Upcoming August Events

African American Atelier Presents: 25UNDER25
Through August 6 - Greensboro Cultural Center - Greensboro
25under25 highlights a diverse group of eclectic and vibrant young artists from the Triad Community. An extensive range of expression and media will be showcased, integrating the experiences and perspectives of the members of the millennial generation.
333.6885 or info@africanamericanatelier.org

Pathway to Freedom
Through August 20 - 8 PM - Snow Camp Outdoor Drama Site - Snow Camp
An exciting account of the struggles and heroism of the 1840's and 1850's along the "Underground Railroad" from NC to Indiana. Both individuals and some organized religions fought slavery in the legislature and on the farms, while some, led volunteers and free slaves in clandestine efforts to help escaping slaves to freedom. Music in the play is the music of the period and enriches the emotions of the play.
800.726.5115 or snowcampot@aol.com

Alternate Roots Annual Meeting
August 10 - 15 - Lutheridge Conference Center - Arden, NC
In 2010, Alternate ROOTS launches a three-year initiative, The Aesthetics of Diversity. It will explore issues and opportunities to advance a progressive agenda in the South through the lens of the South’s newest citizens, immigrants from Spanish-speaking countries, India, Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Aesthetics of Diversity will examine questions of art and culture focusing on place in 2010, people in 2011, and traditions in 2012. The goal is to build bridges across and among diverse communities and inform discussions such that members of various communities have a lens through which to view how they may positively impact change in their community.
404.577.1079

Photography Dialogs: John Rosenthal and Linda Foard Roberts
Wednesday, August 11 - 5:30 PM - Green Hill Center for NC Art - Greensboro
Rosenthal will speak about his latest series of color photographs of New Orleans taken one year and a half after Hurricane Katrina. Roberts will present her large format digital photographs "Simple Truths" portraying her family and home. Both photographers will then discuss the nature of their medium.
333.7460 or liz.busch@greenhillcenter.org

Recycle Labyrinth Swap-a-Thon
Saturday, August 14 - 2-5 PM - SECCA Grounds - Winston-Salem
During the Swap-a-Thon event, volunteers from Piedmont Craftsmen will help guide visitors through creating and experiencing the labryinth.The community is asked to bring useable household items (non-clothing) that they can incorporate into the labyrinth while walking through it. (Please limit the size of the items to be no larger/heavier than a microwave oven. If you can't carry it easily, then it is too big.)Visitors may also select one item to take home that they can use, making the labyrinth an ever-changing installation as items are added and taken away.At the close of the project, the labyrinth will be disassembled and left-over items will be donated to local non-profit organizations, such as Habitat ReStore, Rescue Mission, and Goodwill Industries.
Free. 725.1904 or seccainfo@ncdcr.gov

Again and Never Again: Can We Coexist with Ourselves?
August 19 - September 1st - Guilford College Art Gallery - Greensboro
Environmental artist Bryant Holsenbeck will create, with community participation, a monumental installation made entirely from recycled materials, Aug. 19-Sept. 1. (316-2483 to schedule time.) She will discuss her endeavor to live one year without using disposable plastic products at the reception in the Guilford College Art Gallery, Wednesday, Sept. 1, 5-7 p.m. as part of 'green & beyond', the college-wide theme year on sustainability. Exhibition runs through Oct 1.

Lanterns of Hope
Saturday, August 28 - 6:30-9 PM - Summer on Trade - Winston-Salem
During Summer on Trade at the corner of Sixth and Trade Streets, the Forsyth County Public Library will be providing attendees with peace lanterns to decorate with their own art.
Free. E-mail esparze2@forsyth.cc.

Digital Arts & Technology Symposium 2010

There is a bit of information available on the Center for Design and Innovation's website regarding the food-focused Digital Arts & Technology Symposium (DATS) scheduled for this fall, and Greensboro artist and blogger, Andrew Young, has plenty of brainstorming available. Check out his blog to get psyched for DATS 2010.

