Museums in a Minute: NC Pottery Center

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The City of Raleigh Arts Commission, Durham Arts Council, Orange County Arts Commission, and the United Arts Council of Raleigh & Wake County announce the opening of the newly created honorary position of Piedmont Laureate.

The Piedmont Laureate will be appointed for 1 year, receive a $5,000 honorarium, and offer the following activities in Wake, Durham, and Orange counties:

• • Present readings at designated public sites
  • Encourage creative writing for all age groups
  • Promote literature at select public events
  • Bring attention to literature in less traditional settings;and
  • Propose original activities to expand appreciation of the literary arts

All writers residing in Wake, Durham, or Orange counties who meet the guideline criteria may apply to be appointed Piedmont Laureate. Program guidelines and application forms will be available at www.durhamarts.org. Deadline for application is August 29 by 4 p.m. to the City of Raleigh Arts Commission, 222 West Hargett St., Rm. 504, Raleigh, NC 27601 or mail to P.O. Box 590, Raleigh, NC 27602. For more information contact Belva Parker at 919-890-3610 or email belva.parker@ci.raleigh.nc.us.

Bloody Blackbeard

Triad Stage

Saturday, June 21st, 2008

My visit to Triad Stage in Greensboro for a showing of Bloody Blackbeard Saturday night was a great introduction not only to this regional stage, opened in 2002, but to the downtown revitalization it has encouraged.

The play benefited from two successful conceits. It’s a trio of present-day kids digging at the beach by the light of the full moon that sets the play in motion. That swath of beach becomes a haunted house as a chest they discover turns into the doorway through which a young Blackbeard emerges to tell his tale. Which brings us to the other great conceit: there are three Blackbeards in this production, which one might waggishly call small, medium and large, and at times all three of them appear on stage together.

It’s this vehicle that writer and director Preston Lane uses to put some meat on the bones of the legend, to make Blackbeard a little less of a caricature and a little more of a human being. So we experience not only his precipitant violence but also his moments of conscience and self-doubt, we understand his driving force to be remembered, and we imagine that love might, albeit briefly, be the force that keeps this violent man from fulfilling his destiny.

This is Triad Stage’s biggest production, with 19 actors playing more than 80 characters. Their performances are well underscored by beautiful and haunting original music by Polecat Creek’s Laurelyn Dossett as well as Molly McGinn, played by musicians in period costumes, effortlessly moving in and out of the action on stage. Pirates took similar liberties with the audience, dashing and shouting from one end of the house to the other. The imaginative set design used a mainsail as a projection screen that occasionally framed the musicians in silhouette, and if audience members on the stage level were so inclined, they could wiggle their toes in sand, which added a final layer of verisimilitude.

In its writing, acting, staging and music, Bloody Blackbeard is a thoroughly engaging theatrical experience. But are its imaginings the final word on the Blackbeard myth and legend? The play’s last word is as good a guide as we’re going to get: “Dig!”

To emerge from Triad Stage on a Saturday night is to appreciate the power of this renovated Montgomery Ward building to contribute to the revitalization of an urban downtown long underutilized. This swath of historic Elm Street was alive with restaurants, delis, coffee shops, and music clubs as well as artist galleries and performance spaces. In the vicinity you’ll find Elsewhere Artist Collaborative, an experimental museum sculpted from a former thrift store; several public art pieces including a “circle gate” by artist Jim Gallucci, and the historic Carolina Theater, now in its 80th year.

Bloody Blackbeard runs through July 6, 2008. Visit Triad Stage for details, including music clips. The United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro is your guide for arts activities around town. Plan your visit with the help of the Greensboro Convention and Visitors Bureau.  Hear songwriter Laurelyn Dossett talk about the music in Bloody Blackbeard, and catch a song clip, in this podcast from the NC Department of Cultural Resources.

The North Carolina Arts Council announced the list of finalists to be considered in the final round of the craft artist fellowship review for the FY09 cycle of grants.

Selected based upon the individual ratings of the three panelists who reviewed work samples, the finalists were among 109 applicants to the category.

