New Year's Resolution: Utilize the Art Roads and Farm Trails of NC

Having stumbled upon a motivating website today called Homegrown Handmade, I decided to make a New Year's resolution to better support and understand North Carolina culture. Homegrown Handmade is a collaboration of artists, farmers, and rural creative entrepreneurs. It promotes sustainable tourism in rural areas of North Carolina through self-guided driving tours. It's an economic and tourism development project, but it also helps us understand how agriculture, rural living, and art have all come together to form specific and different pockets of North Carolina culture.

When one visits Homegrown Handmade's website, you are given the option of exploring one of three trails: Foothills, Piedmont, or Coast. Each "trail" is really a wealth of information on festivals, art studios, wineries, and farms to help a potential tourist to plan a trip.

Here is a long weekend trip I've already planned from the Foothills Trail for June:

Starting out Friday, leisurely drive to the Mount Airy Fiddlers' Convention. This weeklong festival is filled with old-time music performances and free demonstrations by skilled musicians. Spend the day listening, dancing, and visiting. Saturday morning, visit the Downtown Cinema Theatre for the a.m. taping of the longest-running bluegrass radio program in the United States, "Saturday Merry-Go-Round." Saturday afternoon, take a short drive to Westfield to kayak at the Hanging Rock Outdoor Recreation Center. That evening, enjoy the sunset view and listen to MORE bluegrass and folk music at Round Peak Vineyards. End the trip with a scenic drive back down 89.

That's just one trip of so many across the state. If you're interested in planning a trip, Homegrown Handmade has a great guidebook available here.

Local Triad Artist William Mangum on NBC Nightly News for Holiday Honor Card Program

Local blog Triad Watch recently made note of an artist from the Piedmont community who was featured on NBC Nightly News for using his skills to benefit local nonprofits. Click on the following link to view this story:

Local Triad Artist William Mangum on the NBC Nightly News about His Holiday Honor Card Program

Upcoming January Events

Auditions: As Far As We Can Remember
January 6-9 - Caldcleugh Multicultural Arts Center - Greensboro
Caldcleugh makes good on a community request for something "different" for Black History Month. We gathered stories from senior members of Greensboro's African American community and asked them to tell us what they remember about Greensboro to develop this original performance piece. Caldcleugh will audition middle-aged and senior male and female actors for the leads and young actors/dancers to play peripheral parts and perform dance sequences. Please prepare relevant monologue (adults/youth) and a short dance piece (youth). Audition dates and times: January 6 (Wednesday) 5:30-8:00 pm, January 9 (Saturday), 1:00-4:00 pm.
336.373.5881

Esperanza Rising
January 7 - 7 PM - Children's Theatre of Winston-Salem - Winston-Salem
Suddenly separated from her family in Mexico, Esperanza must navigate a new world in America to rediscover the magic and power of love, life and friendship. An enchanting retelling, with music and dance, of the award -winning book by Pam Muñoz Ryan.
336.725.4531

2010 Triad Jewish Film Festival
January 16 - February 4 - Regal Grande Cinema at Friendly Center - Greensboro
Presented by the Greensboro Jewish Federation, the 2010 Triad Jewish Film Festival is hosting a spectacular lineup of films that highlight the Jewish experience and celebrate diversity and understanding. The Festival committee has chosen six critically acclaimed films that promise to entertain, enlighten, educate and enrich. Tickets are available for purchase online.
Admission: $9.50 per film or $50.00 for a six film pass.
336.852.5433

Support the Arts!
January 23 - Volunteer in Your Community, Inc. - Greensboro
A fundraiser to help fund Volunteer in Your Community's (VIYC) programs, which include activities in literacy, health, etc. VIYC has an arts scholarship program that allows low-income youth to receive grants to gain knowledge in music, dance, and visual arts. The students will also be given the opportunity to participate in a focus group that allows them to discuss and share their works with their peers and members of the community. VIYC will award grant amounts based on donations received.
336.669.7667

Multi-Lingual Storytime
January 29 - 11 AM - Children's Museum of Winston-Salem - Winston-Salem
Presented by the Forsyth County Public Libraries, children will learn about other cultures and listen to other languages from all over the world in these storytimes.
Free with admission or membership.
336.723.9111

Music Kitchen: Musicians and Homeless Men Exchange Thoughts on Classical Music

Journalist Daniel J. Wakin recently reported in the New York Times on a violinist named Kelly Hall-Tompkins who, along with other well-accomplished musicians, offers performances to homeless men through a program she started called Music Kitchen.

Read the article here.

Violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins

Study Community Arts: Auburn's Rural Studio

Back in the summer of 2007, I was lucky enough to get a little exposure to several former students of Auburn University's Rural Studio who were installing a public art piece in Arlington, Virginia titled CO2LED.

Rural Studio is a sought-after undergraduate program of the Auburn University School of Architecture. What most drew my attention was their outreach program. Students focusing in outreach work to further the $20K House, an experiment in innovative affordable housing. Students work out the question of what type of house can be designed for $10,000 in materials plus $10,000 in labor. Here is Version 3 of the house built in 2007.

The Rural Studio has encouraged creative ventures from many of its students, including the project CO2LED. Here are images I took while the piece was being constructed. It ran off of solar power and repurposed old water bottles into a sort of lightbulb, resembling the tops of reeds.

Artist Jack Sanders constructing CO2LED, 2007.

Close-up of water bottles, 2007.