Upcoming July Events

Art Can! Feed the Hungry
Saturday, July 3 - Mid-Morning to Early Afternoon - Greensboro
Art Can! is a new Fun Fourth attraction, sponsored by the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, to create a temporary public art installation made of canned foods items. Architects Shermin Ata of Shermin Ata Architects with Micah Martin and Emily Hinton of Moser Mayer Phoenix Architects have joined forces to design a U.S. Flag public art installation constructed out of Campbell Soup cans. Fun Fourth attendees will be able to watch the installation as well as construct their own designs made out of donated canned goods.
373-7523 or alayman@uacarts.org

Opening: Frau Fiber and Sewing with the People
Friday, July 2 - 6 - 11 PM - Elsewhere Artist Collaborative - Greensboro
Elsewhere is sewing non-stop this June with particularly exceptional visiting artist Frau Fiber. Our fabric workshop has undergone a renovation to become Revolution Textiles, a new site for community convergence around the patterns that thread our times past and present. We're hosting a full month of textile-related events and fabric related programming. Frau Fiber is working with former mill workers, Boys and Girls Club groups, newcomer women, and people like you who want to learn to sew and/or help create a collaborative quilt utilizing Elsewhere's fabrics collection. A special opening event for the collaborative quilt, featuring a free community dinner and ceremonial final stitch.
549-5555

Opening of Happy Hill: Past and Present
Friday, July 9 - 7 PM - Diggs Gallery at WSSU - Winston-Salem
Happy Hill is Winston-Salem’s oldest African American community. For generations, residents have preserved the oral history of the neighborhood and its families. The exhibition documents this important legacy through the art and testimony of community leaders such as Georgiana Paige McCoy, Maurice Pitts Johnson, Kathleen Bitting Mock, Pastor Edith Jones, Nathaniel Tucker, William “Rock” Bitting, Jerry Hanes, Glen Johnson, Ben Piggott, Leander Sales, Kayyum Allah, James Funches and others. The exhibition includes architectural models of area homes embellished by local participants, paintings, photographs, video documentation of the community and a multi-media installation of a juke joint. The show features works by celebrated artists Chandra Cox, Juan Logan, Larry Sass, Leon Woods and Willie Little.
750-2458

Art Can! Feed the Hungry...Fun Fourth Public Art Project

Temporary Public Art Project to Feed the Hungry at Fun Fourth Art Can! is a new Fun Fourth attraction, sponsored by the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, to create a temporary public art installation made of canned foods items. Architects Shermin Ata of Shermin Ata Architects with Micah Martin and Emily Hinton of Moser Mayer Phoenix Architects have joined forces to design a U.S. Flag public art installation constructed out of Campbell Soup cans. Fun Fourth attendees will be able to watch the installation as well as construct their own designs made out of donated canned goods. "We're pleased to bring our creative community together to help stock and replenish the Greensboro Urban Ministry Food Bank at a time when folks generally aren't thinking about feeding the hungry. It's a wonderful example of how Art Can! make a difference," said UAC Interim President and CEO Altina Layman. Want to help? Canned food donations will be accepted for the project at the Freedom Run and Walk on June 26th, 1776 performances at the Carolina Theatre on July 1 and 2nd and Kickoff Block Party on July 2nd. Donations will also be accepted at the Parade and Street Festival on Saturday, July 3rd in designated areas marked by balloon columns. Construction will take place on July 3rd mid-morning to early afternoon in the parking lot off of Davie Street, near Summit Station Eatery. Prior to June 26th, donations may be dropped off at the following downtown locations: Carolina Theatre, Action Greensboro and the Greensboro Cultural Center between 11am - 5pm Monday-Friday. On July 4th, donations may be made at the News & Record Pops Concert and Gate City Fireworks Spectacular at Grimlsely High School Stadium. For more information, please contact Altina Layman at the United Arts Council at 336-373-7523 or by email at alayman@uacarts.org.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Altina Layman 336.373.7523, extension 242 alayman@uacARTS.org

A Women’s Weaving Group

• Supporting refugee and immigrant women to preserve traditional weaving
• First organizational meeting held at the Greensboro Central Library on June 10
• Efforts to create viable model
• Meeting attracts Nepali and Montagnard weavers; others welcome!

Pastor Y Hin Nie hosted the meeting and invited Betsy Renfrew, a Greensboro artist who has been working with Montagnard weavers intensively for the past two years, to discuss with several women who attended the possibilities in forming a cooperative or other group to preserve and promote backstrap weaving, a practice known among many Southeast Asian refugee women who live in the Piedmont. Such a group could also purchase hard to find thread and other materials, hold classes, sell work and keep technical and traditional skills alive.

A second meeting is planned for July at the Greensboro Historical Museum, details to come. 

