin art session. Middle: Splatter from various paint projects cover table. Right: Even the colorful jars of paint aren’t safe from other colors flying off of splatter and spin art projects. (WFSU)
Unlike the t-shirt spin art of the 1980s, there are no machines that look like extra-large, high-speed record players involved. In Proctor’s version, the artist adds the paint to a vinyl record, slips a golf tee through the spindle hole, and then turns the record sideways. The artist then uses their muscles to make the record spin as fast as possible. It’s a hands-on process, designed to connect the artist to the artwork.
Betty Proctor works an art piece at Obsessions Gifts in Railroad Square. (WFSU)
“Some people just make designs like hearts or circles. Some people make lines.” Proctor told us. “One young lady did alternate colors like red and black and it turned out really, really nice.”
There are a variety of art experiences at Obsessions Gifts, which is located in Railroad Square. Spin art, acrylic pours, and splatter paint are just a few activities that people can do as individuals or groups. However, the real reason that Betty Proctor created this business and does this type of art is the real inspiration of this story.
A mother’s love and a gift for the future
Before she started Obsessions, Proctor had been a social worker. “I always wanted to work with teens because teens have my heart,” says Proctor. “I always wanted to have something where teens could come, and they could just feel comfortable and just vibe.”
Proctor’s sister had first gotten her interested in art, but it was her daughter, Nijah, who had Proctor finally leaving the 9 to 5 world. Nijah is on the autism spectrum and Proctor was concerned about her daughter’s job security as she became an adult. When Nijah was getting ready to graduate high school, Proctor started to envision a different future for them both. She says one night she had a dream. “I saw myself where I owned a business,” says Proctor. “I was sitting at a desk and my daughter was standing up and I was kind of moving out of the way and she was taking my place.”
Proctor and her daughter turned a hobby of making jewelry into a jewelry-making business that progressed into Obessions Gifts shop in 2017. One summer, a graduate student asked Betty and her daughter to help her work on a special project for her Ph.D. “She was doing a dissertation on the effects of autism and art for females,” says Proctor. “My daughter went to the art class, and she loved it. And her communication skills increased.” Proctor was so impressed with the results in her daughter, that she permanently added the art classes and workshops to the business. “A lot of the things that I do here is because of my daughter, or either the experience that I had with my daughter and I saw the effects of it.”
Betty’s daughter, Nijah, creates art through a splatter paint method. Nijah is co-owner of Obessions Gifts and co-founder of MPAC with her mother. (Photos taken from video provided by Betty Proctor)
The addition of the art classes also expanded the duo’s work with the community. Together, Betty and Nijah started MPAC, which is a nonprofit that stands for “Motivating People through Arts and Crafts.” Proctor explains the variety of activities provided by MPAC (pronounced by the Proctors as “M-Pac”), “We help persons on the autism spectrum and also with disabilities. We provide art workshops. We also provide entrepreneurship opportunities as well as employment.” Proctor is clear to point out that while MPAC does primarily serve people on the spectrum, it also works with those who are “neurodiverse, with disabilities, and neurotypical persons.” Proctor says the overall goal is to create a supportive environment for everyone. “We’ve had people to say to us, ‘This is our place. This is my time, this is my space where I can freely be creative and be who I want to be without judgment.’ And so that’s what we want to create in here. We want to create a vibe where people can feel comfortable and also can express themselves without judgment.”
“You just do what you feel.”
-Betty Proctor
The Creative Process without Judgement
It is that nonjudgement atmosphere that helped create Proctor’s self-declared messiest and, possibly, the most fun Obsessions Gifts activity: Spin Art.
“We had some FSU students, interns, that they were doing art on records. Vinyl records,” recalls Proctor. “Like painting and also just different things on there that people, you know, whatever they felt like doing.”
Then one of the teenagers tried something different.
“He came up and he put some paint on there and then he threw it like a Frisbee,” said Proctor. “I was like, okay, let me come up with something where people can see it instead of throwing it. They could spin it like spinning records. They’re actually spinning a record. So that’s how we pretty much came up with it.”
Step 1. Pour paint in various shapes on a record.Step 2. Ready, Get Set. Spin! Step 3. Final desginThree steps to creating a spin art record. Notice in “Step 2” that before you can begin to spin, the paint starts to drip off the record. (WFSU)
Proctor says that imaginative teenager then created three “spin art” records that they ended up selling to people at a restaurant in Railroad Square. “You don’t have to be a scholar to do, you know, to do art. You don’t have to have a master’s degree in art to do art. You just do what you feel.”
That lesson is exactly what Betty Proctor has done with her life. Betty’s love for her daughter not only led her to create a business, but also created opportunities for all types of people to find and express their own unique voice.
Producer’s Inside Look
By Freddie Hall
Betty Proctor and I pose for the camera with a piece of Spin Art that I created.
Close up look at my art right after I finished spinning the record.
The moment you take your first step into Obsession’s Gift shop you are instantly hit with the scent of paint along with the view of all the colors around you. The creativity that drips from the place is empowering and strong. Not long after you take it all in you are greeted warmly by the owner, Betty Proctor. She has this wonderful process to help you create your own art with a particular, and literal, spin to it. It’s where you let your ideas fly in the form of paint.
