|
|
ARTMATTERS:JULY & AUGUST 2008
FROM THE ARTS COUNCIL
ACROSS NORTH CAROLINA
ACROSS THE NATION
|
FROM THE ARTS COUNCILHeritage Award Recipient: Orville Hicks The North Carolina Arts Council is proud to honor the 2007 North Carolina Heritage Award winner Orville Hicks for his contributions to the art of storytelling, and his continuing the long-time tradition.
Orville Hicks Since 1989, the North Carolina Heritage Award, formerly known as the Folk Heritage Award, has honored our state's most eminent folk artists. Recipients of the Heritage Awards range from internationally acclaimed musicians to folks who quietly practice their art in rural and family settings. These awards deepen awareness of the rich and diverse cultural traditions of people in North Carolina. Orville’s verbal art shows the important mountain values, and deepens the appreciation of the rich speech and folk culture of Appalachian North Carolina. It was here that he was born and first heard many of the tales he tells today. His mother, Sarah Ann Harmon Hicks, told stories to her children to pass the time while they worked, and many of her stories are integral parts of Orville’s repertory, include his famous Beech Mountain Jack Tales. Growing up, and even into his adult life, Orville also frequented the home or Ray and Rosa Hicks, a notable setting for telling tales and singing songs, and where the presence of Orville and his friends became the occasion for folktale telling. Ray Hicks became something of an informal mentor to Orville, who drive him to public performances and observing and sometimes participating in Ray’s tales. Ray encouraged Orville to develop his own style of oratory, even helping him book performances,and suggesting Orville to take his place in events to which Ray could not attend. Orville Hicks has since made a name for himself as a performer, practicing his art in both formal and informal contexts—in festivals, schools and universities, family reunions and folktale conventions. His life, storytelling, and personality all help to preserve important elementals of the past and community of Appalachian North Carolina. He remains in his community to help perpetuate important local traditions, as his stories and manner help to bring old ways into modern times. A jovial man, he works in stories and jokes into everyday situations. His conversations bring in stories and jokes to everyday discourse, and uses local stories to foster a sense of community and connection to a shared, remembered past. He brings delight to the enactment of his process. At the heart, he’s a storyteller who enjoys the joke as much as the listener, and catches his audience into his stories with powerfully infectious laughter that punctuates his tales. Through his art, he preserves not only a priceless treasury of traditional folk life, continuing the oral tradition of regional children’s tales, rural Southern humor, and American tall tales, but also a personal and family tradition of storytelling. In this way, Orville contributes heavily to the new development of the folktale heritage of the Appalachian community and North Carolina as a whole. The NC Arts council honors Orville for the traditions he continues in western North Carolina. To find out more about Orville, visit his site here.
cARTwheels In the 2007-08 season of cARTwheels, the North Carolina Arts Council brought North Carolina’s finest opera, dance and theater companies to elementary school children. Approximately 67,000 students participated from the 44 counties served. “We are thrilled to be included in this season of cARTwheels, and to have the opportunity to present a performance of the North Carolina Dance Theatre to an audience of approximately 1,000 students and adults,” said Chris Farrior, Co-Chair, Martin County Arts Council. “The arts are an essential part of education and this program will give exposure to the arts to students who may not have had an opportunity like this before. The Martin County Arts Council is very fortunate to be a part of this exciting arts education event.” The cARTwheels productions featured the African American Dance Ensemble in See the Rhythm! Hear the Music, Carlota Santana Spanish Dance Company in Festival Olé, Carolina Ballet in Peter and the Wolf, Children’s Theater of Charlotte in Schoolhouse Rock Live! and Tarradiddle Players in Nightingale, North Carolina Dance Theatre in Under Southern Skies, Opera Carolina in Pirates of Penzance and Piedmont Opera in Cosi fan Tutte. Counties included Alamance, Alexander, Alleghany, Avery, Bladen, Brunswick, Buncombe, Cabarrus, Camden, Cherokee, Clay, Cleveland, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Dare, Durham, Franklin, Gates, Graham, Harnett, Haywood, Henderson, Hoke, Macon, Madison, Martin, McDowell, Mitchell, Moore, New Hanover, Onslow, Orange, Pasquotank, Pender, Polk, Rockingham, Stanly, Tyrrell, Union, Watauga, Wayne, Wilson and Yancey. For more information on cARTwheels, contact Banu Valladares, cARTwheels Manager, at (919) 807-6529 or by e-mail at banu.valladares@ncmail.net.