• See videos of Montagnard backstrap weavers in Greensboro on YouTube.
• Read about the Montagnard weaver whose work was prominently featured at the Green Hill's 2009 Winter Show
• See related work on a women's sewing and English conversation class.

For more information, please contact Betsy Renfrew at betsyrenfrew@triad.rr.com

Creative Aging Symposium: Thursday and Friday in Greensboro

The Creative Aging Symposium offers artists and healthcare professionals ways to embrace creativity and advance culture change in aging service environments. Because of the rapidly expanding older population and related lifestyle changes, we must find new ways to improve the quality of life for older adults of all ability levels. This highly interactive two-day Symposium will highlight important research results and raise awareness of resources available at the national, state and local levels during the General Session on Thursday. Workshops on Friday will offer experiential concurrent sessions providing valuable hands-on tools to encourage innovative thought and implementation of new creative programs.

Objectives: (1) learn about the untapped potential of older adults and the growing field of creative aging, including research and programming at the national, state and local levels (2) receive hands-on training in creative programs that you can take back to your community (3) learn about the resources and creative opportunities that exist for older adults locally, regionally and nationally, and (4) connect with other artists and aging service providers in your area.

What an impressive organization to have right here in the Piedmont. Attend if you can!

Alternate ROOTS Annual Meeting in NC!

Alternative ROOTS Annual Meeting Website: Click Above

Greensboro's Interactive Resource Center a Model for Community Arts Programming

Even though the Interactive Resource Center is a new nonprofit in Greensboro, they seem to be old pros at utilizing local artists to contribute to its mission. Upon visiting the website for the IRC, one immediately realizes that two stories on its homepage involve artists.

To give some background, the IRC is a day center for the homeless population in Greensboro. The center runs a number of services from providing lunch to connecting the homeless to needed resources to giving access to shower and laundry facilities. Below are short summaries of the project, however anyone interested in the project should really visit the links below, which have great in-depth videos and summaries of the projects.

Community Arts Story Number One:

Artist John Martin will work with citizens who visit the IRC to create a piece of public art. Clients will carve designs out of foam, and Martin will cast the foam in aluminum. In this way, the users of the center will also be responsible for enhancements to the building grounds.

Community Arts Story Number Two:
In celebration of a global event titled Help-Portrait, local photographers set up a temporary studio at the IRC to supply clients at the center with professional photographs.

Greensboro photographers contribute to global event, Help Portrait.

Piedmont Interfaith Council Activities

Piedmont Interfaith Council invites students to join the Children's Tapestry Chorus any time. Rehearsals just started January 5th. However, you can't miss out on "Loving God--Loving Neighbors," the once-a-year observance of World Religion Day, which will be held this Sunday at 3 PM. Check out the above links for more details.

World Religion Day 2009 by Sharon Hodgson

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 December Events

Chrome and Stone: Opening Reception
December 4 - 6-8:30 PM - Gateway Gallery - Winston-Salem
This exhibition will feature digitally enhanced photographs of hotrods and muscle cars by Walker Lewis, Jr. and infrared film photographs of England, Cornwall and South Wales by James C. Williams. The exhibition will contrast the vanishing media of infrared film photography with the burgeoning field of digital photography, a media that threatens to replace film. The Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble will perform during the reception. The exhibition will remain on display through January 16.
Cost: Free. 777-0076 x238.

Our Journey Your Destination
December 10 - 7 PM - Enrichment Center - Winston-Salem
The Enrichment Center will present "Our Journey Your Destination," an original performance, on December 10, 7pm in Gateway Gallery. A dress rehearsal on December 9, 11am, will be open to the public. The program, a dramatic blend of dance, acrobatics, drama, and street entertainment with whimsical characters, will feature actors and dancers with and without disabilities and music by the Enrichment Center Percussion Ensemble. The show highlights the journey of the main character, "The Fallen Sparrow," a metaphor for the struggle between acceptance and denial suffered by a young woman who loses the use of her legs and is suddenly confined to a wheelchair. The performance was choreographed by Laurette Henry, director of the Enrichment Center Performance Company. A reception and sale of holiday gift items created by the Enrichment Center's artists will follow the performance.
Cost: Free. Seating is limited. 777-0076 x238.

Signing Artist/Gallery Contracts
December 11 - Noon- Associated Artists - Winston-Salem
Steve Virgil of the WFU Community Law Clinic will lead a conversation on the artist contract."The Artist and the Gallery - questions to consider before signing a contract."
Cost: Free. 722-0340.