Betty introduced me to the process of “spin art” by making sure I had on a poncho that covered me from my head to my feet. She let me pick out my favorite colors to use (blue and black) and I made a random design on a vinyl record. Next, we put a golf tee through the record and I used all my strength to rotate the disk as fast as possible. The paint not only flew but started to shape into something unique. Something that could only be called mine. This special art experience Betty created for everyone in our community is very self-expressive. In the short time it took me to spin this record, I felt connected to a piece of art that spoke to me. It made me feel great. That is what Betty Proctor does well: she helps people find their creative voice.
UPDATE | May 10th Tornado at Railroad Square
On May 10th, 2024, A tornado ripped through Railroad Square Art district. In the video below you can see the damage that occurred at Obsessions Gifts and Betty Proctor talks about what she saw when she first arrived at the store that day.
Chef Fe always thinks of her grandmother and auntie’s kitchens when she smells this recipe cooking up. She always
More about Chef Fe
The story of Felisha Nicholson, also known as Chef Fe, is about more than just someone who creates excellent meals. She also helps others learn about different foods and how to turn them into delicious feasts. Her motivation stems from her own childhood, where learning to cook was a bonding experience for her whole family.
A Leap of Faith
(Photo by Freddie Hall)
Felisha Nicholson’s first step on the road to success as a chef and cookbook author started when made pancakes for the first time as a child. “My parents always involved me in the kitchen,” she said. “I learned how to cook at a very young age, and I just never stopped.”
But cooking as a career was not her initial goal. Felisha studied to become a teacher and worked as an Elementary Math Specialist with the Leon County School District for years. Things changed during one of the most trying times for the entire world in recent memory: The COVID-10 pandemic.
At that time, Felisha stepped away from the classroom and back into the kitchen. She started a business called “The FE-Nominal Experience.” It provided special dining experiences for people in the privacy of their own homes. She also does cooking demonstrations and wrote a cookbook called “Cooking with Fe”. Felisha calls the move away from education “a leap of faith.” She says she realized she could do something she loved and could also bless customers with great food.
(Photo by Freddie Hall)
What’s cookin’?
Felisha planned two dishes for her first WFSU Cooking with Chef Fe recording session. First an Okra and Tomato stew as well as Buttermilk Fried Chicken. She got in her position in front of the camera, took her deep breath, and began. She was efficient in the way she chopped the tomatoes, created her seasoning plates, and fried the chicken, but she also explained why these meals were some of her favorites. As she mixed and fried the food, the scents rose in the kitchen along with the anticipation to eat it. When everything was presented at the end, it looked like something out of a magazine. One of the benefits of working on a cooking segment is we are able to taste the results. Both dishes were delicious!
“if you’re not sneezing, you’re not seasoning.”
Chef Fe
(Photo by Freddie Hall\WFSU Public Media)
Tastes like home
Many of the meals Chef Fe makes come from recipes passed down from her own family. Chef Fe says the distinct and delicious aromas coming from the kitchen is what she remembers most from her childhood. “One of my favorite things about being at my grandmother’s house and my aunties’ house was coming in and smelling all of the food,” she says. “It feels like home to me.”
Part of the secret to her recipes is the very selective seasoning lists. At one point in the demonstration, a cloud of seasoning rose up when she added it to a flour mixture. She smiled and reassured us and her future viewers on the other side of the camera that it was all just part of the process. “If you’re not sneezing, you’re not seasoning,” she said.
Creating and sharing a legacy
Chef Fe has lived in Tallahassee her whole life. Her family can trace their roots back to before the Civil War. Here great-great grandfather was a slave in Leon County. The land he received at the end of the war has been passed down from generation to generation. “Every year we did the 20th of May celebrations there, which is our emancipation,” she says. “We have this huge celebration there where we invite people from all over the city and surrounding counties.” Food and fellowship is just some of the things they celebrate. “We have poetry readings and speeches and live bands.”
Chef Fe also has Creole roots as well with family in Louisiana and California. “I grew up not knowing a lot about that side of my family,” she explains. “So I really spent the past few years just really trying to delve into cooking those dishes and really feeling closer to home with them.”
Creating the feeling of home is exactly what she hopes people get out of her “Cooking with Chef Fe” segments. “I hope they feel the comfort there,” she says. She also hopes that people will find the recipes simple enough that they can pass it down to their own children and grandchildren. “I just really hope that it is something that people will just want to try and just experiment with and make it their own.”
Jay Jenning talks about building and then rebuilding his business.
Jay Jennings built a business in Tallahassee’s Railroad square dedicated to Water Ice, a treat very similar to ice cream or gelato. But a tornado in Spring 2024 tor that dream down. We follow him as he attempts to rebuild his business after the storm.
View of the damage done by a Tornado that ripped through Railroad Square Art District (Tristan Wood/WFSU)
A violent tornado destroyed parts of Tallahassee’s Railroad Square Art District in the Spring of 2024, but the spirit of the art hub perseveres. We follow one business owner’s rebuilding journey, Plus, we discover an autism-focused entrepreneur’s mission, and meet the inaugural Kathryn Belle Long Scholar.
Friends and family of musician and educator Kathryn Belle Long honor her memory with a celebration of life and a fundraiser for a scholarship to help the next generation of students interested in the arts.
Spotlight is a local series dedicated to showcasing independent artists and sharing their stories locally and beyond. It aims to feature artists of all kinds from the Florida Big Bend area.
Lichgate on High Road has a huge oak tree and an English cottage. It’s also a place the public can enjoy. WFSU’s Justin Edwards explores the story of the local English Professor who built the cottage and the woman who has worked to preserve it for decades.