Touring Artists Marketing Workshop For the first time, the North Carolina Arts Council held a marketing workshop for touring artists. More than 30 participants attended the one-day workshop in Winston-Salem. The day was spearheaded by Serena Ebhardt, a touring artist and savvy public arts professional in North Carolina. She led sessions on maximizing web site potential and working with advanced web sites. Additionally, Joe Newberry from the Marketing and Information Services office of the Department of Cultural Resources showed the participants how to produce a podcast and discussed the advantages of social networking in regard to building an audience. Special sessions discussed use of e-mail, developing podcasts, creating advanced web sites and utilizing social networking tools. Participants also received a packet, “Marketing 101,” which included a resource guide and planning tools. For more information on similar programs for artists, contact Jack Le Sueur, Audience Development Administrator for the North Carolina Arts Council, at (919) 807-6503, or by e-mail at Jack.LeSueur@ncmail.net.
Homegrown Handmade Guidebook Launches
Homegrown Handmade Cover In June, the Department of Cultural Resources launched Homegrown Handmade: Art Roads and Farm Trails, a 400-page guidebook of 16 self-directed driving trails with ideas for affordable travel. The travel guide outlines authentic arts and agricultural experiences, highlighting almost 1,300 sites in 76 North Carolina counties. The Homegrown Handmade program fosters alliances between North Carolina arts and agriculture by promoting a wealth of events, activities and adventures for residents and visitors to the state. The project resulted from a partnership of the North Carolina Arts Council, North Carolina Cooperative Extension and HandMade in America and is funded through a grant from Golden LEAF (Long-term Economic Advancement Foundation). The trails are examples of what is now popularly called “agri-Cultural tourism.” Each trail tells a story of its unique place, such as “Lights…Waves…Action” and “Rock Stew Ramble” in the east or “Hushpuppies, Pimento Cheese and Sweet Tea” and “Burning Rubber and Riding the Rails” in the Piedmont. Recreational farms, artist studios, organic foods, museums, festivals and restaurants that serve local produce or serve up indigenous recipes with a dash of art, music or history are included. The book is available from Blair Publishing. Local Arts Councils can receive copies of the book from DCR at a reduced rate of $10. Contact Betty Patterson at betty.patterson@ncmail.net. For more information on the guidebook, visit here.
N.C. Arts Council Board meeting: July 16–18, John C. Campbell Folk School N.C. Arts Council Public Meetings—Save the Date! The North Carolina Arts Council will hold a series of public meetings this fall to discuss the Arts Council’s long-range plan for 2009–2013. The dates are:
Additional details about the public meetings and the draft plan will be announced soon at www.ncarts.org.
New on Our Web Site This summer, take a creative journey with the Artful Traveler. With so many summer performing arts, towns and cities abundant with artist studios and galleries, outdoor dramas, museums and more you can spend less time in the car and more time exploring authentic North Carolina. Join Arts Tourism Manager David Potorti on one of these journeys. To see summer itineraries, visit here. Do you have suggestions for exploring North Carolina? E-mail the Artful Traveler at david.potorti@ncmail.net.
North Carolina Writers & Books
Ammons North Carolina Writers & Books is a bimonthly showcase of work by North Carolina writers of poetry, fiction, and creative nonfiction. Here, too, you'll find news, interviews, and features related to North Carolina's literary community and links to other literary Web sites of interest. The July/August edition gathers poetry by Shirlette Ammons, Mike Smith, Donna Glee Williams, and Winston-Salem area high-school students. Novels by Charles Price and Lonnie Busch round out the prose selections. “Get Connected” will keep you busy with literary festivals from just after Labor Day until Thanksgiving. The feature on Ammons gives you music from the writer’s EP “John Anonymous” as well as poetry. Click here to listen.