ArtQuest: Community Arts Sundays
Sundays Through December 20 - 3-5 PM - Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art - Greensboro
Sponsored by Lincoln Financial. Explore the many cultures of your community. Each month features arts and crafts activities of cultures from around the world that contribute to our local community.

New Faces: Immigrants and Refugees in NC

Monday, November 16, 3 pm.
Diggs Gallery- WSSU - Winston-Salem
Presented by the Center for New North Carolinians at UNC-Greensboro
Sponsored by The Office of International Programs and Club Latino

Focus on education and community outreach programs for youth and children, and opportunitiesfor internships and service learning.

Young Americans by Sheila Pree Bright

In Conjunction with:
YOUNG AMERICANS: Photographs by Sheila Pree Bright
This dynamic new series of photographs by Atlanta-based photographer Sheila Pree Bright explores the identities of U. S. citizens and immigrants pursuing citizenship by presenting portraits of Americans aged 18- 25, each posing with the American flag. The exhibition features 49 large format chromogenic prints, several accompanied by statements from the subjects revealing their unique conceptions of patriotism. The project began in 2006 and features 15 WSSU participants.
Young Americans: Photographs by Sheila Pree Bright is organized by The Amistad Center for Art & Culture, Inc., Hartford, Connecticut, in collaboration with the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia. Made possible by generous grants from Aetna and the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources and the WSSU Office of Student Affairs.

The Gallery of the Arts Opens in Downtown Winston-Salem

The Community Arts Cafe recently opened a space at 411 W. 4th Street in Winston-Salem called The Gallery of the Arts, which is part of a larger project to expand interest in local arts. Read up on their future plans at the Winston-Salem Journal. Community Arts Cafe is also an online newsletter with separate editions for Winston-Salem, Greensboro, and High Point.

Image from Gallery of the Arts website

Upcoming November Events

Shoe Shrine: Call for Entries
Through November 13 - 5IVE & 4ORTY - Winston-Salem
Shoe Shrine entries on display at 5ive & 4orty. Entries will be auctioned off on Friday, November 13th. Proceeds will benefit the Kelly Jo Petersen Scholarship at UNCSA School of Design and Production.

Society for the Study of AfroAmerican History
November 13 - 5 PM - Delta Fine Arts Center - Winston-Salem
Cost: Free. 336.722.2625

African Night
November 14 - 7:30 PM - UNCG Elliott University Center Auditorium - Greensboro
The African Student Union at UNCG will hold African Night, which will include fashion, dancing, singing, and more from different African cultures.
Cost: $5 before the day of the show and $7 at the door.

Busy-40 Bridges
November 18 - 11:30 AM - Center for Design Innovation - Winston-Salem
A software traffic simulation augments discussion of possibilities for public art, considering the upcoming renovations of bridges along the downtown Winston-Salem stretch of Business Route 40.

More Bridges
November 18 - 12:30 PM - Center for Design Innovation - Winston-Salem
Bridges Connecting Communities, Inc. is Winston-Salem's newest social networking venue, wtih both a virtual marketplace and bricks-and-mortar sites.

15th Annual Will-Read-for-Food
November 19 - 7 PM - Weatherspoon Art Museum - Greensboro
Suggested donation to the Glen Haven Community Center: $5 students, $10 general public. The Weatherspoon Art Museum along with the UNCG MFA Writing Program and UNCG Alumni Relations, hosts the 15th Annual Will Read for Food Fundraiser, which last year raised over $1100 for the Glen Haven Community Development Center. Readings begin at 7 PM in the museum auditorium.

Arts for Life Market Gala
November 21 - 5 PM - 823 Reynolda Road - Winston-Salem
Social and shopping event to benefit Arts for Life WS and the hundreds of hours of art lessons provided to young patients and their siblings.

