Tampa, Fla. (March 6, 2022) – Over the weekend, the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts awarded best of show to Nneka Jones for her piece Modern Renaissance, the GFA best of show award comes with a $15,000 prize thanks to Raymond James Financial. Nneka Jones began her journey at the Gasparilla Festival of the Arts as an emerging artist, quickly making a meteoric rise to being featured on the cover of TIME Magazine and being commissioned to do a piece of Vice President Kamala Harris by the Washington Post. Her embroidered works serve as tools of activism to raise awareness about the social and political issues surrounding abuse. The series of works focus mainly on sexual abuse victims and the rise of human trafficking.
“It’s only fitting that Nneka won this award,” said GFA President Jamie Jenkins. “Her tenured success at the festival proves positive that our community embraces a diverse and eclectic group of artists and fosters a community who supports one another year after year. None of this would be possible without the generous sponsorships from so many throughout the Tampa Bay community and the volunteers who so selflessly donate their time to make it all possible.”
“I’m extremely honored and grateful to be selected as the recipient of the Gasparilla Festival of Arts Best of Show,” said Best of Show Artist Nneka Jones. “With GFA being my first public show in 2018/2019 and working my way up from Emerging Artist, third place, 2nd place in 2021 and now 1st, it feels almost surreal. It just goes to show that with hard work, persistence and a supportive community, anything is possible.”