A senate RESOLUTION

 

To celebrate the grand opening of the Jonathan Green Maritime Cultural Center At the University of SOuth Carolina Beaufort.

 

Whereas, the Jonathan Green Maritime Cultural Center at the University of South Carolina Beaufort is the first maritime museum devoted exclusively to African-descended maritime art, history, and culture. Named for internationally acclaimed artist Jonathan Green, the center reflects his more than forty-five-year career interpreting the history, dignity, and global reach of African diasporic coastal communities worldwide through the lens of the Gullah Geechee in the Lowcountry of South Carolina; and

 

Whereas, through a vast and internationally recognized body of work spanning more than four and a half decades, Mr. Green has created an enduring visual archive that honors the intellectual, spiritual, agricultural, economic, artistic, and maritime foundations built by African-descended people across the world. His art situates South Carolina within a broader global maritime narrative, illuminating connections between coastal communities, port cities, international trade networks, migration, memory, and cultural continuity across continents. His paintings do not isolate the Lowcountry; they position it as a central node within a worldwide maritime civilization shaped by African knowledge systems and generational resilience; and

 

Whereas, located within the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, the center advances scholarship, exhibition, and public education that formally recognizes these contributions within local, national, and global contexts. It serves as a site of research, preservation, interpretation, and civic commemoration, ensuring that the foundational role of African-descended maritime communities in building and sustaining coastal economies is permanently acknowledged; and

 

Whereas, the center stands as a cultural landmark and academic institution dedicated to preserving, interpreting, and celebrating the enduring legacy of Jonathan Green and the maritime civilizations his work brings to light for South Carolina, the nation, and the world.  Now, therefore,

 

Be it resolved by the Senate:

 

That the members of the South Carolina Senate, by this resolution, celebrate the grand opening of the Jonathan Green Maritime Cultural Center at the University of South Carolina Beaufort.

 

Be it further resolved that copies of this resolution be presented to Jonathan Green, Dr. Kim Cliett Long, and the leadership of the Jonathan Green Maritime Cultural Center.

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