Enrichment Center Sculpture Garden
Through November 21 - Enrichment Center - Winston-Salem
On the corner of S. Marshall Street and Salem Avenue. The garden includes three cast aluminum sculptures entitled "Things That Fly" created by six of the Center's artists: Trip Collins, Mindy Kistler, Meredith Lamy, Jonathan Lindsay, Paul Quinn, and Valarie Williams.
336.777.0076 x209

Community-Wide Ecumenical Celebration of Thanksgiving
November 22 - Dana Auditorium at Guilford College - Greensboro
Piedmont Interfaith Council in collaboration with the Human Relations Commission of Greensboro, presents 26th Annual Community Ecumenical Celebration of Thanksgiving "Our Community Kaleidoscope" featuring the E. Gwynn Dancers, the First Young American Dancers, Triad Tapestry Children's Chorus, Louis Allen, and representatives from a dozen local faith traditions. Supported in part by a grant from the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro.
Cost: Free. Contact info@piedmontinterfaithcouncil.org


We Are OneART
Through December 10 - Caldcleugh Multicultural Arts Center - Greensboro
We Are One, Caldcleugh Center's performing arts program extends its scope with its new visual arts program for youth ages 10 and older. Instructed by Floyd Newkirk, nationally known muralist and illustrator, will guide young artists in an exploration of medium, technique, and forms. This semester young artists will create backdrops for We Are One's winter performance.

Elsewhere's SEA program preserves and connects South Elm Street neighborhood

Over the course of this year, Elsewhere Artist Collaborative--a living museum set within a former thrift store in downtown Greensboro--has been creating connections within its growing downtown urban neighborhood. With the new Mellow Mushroom and advancing economic development in our downtown "arts and antiques" district, Elsewhere wanted to ensure that neighbors who live, work, and use the South Elm neighborhood had a forum for discussing the growth of their city and transformations of their urban surroundings. We have always been especially interested in our neighborhood's ability to link people across generations, ethnic backgrounds, race, and economic status--from the diverse businesses on our block, to its historic aesthetic character, to a playful culture of passer-bys and players. We set out to create a way to converse and explore these unique connections of the fabulous people who compose our city character.

This spring, with the help of the United Arts Council's PTICA initiative and The Building Stronger Neighborhoods of the Community Foundation of Greensboro, Elsewhere set out to strengthen our neighborhood community while preserving the unique diversity of our downtown district. We launched an ongoing project called SEA (the South Elm Alliance) which hosted and continues to host various events that provide create forums for community exchange (check out the blog here). We held two town hall meetings about the development of our neighborhood, investigated our neighborhood through a mapping photo project and posted on Googlemaps, joined Charlie and Ruth Jones of Greensboro Grub in producing a neighborhood dinner, enjoyed an evening of a free coffee cafe on our block for our neighbors and passerbys, and offered a street screen-printing event so that neighbors could wear the SEA logo around town. We have also held monthly episodes of our performance game CITY, which re-imagines our museum as a pretend city. Participants given visas and are invited to play a variety of characters, run CITY institutions like the library, bank, department store, skyscraper, motel, and more, and generally explore a collaborative game of pretend. We are interested in how this shared story, or fiction, can examine and expose real issues in our surrounding neighborhood. Anyone can play, even if you've never performed before. This year, we've been opening CITY up to many more participants, while continuing to film each event and transform them into movies on youtube.

We have two more events planned before Elsewhere goes on hiatus for the winter (we close the museum from november to march due to lack of heat in our very old building). The first is our living room lecture series on friday october 9th. Anyone is invited to give a 20 minute lecture on something they know anything about. Then the next friday, october 16th, we'll have the finale of our CITY games for the season. Come over and play. Be a farmer a baker a tourist, anyone really. Hope to see you here!

Art's Role in Greensboro Economic Development

"...when we support the arts, we not only enhance our quality of life, but we also invest in Guilford County’s economic well-being."
-from Arts and Economic Prosperity III, a study by Americans for the Arts

The nonprofit/arts industry in Greensboro generates $30.73 million in local economic activity. Read more about this study at the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro's website.

Upcoming August Events

All-Arts, Sciences & Technology Camp 2009
July 26-31 - UNCG Division of Continual Learning - Greensboro
A weeklong, residential summer camp for ages 7-15. Designed to give in-depth and experiential instruction in the arts and sciences, the camp also includes recreation, multi-cultural entertainment, and a wide variety of activities that suit individual tastes and preferences. Find 866.334.2255

Authoring Action
July 30 - August 2 - 7 pm - Bethabara Moravian Church - Winston-Salem
Authoring Action (formerly the Winston-Salem Youth Arts Institute) presents its Commencement Engagement by the Authoring Action Ensemble. Authoring Action is a live experience, where teens present uncensored, original and true works of poetry, monologues, raps, lyrics and short films from their perspective. We engage our audience, not for applause, or standing ovations, but to change your life and make a difference. The thirty teens participating in this Summer's Institute invite the public to experience their words as a force for change. Admission is $10 and tickets will be available at the door. Reservations are recommended.
336.749.1317