Up to four artists will be chosen from this list for the craft artist fellowships. Announcements of the awards will be made after the recommendations are approved by the Secretary of Cultural Resources, scheduled approximately for late June or early July.

The finalists are:

Lin Barnhardt / Vivian Beer / Nikki Blair / Susan Brandeis / Elizabeth Brim / Angela Bubash / Linda Darty / David Edgar / Catharine Ellis / Kurt Gabriel / Joe Grant / Carmen Grier / Ann Harwell / Samantha Henneke / Mi-Sook Hur / Tracy Krumm / Sylvia Rosenthal / Sharon Sharp / Pablo Soto / David Stuempfle

Just an FYI for all of you dance lovers out there… the American Dance Festival is celebrating its 75th anniversary with six and a half weeks of performances in Durham. With a huge budget for this celebratory season (”Split Scenes”), visitors will have the chance to see a few dance companies perform each night. With some of the most celebrated companies and works featured this season, dance critics will be salivating.

For more information, visit www.americandancefestival.org.

For the first time in more than ten years, eastern North Carolina will host the North Carolina Arts Council’s visual arts fellowship recipients in an exhibition at the Rocky Mount Arts Center, Fellowship Show, scheduled to open this week.

“We are delighted to work with the Rocky Mount Arts Center to showcase these exceptional artists,” said Mary B. Regan, executive director of the N.C. Arts Council. “Professional artists working in North Carolina make our cities vibrant and are building our creative economy.”

Open through September 21, the exhibition explores North Carolina’s finest artists: Southern and Appalachian craft traditions and traditional women’s roles through the work of Terri Dowell-Dennis; the rural areas of North Carolina’s Piedmont through the photography of Carlos Gustavo; interiors represented in high-end shelter magazines through the oil paintings of Page Laughlin; and the curves and glazes of works by Jerilyn Virden, to name a few.

“We want to continue to expand the ways in which artists are recognized for their abilities and contributions and the ways they add value to our state,” said Jeff Pettus, the visual arts director for the N.C. Arts Council. “We want to be a state that values its artists, a state where artists can, quite simply, make a living.”

Held in conjunction with the fellowship award cycle, the exhibition features work from the following artists:

- Ken Abbott (Asheville), inkjet prints from film
- Terri Dowell-Dennis (Winston-Salem), various media
- David Finn (Winston-Salem), carvings
- Donald Furst (Wilmington), etching
- Joshua M. Gibson (Durham), film
- Carlos Gustavo (Winston-Salem), photography
- Page Laughlin (Winston-Salem), oil painting
- Jody Servon (Blowing Rock), photography
- elin o’hara slavick (Chapel Hill), archival digital print
- Gay Smith (Bakersville), pottery
- Jerilyn Virden (Bakersville), sculpting
- Glenda Wharton (Winston-Salem), pencil
- Jeff Whetstone (Durham), photography
- Sherri Lynn Wood (Durham), quilts

“The current Fellowship Show is a celebration of highly talented artists and some amazing artwork. In addition, the hope is that the Imperial Art Center will appropriately play its role in helping these cultural artifacts become artistic reference points for succeeding generations,” said Ron Graziani, the guest curator for the exhibition.

The fourteen artists were selected from more than 300 applicants during the selection process for the 2006-07 visual arts fellowships. The program is one of the ways that the North Carolina Arts Council supports artists who live and work within North Carolina communities. The fellowship awards operate on a two-year cycle, with a call for visual artists every other year.

An opening reception will be held Friday, June 6 from 7-9 p.m. and admission to the exhibition is free and open to the public.

The Rocky Mount Arts Center was renovated from the 1920s era Imperial Tobacco of England and Ireland warehouse and has been a community cornerstone for the arts since its open in January 2006. The center is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. and on Sunday 1-5 p.m.

The North Carolina Arts Council announced the list of finalists to be considered in the final round of the visual artist fellowship review for the FY09 cycle of grants.

Selected based upon the individual ratings of the three panelists who reviewed work samples, the finalists were among 324 applicants to the category.