ACROSS NORTH CAROLINAEl Greco to Velazquez Exhibition Opens at Nasher Museum of Art August 21 The Nasher Museum is proud to announce the old master exhibition, El Greco to Velázquez: Art during the Reign of Philip III, organized in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The show is on view August 21—November 9. The show will position the works of two of the world's greatest painters— El Greco and Velázquez—within the context of the art of their time, the dawn of the Golden Age in Spain. The American public will encounter for the first time exceptional works by lesser known but accomplished artists who knew them and worked alongside them, including Juan Bautista Maino, Juan Sánchez Cotán, Luis Tristán and Gregorio Fernández. More than 100 paintings, sculptures and decorative arts will be on view, including seven works by El Greco, three by Velázquez, two by Jusepe de Ribera and one large work by Flemish artist Peter Paul Rubens, painted during his 1603 diplomatic mission to Spain. Important loans will come from museums in Spain and five other countries; some works are traveling for the first time. Tickets will go on sale June 1. For more information, visit here.
ARDI Summit Scheduled August 11 The eighth annual ARDI Leadership Summit, Accelerating Our Economy: Tapping Creative Assets, addresses the local impact of the creative economy within our state is scheduled in Boone August 11, 2008. Scheduled at the Broyhill Convention Center in Boone, the summit analyzes the workforce, physical and natural amenities, infrastructure, educational opportunities, leadership capacity and the existence of organizations within our local communities. Local arts councils and arts organizations statewide are encouraged to partner with local government officials and attend to learn about developing and funding creative economy efforts. ARDI is an applied research and public service program of Appalachian State University. Through ARDI, the University makes its resources, faculty and professional staff available to address economic, business, government, and social issues and problems related to regional development. For more information or to register for the summit, visit here.
Cary Visual Art Names New Director Last month, Cary Visual Art welcomed new executive director, Todd Bryant, in a press conference and public art tour held at The Umstead Hotel and Spa in Cary. Bryant brings more than eight years of experience in educational programming at art institutions and has received fellowships from the Marcus Foundation, the J. Paul Getty Trust and the William Rudolph Hearst Foundation. For more information on Bryant or Cary Visual Art, visit here.
Cameron Art Museum Receives Grant for Corning Incorporated Foundation The Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington recently received a grant from the Corning Incorporated Foundation to support Kids@CAM, a monthly educational program designed for children and families. Kids @ CAM is a monthly series of programs that introduces children to an art museum. Children expand their imagination, creativity, and appreciation of the visual arts through treasure hunts, art activities, and gallery tours. This program provides children and young people with access to high quality art in all mediums, hands-on arts experience to encourage individual creativity—and an introduction to museums as important cultural resources in the community. For more information on the Cameron Art Museum, visit here.
Arts North Carolina License Plates Coming Soon If approved, ARTS North Carolina will soon begin sales of an arts license plate for North Carolina. Legislation for the plate has been introduced by Senator Tony Rand and Representative Becky Carney in this session of the General Assembly, but plates cannot be sold until the legislation has been ratified and DMV and Highway Patrol give final approval of the design. Designed by Rachel Goodwin, the plate encompasses the life and spirit of ALL the arts in North Carolina. It will cost $30 beyond the regular price of a plate and is renewable yearly. To view a preliminary design of the plate, visit here. To submit a form of interest so that you are the first to be mailed an application form when ARTS North Carolina can begin selling plates (hopefully by mid-July), visit here.
“Blue Ridge Traditions” Offers Free Summer Concerts For three more Saturdays in July, visitors and residents of North Carolina will experience authentic mountain traditions—including free concerts—at the Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center in Old Fort. In the six-weekend series, the concerts and heritage activities have included well-known acts such as David Holt & The Lightning Bolts, the Krüger Brothers and Sheila Kay Adams. The performances are scheduled each Saturday (except July 5) through July 26 for 7 p.m. Visitors and residents can come to the Museum grounds between 2 and 6 p.m. on the same day for craft demonstrations, storytellers and hands-on activities. No advance registration is necessary. A weekly schedule will be posted on ncarts.org/free concerts, or call Mountain Gateway Museum at 828-668-9259 for details.
Blue Ridge Traditions is sponsored by Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center, the North Carolina Arts Council, the Department of Cultural Resources and the North Carolina Folklife Institute. Additional support is provided by McDowell County Tourism Authority. The media sponsor is WNCW-FM 88.7. The summer series is presented as part of "Telling Our Stories," a yearlong celebration showcasing North Carolina's arts, heritage and cultural life. "Telling Our Stories" is an initiative by the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources. To reach Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center at 102 Water Street (the corner of Catawba and Water streets), take exit 73 off I-40, and go north four blocks. The museum is 23 miles east of Asheville and 50 miles west of Hickory. Mountain Gateway Museum and Heritage Center is part of the Division of State History Museums, Office of Archives and History, an agency of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. The department's Web site is www.ncculture.com.