Bearing Witness: The Tree
July 31 - 7 pm - Reynolda House Museum - Winston-Salem
Opens with a reception and ballet performance by the Winston-Salem Festival Ballet, a new funded partner of the Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Bearing Witness is choreographed by Gary Taylor with music by North Carolina composer Rob Sharer. It celebrates the tree, a symbol of permanence arching over generations of our lives. R.s.v.p. to Claudia Clark.
336.758.5889 or clarkcm@reynoldahouse.org

Culture of Color Saturdays
August 1-August 29 - Greensboro Children's Museum - Greensboro
Saturdays, August 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, (2:00pm) Join GCM each Saturday this summer as we celebrate the Eastern Indian culture in our new series called the Culture of Color! Activities may include learning new words, dressing in cultural costumes, sampling different foods, learn dance and doing art.
336.574.2898

National Black Theatre Festival
August 4 - 8 - Various Times - National Black Repertory Company - Winston-Salem
The festival is an outreach program of National Black Repertory Company, which unites African American theatre companies across the country and showcases over 100 performers. Performances to be held at the Reynolda House, Reynolds Auditorium, the Stevens Center, Wake Forest University campus, Salem College campus, UNCSA campus, Benton Convention Center, Winston-Salem State University campus, etc. Accompanying activities include the NBTF Film Fest, Youth Celebrity project, National Youth Talent Showcase, TeenTastic program, Readers' Theatre, Artist Networking Showcase, NBTF Poetry Jam, workshops and seminars, International Colloquium, vendors' market and celebrity receptions. Full schedule online.
336.723.2266

SECCA Presents Inside Out with artist Kianga Ford and the music of Turbo Pro Project
August 5 - 6 pm - The Garage - Winston-Salem
As part of its 2009 public art program Inside Out: Artists in the Community II, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) is proud to launch Kianga Ford’s 34 x 52 x 40. In the next chapter of Ford’s ongoing The Story of this Place series, the title of this project refers to Forsyth County as the 34th County of North Carolina (in slang, the “Tres-Fo”) and its evolving relationship with the major North / South highway (52) and the major East / West highway (40) of Winston-Salem. In conjunction with the National Black Theatre Festival, and in ongoing partnership with the Delta Arts Center, the special August 5th launch event will celebrate the work’s provocative marriage of theatre, music, and spoken word. Over the past half-year, Ford has explored Winston-Salem to research its history, speak with members of the community, walk its neighborhoods, and imagine lives shaped by the city’s patterns of settlement, desegregation, and industrialization. She will shape this material into a series of audio-guided routes/walks, and on Wednesday night audiences can hear a selection of these narratives set to musical accompaniment. As part of 34 x 52 x 40, Ford has collaborated with the experimental, North Carolina-based band The Turbo Pro Project, described as a fusion of Americana, Bluegrass Banjo, Hip Hop, and R&B.
336.725.1904

A Taste of the Blues
August 6 - 5:30 pm - Millennium Center - Winston Salem
Live Blues Music, Southern Cuisine, NC Wine and Beer Tastings and Tony Award Winning Play Featured at First Annual Event to Benefit Authoring Action Organization and North Carolina Black Repertory Company
Cost: $50/$75
336. 397.5591

Wisteria & HOPE
August 6-7 - Salem Fine Arts Center, Salem College - Winston-Salem
In conjuction with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, the National Black Theatre Festival's feature presentation is drawn from the stunning poetry of Kwame Dawes and the music of Kevin Simmonds, Wisteria & HOPE is a multimedia music/spoken word performance that opens up two disparate worlds—of African American women recalling life in the Jim Crow South, in Wisteria, and in HOPE the struggles and grace of individuals dealing with HIV/AIDS.
336.723.2266

Friends Around the World' Day
August 16 - 1-5 pm - Greensboro Children's Museum - Greensboro
Join us the 3rd Sunday of each month as we welcome our friends from all around the world to the Museum for a day of fun and play! We will enjoy a variety of multicultural activities, while making new friends from new places.
336.574.2898