These finalists were selected based upon the individual ratings of the three panelists who reviewed all work samples.

Up to 13 artists will be chosen from this list for the visual artist fellowships. Announcements of the awards will be made after the recommendations are approved by the Secretary of Cultural Resources, scheduled approximately for mid- to late June.

Zeynap Alkan / Lucas Allsbrook / Rob Amberg / Eric Baden / Valerie Bailey / Nancy Baker / Tim Barnwell / Malena Bergmann / Scott Betz / Diana Bloomfield / Jennifer Brook / Jennifer Bueno / Devin Burgess / Crista Cammaroto / Lee Cherry (EAT Collaborative) / Ann Conner / Jerstin Crosby / Erik Dahlager / Virginia Derryberry / Robin Dreyer / Kiki Farish / John Ford / Taj Forer / Charlotte Foust / Heather Freeman / Alvin Frega / Amy Funderburk / José Galvez / Mark Gardner / Ellen Giamportone / Marguerite Gignoux / Maja Godlewska / Mark Gordon / Raymond Grubb / Jim Haberman / Werner Haker / George Handy / Edwin Harris / Ken Hassell / Harrison Haynes / Tama Hochbaum / Lisa Holder / Bryant Holsenbeck / Frank Hunter / Kenneth Jackson / Lisa Jones / Louis Joseph / Jimmy Kellough / Michael Klauke / Kenn Kotara / Kate Kretz / Gerard Lange / Billy Lee / Anne Lemanski / Mildred Long / Jeff Murphy / Alison Overton / Sean Pace / Pamela Pecchio / Benjamin Porter / Leah Preiss / Marek Ranis / Dana Raymond / Linda Roberts / Drew Robertson / Lisa Beth Robinson / Mikel Robinson / Skip Rohde / John Rosenthal / Ron Rozzelle / Barbara Schreiber / Alice Sebrell / MJ Sharp / JoAnn Sieburg-Baker / David Simonton / Beverly Smith / Jon Smith / David Spear / Cici Stevens / Megan Sullivan / Robert Trotman / Jan-Ru Wan / David Wilson / Ashley Worley

George Shuffler Crosspicking

George Shuffler and Family will perform in a free concert on July 12, 2008 as part of Blue Ridge Traditions at the Mountain Gateway Museum in Old Fort, North Carolina, beginning at 7 p.m.

On Tuesday, May 20, the Latino Arts & Culture Summit will be featured on the television program OPEN/net in Spanish.

The program will discuss the second annual Latino Arts & Culture Summit on OPEN/net for Spanish speaking audiences. Airing from 8-9 p.m., the program is hosted by Yasmin Wurts-Metivier in a conference-room style discussion. As part of the discussion, panelists respond to calls and e-mails from the television audience.

Participating panelists include Banu Valladares, cARTwheels Manager for the North Carolina Arts Council; Pedro Lasch, a visual artist, Board Member of the North Carolina Arts Council, and Assistant Professor of the Practice Department of Art, Art History & Visual Studies at Duke University; and Lizette Cruz Watko, Founder and Executive Director of Diamante, Incorporated, a non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation, development, and promotion of the culture, heritage and artistic expressionsof the Latino/Hispanic population in North Carolina.

OPEN/net is a public affairs television call-in program that connects viewers across the state to the services and concerns of state government. For more information about OPEN/net, visit www.ncapt.tv.

The Latino Arts & Culture Summit will take place on June 7 at Duke University. For more information, please visit http://www.diamanteinc.org/index_files/Page767.htm.

If any of you read our previous post regarding the African American Dance Ensemble’s tour across North Carolina in American Masterpieces and wanted to know more about what a residency experience would look like, you can view our video of the experience at http://www.ncarts.org/press-videos/AM-AADE.wmv.

You’ll see artistic director Chuck Davis and his company in blue shirts as they instruct community participants. To see the previous post, visit http://ncarts.wordpress.com/2008/02/12/african-dance-comes-to-nc-communities/.