The Lost Colony Presents “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Forum” On August 3 and 10, the Lost Colony production company in Manteo presents “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Forum,” a Sondheim Broadway classic. Delighting audiences with “something familiar, something peculiar, something for everyone,” the show will be performed at the Waterside Theatre. For additional information or tickets, visit www.thelostcolony.org or call (252) 473-3414.
Public Art 360 Symposium Gains a Second Life Public Art 360: Symposium from Seven Perspectives, held in Chapel Hill in April of this year, gave artists, community members, local government and citizens an opportunity for discussing the role of public art in our communities. Through the virtual world, Second Life, the momentum gained from the symposium will be sustained through real-time interaction and peer-to-peer discussions. Symposium participants and interested citizens can access the online portal through www.secondlife.com. By downloading necessary programs and creating an avatar (an online personality), site visitors can teleport to the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill’s virtual campus. Once on campus, visitors can follow the signs to Public Art 360. Online features include virtual laptops and workstations with information about artists, public art programs, conferences, bibliographic and electronic resources, listservs and webinars. The video archive of Public Art 360 will also be available for viewing in August of this year.
ACROSS THE NATIONNEA Announces Heritage Fellowship Winners The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) recently announced the 2008 recipients of the NEA National Heritage Fellowships, the country's highest honor in the folk and traditional arts. North Carolina celebrated two National Heritage Fellowships last year with awards to Joe Thompson and the late Mary Jane Queen. Eleven fellowships, which include a one-time award of $20,000 each, were presented to honorees from eight states and Puerto Rico. For the full release and list of recipients, please go here.
Foundation Center’s Cooperating Collections The Foundation Center’s Cooperating Collections program offers nonprofits and individuals free access to the Center’s database and information on how to apply for foundation grants through local libraries and other resource centers. The program provides publications and a variety of supplementary materials and services for grant seekers through the holdings of libraries, community foundations and nonprofit resource centers. Eight public libraries in North Carolina provide on-line access to the Foundation Directory as well as resource publications about how to write proposals and trends in giving. A key initiative of the Foundation Center is to reach under-resourced and underserved populations throughout the United States and in Mexico, who are in need of useful information and training to become successful grantseekers. For more information, visit here.
WolfBrown Notes Arts Participation Characteristics WolfBrown, a marketing and research group for nonprofit organizations, released an article on a study of arts participation characteristics. Commissioned by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, the study defined types of participation based on the amount of creative control the individual has in the arts experience. Personal artistic expression involves making art, making art available, and choosing art, categorized as inventive, interpretive and curatorial. Engaging with art that others provide is categorized as curatorial, observational and ambient. This characterization helps both artists and administrators think about involvement and the many ways in which art can connect with audiences:
For the study, visit the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism here.
NEA’s Study on Working Artists The National Endowment for the Arts recently released a study entitled “Artists in the Workforce: 1990–2005,” the first nationwide look at artists’ demographic and employment patterns in the 21st century. Asheville ranked among the top 50 metro areas in the U.S. for the number of artists as a percentage of the overall workforce. “Artists in the Workforce” analyzes working artist trends, gathering new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau to provide a comprehensive overview of this workforce segment, its maturation over the past 30 years, along with detailed information on specific artist occupations. With artists comprising 1.63 percent of all nonmilitary workers in the Asheville metro area, the area ranks above the national average (1.40 percent) and above other cities such as Los Vegas and Miami. For more information on the study, visit here.
Cinemocracy 2008: How Do You Define Democracy?
The Denver Film Society and Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the Denver 2008 Democratic Convention Host Committee, has created a new film festival experience, “Cinemocracy: How Do You Define Democracy?” “Cinemocracy” is a platform for commentary and inspiration for citizen reporters, activists and filmmakers. Artists may gain additional information or submit entries to www.cinemocracy.com before July 15.
|
The mission of the North Carolina Arts Council is to make North Carolina a better state through the arts. The Arts Council is a division of the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, and celebrates those who create and enjoy art in all 100 counties.
For more information, visit www.ncarts.org.