Thomas and Hicks met through a mutual in Idlewild. Hicks said they hit it off and they began to meet once a week as a studio visit, and work on pieces. 

“One of the most moving things for me,” Hicks said, “is he said he just wanted to make art with me for the rest of his life, and I was like, ‘Well, I'm obsessed with Idlewild, so let's focus on creating pieces around our memories and also all of the archival pieces that come out of different things and what people loan and everything.'”

Later, Associate Professor in the Residential College of Arts and Humanities, Tama Hamilton-Wray and Hicks met in Idlewild. Hamilton-Wray was able to help bring Hicks' and Thomas’ art to MSU’s campus. 

“The stars were aligned for us to meet,” Hamilton-Wray said. “A friend of mine and someone that Lydia knew through someone else kept saying ‘there's a lady there you should meet, Lydia, she's an artist.’”

Hamilton-Wray’s interest and research in Idlewild led to her bringing her class to the town to meet Hicks and other residents. On their tour of the town they also visited the homes of both Hicks' and Thomas’ art studio. This visit in February is when Hamilton-Wray said the idea of the MSU show was “kind of percolating.” 

The artist duo hosted an outdoor exhibition of some of their work, which has joined the MSU exhibit as a projection. The exhibition featured artwork on banners that were displayed on a historic nightclub.

“We knew we would have a part two,” Hamilton-Wray said. “We knew that the second part would be bringing the art to MSU into this gallery, so there would be something in the Idlewild community itself, and then something here in Lansing. We do hope to continue this work. One of the things we hope to do is bring other people and other elders who have connections to Idlewild to have an opportunity to meet and talk together, see this art and also gather some of its oral history.”

The pair continued to do just that and produced the exhibit, which was "named for many Georges," Hicks said. 

“It is called '4 George,'” Hicks said. “It is both for George Thomas, the painter, and all of these other Georges that we love, including my dad, who is a George. He’s George lll, so it also worked as like, I could be George lV as an alter ego and then also George Washington Carver, also George Floyd, all the Georges.”

The event’s location in Snyder, a residence hall, helps to make events like this more accessible to students, as the Residential College for Arts and Humanities strives to give students diverse learning experiences.

“Of course [students] are learning in the classroom, but we have experiential spaces in the college,” Hamilton-Wray said. “We have this learning gallery, classes come in here. Lydia met with a couple classes in here, and even after the gallery was closed yesterday, one of the professors held a breakdancing cypher lesson in the gallery, so it’s also used as a meeting space, and it's always nice because you have the arts surrounding you when you’re in the gallery.”

Students from outside of RCAH and community members are also invited to enjoy what the gallery has to offer. 

“The barbershop [painting] was really impactful,” special education junior Deanna Davis said. “Especially with me, going to the hair salon all the time. Just seeing everybody, the way it was pictured, it was just really nice to see how they made that. So I thought that was my favorite piece. I [will] be coming to the next future events. This one was really nice.”