Senate Resolution No. 3078

BY: Senator MONTGOMERY

HONORING Otto Neals upon the occasion of his
designation as recipient of the 2019 Tohma Y.
Faulkner Arts and Culture Trailblazer Award

WHEREAS, Individuals who give of their time and energies and serve
the best interests of their communities are an asset beyond remuneration
and cannot be sufficiently extolled; and

WHEREAS, Otto Neals has given not only of his time and energies but
also of his competence, intelligence and leadership and consequently has
been designated for special honor; and

WHEREAS, This Legislative Body is justly proud to honor Otto Neals
upon the occasion of his designation as recipient of the 2019 Tohma Y.
Faulkner Arts and Culture Trailblazer Award, given to him at the 2019
Bed-Stuy Alive! Festival on Saturday, October 12, 2019, in
Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York; and

WHEREAS, Otto Neals, a native of South Carolina, migrated to the
great state of New York at the age of four where simultaneously, he
first found his love for the arts with painting; he spent most of his
career working as an illustrator at the Brooklyn Post Office, and
pursued independent art projects on nights and weekends; and

WHEREAS, It was at George Westinghouse Vocational High School in
Brooklyn, where Otto Neals first studied commercial art; from there he
briefly attended the Brooklyn Museum Art School before studying the art
of printmaking at the Bob Blackburn Printmaking Workshop with such
illustrious instructors as Mohammed Khalil, Roberto DeLomanica and
Krishna Reddy; and

WHEREAS, In addition to painting in oils, watercolors, pastels, and
printmaking, Otto Neals is also dually proficient in wood and stone
carving; the late Vivian Schuyler Key presented him with his first set
of stone carving tools and was influential in his career; and

WHEREAS, Otto Neals has been commissioned to execute several public
works projects over the years including ten bronze plaques for the
Harlem Walk of Fame on 135th Street, a 20-foot mural in Kings County
Hospital, a life-sized sculpture for the Brooklyn Children's Museum, and
a bronze sculpture of Percy Sutton at the City University of New York;
and

WHEREAS, A bronze monument, commissioned by the Ezra Jack Keats
Foundation, was installed as the centerpiece of the Imagination
Playground in Prospect Park; this bronze work earned Otto Neals the New
York City Art Commission's Award for Excellence in Design; and

WHEREAS, Otto Neals' work spans not only this great Empire State,
but the United States at large; his work can be found at the Smithsonian
Institution in Washington D.C., Howard University in Washington D.C.,
The Columbia Museum, in South Carolina, as well as in the private

collections of United States Congressman John Lewis, Harry Belafonte,
and Oprah Winfrey; and

WHEREAS, Now in his 80's, Otto Neals is still a resident of Crown
Heights, Brooklyn, and still to this day enjoys creating art just as he
has done for over 76 years; and

WHEREAS, It is the custom of this Legislative Body that when
individuals of such noble aims and accomplishments are brought to our
attention, they should be celebrated and recognized by all the citizens
of this great Empire State; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That this Legislative Body pause in its deliberations to
honor Otto Neals upon the occasion of his designation as recipient of
the 2019 Tohma Y. Faulkner Arts and Culture Trailblazer Award; and be it
further

RESOLVED, That a copy of this Resolution, suitably engrossed, be
transmitted to Otto Neals.