February 7, 2026

An opening reception took place Thursday night for the second annual Black Excellence Art Exhibition in Columbus that featured the artwork of four East Mississippi Community College alumni. Food for the Columbus Arts Council event at the Rosenzweig Arts Center was prepared by students in EMCC’s Culinary Arts program taught at the Lion Hills Center.

Two of the artists, Brejenn Allen and Stephen Phillips, attended school on EMCC’s Scooba campus, while the other two, Honor Brown and Breelyn Smith, graduated from the college’s Golden Triangle campus.

The exhibit featured the works of 11 local artists in a wide range of mediums.

Smith, who is enrolled at the Savannah College of Art and Design, was unable to attend the event, but her parents, Ken and Londie Smith, were there.

They said that Breelyn Smith’s teachers knew at an early age that she had a talent for art.

“Her pre-K teacher called us in for a meeting when she was about 3 years old and said that Breelyn was really creative and had a lot of talent,” Londie Smith said.

“She told us, ‘Take my word for it, Breelyn is going to be an artist,’” Ken Smith added.

Each exhibit featured a biography and statement from the artist. In her statement, Breelyn Smith wrote, “Within contemporary art, I utilize color, subject matter, and symbolism to portray societal themes and ideas from the world. I explore nuanced topics that are often overlooked or ignored to call for action.”

Phillips, a 2008 graduate of EMCC who has some of his art on display on the college’s Scooba campus, is a native of Crawford. Phillips, a ceramic artist, said he first became interested in the medium as a child when he would mold objects out of mud.

“I gravitated towards art because I felt like that is what I was supposed to be doing,” said Phillips, who graduated from the Mississippi University for Women in 2013. While there, he earned first place in the 2011 Collegiate Show in the category of ceramics.

Phillips works full time at Aluminum Dynamics and operates a pottery business on the side.

Allen is a 2018 graduate of EMCC who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Art Institute of Chicago. Her artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She is the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at the Lauren Rogers Museum of Art in Laurel, Mississippi.

“I am a middle ground between the North and South due to my upbringing in the no-stop-light town of Porterville, Mississippi, by way of the bottom side of Gary, Indiana,” Allen wrote in her artist statement. “Now, I am a Mississippi-based visual artist whose practice captures the African American experience in the South by interpreting photos I take throughout my everyday life, the body, humor, and overlooked objects through painting and mixed media.”

Brown, of West Point, is a graduate of both EMCC and MUW. She was also a student at the Golden Triangle College Early College High School on EMCC’s Mayhew campus. Brown specializes in portraiture and figure drawing, though her most recent works are more in the abstract style.

“My body of work is a balance of flowing forms and geometric planes,” Brown wrote in her artist statement. “The earlier versions of this work focus on maximalism, and they have graffiti-like style. The newer ones are moving and use grid patterns to organize the flowing shapes and graffiti. The organic, flowing shapes are reminiscent of the lines and curves that interest me in figure drawing.”

EMCC art instructors Lisa Spinks (Scooba campus) and Cynthia Buob (Golden Triangle campus) attended the opening reception and had high praise for their former students. Spinks taught Allen and Phillips, while Brown and Breelyn Smith were students in Buob’s classes.

“Stephen and Brejenn are both very dynamic personalities,” Spinks said “They are major social media powerhouses. They know how to promote themselves and market their work. They are both going to be big successes one day.”

Buob said Breelyn Smith was focused at EMCC and knew what career path she wanted to pursue.

“Breelyn was already talented when she came in and immediately began to work very hard,” Buob said. “She was in the studio a lot finishing up her work. She very much wanted to go to the Savannah College of Art and Design.”

Buob said Honor was one of the first students from the Golden Triangle College High School to enroll in her art classes. GTECHS students are enrolled in high school and take classes at EMCC as well.

“Honor was still in high school and was young, but she was a really good artist,” Buob said. “She was also a very hard worker and has done really well for herself.”

EMCC Culinary Arts instructor Chef Jakiero Dismuke, instructor Chef Jayla Taylor and program students Shaquana Chandler, Rita Little, Erica McKinney, Ashley Robinson, Esmeon Saul, and Jasmine Williams prepared food for the event.

Featured dishes honored blacks who contributed to America’s culinary traditions, such as homemade chips in honor of George Crum, who is credited with creating the potato chip, and James Hemings, who introduced classical French culinary techniques to the Americas.

“Our students are highlighting African Americans who have made significant contributions to food science and the culinary industry,” Dismuke said.