2015 Living Legend Nina Tisara
Although she and Living Legends of Alexandria are sometimes seen as one and the same, Artist-Photographer Nina Tisara had a life before she founded Living Legends and now that she has retired from its management she plans a life afterwards.
Tisara came to Washington, D.C. from Brooklyn, N.Y. at age 18 on Christmas Eve, 1956. She majored in sculpture at the High School of Music and Art in New York City but she married early and soon had had four children. She didn’t do anything with her art until many years later when she took a photography class at Northern Virginia Community College to reward herself for passing Economics. A fellow student told her about a possible job opening at the Port Packet (now the Alexandria Gazette Packet) and that was the start of a 30-year-plus career as a photographer.
Tisara worked full time for a national association on Capitol Hill while freelancing for the Port Packet. She incorporated Tisara Photography in 1985 and in 1990 she quit her full time job and opened her photography studio in the newly developing King Street Metro area. Two of her children joined her in the business endeavor and her son Steven Halperson, now runs the studio.
At the time she founded Tisara Photography, she was accepted by jury in the Torpedo Factory Art Center and was a founding member of the Factory’s first photo gallery, Factory Photoworks (now Multiple Exposures Gallery). She gave up her gallery membership when she was awarded a grant from the Alexandria Commission for the Arts to document worship in Alexandria and could no longer maintain the required number of gallery hours. For the project called “Converging Paths” Tisara photographed over 50 churches and synagogues in the City of Alexandria—all in black and white and all in available light. The work was exhibited at the Lyceum, the City’s history museum, from December 1985 through April 1986 and later in other locations including Marymount College in Scranton, Pa. Some 15 years later, Tisara focused her lens on the City’s African American churches and produced “United in the Spirit” which was exhibited at Alexandria’s Black History Museum.
The national recession at the time Tisara opened her King Street studio motivated her to become active in the business community. She joined the newly formed group KSMET (the King Street Metro Enterprise Team) and became its second president. Tisara served for six years on the board of directors of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce and received its Outstanding Board Member Award in 1995 and its Friend of Small Business Award in 1996. She was a member of the King Street Metro Task Force, a group of citizens and city staff concerned with the development of the area, and a founding member of the King Street Gardens Park Foundation. King Street Gardens Park is an award winning public art project in the area.
Tisara’s recognitions include: Women to Woman Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cultural Affairs and the Arts, Alexandria Commission on the Status of Women, 1989; the ALEX Award for contributions to the Arts, Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, 1991; the ALEX Award for work as an artist, Alexandria Arts Forum, 1991; Outstanding Service Award, KSMET, 2004; Service to the Community Award, Alexandria Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Affairs, 2006; ALEX Award for Service to the Arts and Living Legends of Alexandria, Alexandria Commission for the Arts, 2008; Marian Van Landingham Lifetime Service Award, Volunteer Alexandria, 2011; and Donna Bergheim Cultural Affairs Award, Alexandria Commission for Women, 2013.
The Living Legends Board of Directors is proud to name her a 2015 Living Legend of Alexandria.