Local gallery owner donates artwork for Black History Month ceremony

February 26, 2018 By Rob Abruzzese, Legal Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Tekin “Tony” Akbay, owner of the Faith Art Gallery on Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn donated some pieces to the New York Supreme Court for use during its annual Black History Month celebration. Photos courtesy of the New York Supreme Court

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Tekin “Tony” Akbay whispered when he talked about what Downtown Brooklyn was like when he opened his shop there in 1994 as if speaking about how bad it was would somehow make it worse again.

Ask him about his clientele these days, though, and he practically shouts.

“You know this guy, right?” Akbay asked while holding up a photo of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams. “There are also many famous people moving to this part of Brooklyn and a lot of them come to the gallery. Many judges too.”

"Still On My Mind" by Kevin A. Williams, was one of the few donated by Faith Art Gallery in Brooklyn.

Akbay is the owner of Faith Art Gallery located on Jay Street. Surrounded by courthouses on every side of his business, he has become well known among many of Brooklyn’s judges and members of the legal community because of his shop which sells frames for limited-edition pieces, oil paintings and fine prints.

Akbay said that he doesn’t mind doing favors for his longtime customers and jumped at the opportunity to donate pieces of art for the New York State Supreme Court’s Black History Month celebration that was held in Manhattan on Tuesday, Feb. 20.

This was the 28th annual Black History Month celebration in the court. This year’s theme for Black History Month is “African Americans in Times of War.”

Chief Judge Janet DiFiore, chief judge of the State of New York, Court of Appeals, was the keynote speaker at the event. The “Trailblazer Award” was given to two Tuskegee Airmen, Wilfred DeFour and William Johnson, of the Claude B. Govan Chapter, Tuskegee Airmen, Inc.

The Hon. Theodore T. Jones Jr., Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Joyce Y. Hartsfield, the executive director of the Franklin H. Williams Judicial Commission.