the art club is currently bestowing its own honor on edward banister.ture of what will soon be a public fixture on market square knew the rhode island school of design. >> the wonderful thing about the sculpture is it is not a monument. he is not standing on a pedestal looking down at people. he is sitting on a bench kind of waiting for people to sit next to him. he has a sketchpad in hand. on the sketchpad is a sketch of his wife. >> the sculpture is being cast life-size in bronze. it is the finishing touch for a man whose talent and tenacity broke down barriers and led to the open doors at the art club today. for the pbs newshour, i'm pamela watts in providence, rhode island. >> and that is the newshour for tonight. i'm geoff bennett. >> i'm on the devise. half of the entire newshour team, thank you for joining us. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by -- >> 25 years, consumer cellular school has been to provide wireless service that helps people communicate and connect. we offer a variety of no contract plans and our customer ser

why were they willing to rally around edward banister, a black artist? a person of note. they recognized, you know, who he was. artists don't see black and white. it was his commitment to his work, and everything that he did to help create the new england cultural community. pamela: the narragansett bay shoreline and rural new england are prominent themes in bannister's paintings. some on display here. many more at the smithsonian. >> his landscape scenes were very bucolic, very serene, um, very somber tones in his palette. his work wasn't good because he was an african american. his work was great because he was a dedicated painter, and that's all he wanted to do. pamela: and gaucher-thomas says bannister's fierce dedication was fired up by an article he read in the new york herald in 1867. >> quote, "the negro seems to have an appreciation for art while being manifestly unable to produce it." ironically less than a decade , later, in 1876, banister was the first african american to receive a first-prize medal award. pamela: it happened at the philadelp