Artist's Talk: Sherri Lynn Wood
August 20 - 5:30 pm - Weatherspoon Art Museum - Greensboro
Sherri Lynn Wood’s “Mantra Trailer” is featured in the exhibition Our Subject Is You at the Weatherspoon. In addition to this, her most recent work, the artist has been involved for many years in making participatory art works. Wood’s recent projects include: Passage Quilts, working with the bereaved to make improvisational quilts from the clothing of the deceased; Prayer Banner: REPENT / MERCY / …, a communal mourning project concerning the war in Iraq; The Piñata Anchor of Hope, a geo-psychic, temporary public art project for the City of Durham during a time of upheaval and rapid development; and 1200 Hats, a collaboration with residents of the North Carolina Correctional Institution for Women. Sherri Lynn Wood is an interdisciplinary artist, activist, and healer, based in Durham, NC and San Francisco, CA. She combines her knowledge of craft, theology, sculpture, and systems centered theory to invent and facilitate aesthetic vehicles of intervention for healing and social exchange.
336.334.5770

Image from the archives of threewalls

Workshop: Group Stitching Mantra with Sherri Lynn Wood
August 22 - 2 pm - Weatherspoon Art Museum - Greensboro
Join artist Sherri Lynn Wood on an imaginative, communal, meditative journey that merges the Eastern spiritual practices of mudras, mandalas and mantras with the simple act of stitching. These programs are sponsored, in part, by the Hillsdale Fund. Fee: $10 members/ $20 non-members. Register by e-mail: t_dowell@uncg.edu.
336.256.1449

Artist's Talk: Steve Lambert
August 27 - 4 pm - Weatherspoon Art Museum - Greensboro
Steve Lambert talks about bridging the divide between museum visitors and his own practice. Lambert's, I Will Talk With Anyone About Anything, 2006/2009 is currently featured in Our Subject is You.

Image from visitsteve.com

Upcoming July Events

Culture of Color Saturdays
July 11 - 25 - Greensboro Children's Museum - Greensboro
Saturdays, July 11, 18, 25, 2pm Join GCM each Saturday this summer as we celebrate the Eastern Indian culture in our new series called the Culture of Color! Activities may include learning new words, dressing in cultural costumes, sampling different foods, learn dance and doing art. Activities free with admission/membership.
336.574.2898

African American Heritage Day
July 18 - 11 am - 4 pm - Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum - Burlington
Josephus III, local poet; Ohemanna, Gospel Choir; Kummbia African Dancers; Fred Motley, storyteller; and Boo Hanks from Music Maker Relief Foundation will perform WFMY’s Carol Andrews and Sonya Correll Cook will read their children’s books. Numerous demonstrators and exhibitors plus vendors will take part in this exciting FREE event.
336-449-4846.


'Friends Around the World' Day
July 19 - Greensboro Children's Museum - Greensboro
Join us the 3rd Sunday of each month as we welcome our friends from all around the world to the Museum for a day of fun and play! We will enjoy a variety of multicultural activities, while making new friends from new places. Children’s author, GAMMA JAM, will be here to share her stories. Free with admission/membership.
336.574.2898

Enrichment via the Arts
July 20 - 30 - Creative Learning Center for Very Young Children - Winston-Salem
Summer art activities at CLC allow the children to experiment with a variety of media and forms. Music activities include listening, singing, playing instruments, and even making instruments! Dance delights CLC children, who have opportunities to invent their own dances to accompany music and to watch students at the School of the Arts practice and perform ballet, jazz, or contemporary dance. Othella Johnson began the Creative Learning Center in 1972 on the campus of the North Carolina School of the Arts.
336.773.0017

Color Texture Abstractions
July 24 - 6 PM - Gateway Gallery - Winston-Salem
Gateway Gallery wil open the exhibit "Color Texture Abstractions" with a reception on Friday, July 24, 6-8:30pm. The exhibition features abstract paintings by Pat Spainour and Jack Hernon and pottery by Kenneth McMahan and Jonathan Lindsay. Guitarist and vocalist Drake Duffer will perform during the reception. The exhibition will be on display through September 19.
336.777.0076 x238

“Our Subject is You” Exhibit
Through September 13 – Weatherspoon Art Museum – Greensboro
“Our Subject is You” is the first exhibition organized by the Weatherspoon Art Museum to focus on participatory art. The artists in the exhibition rely on the involvement of the public in order for their work to be realized. They form avenues for meaningful engagement within the context of the gallery, inviting museum visitors to contribute to the creation of artwork through social interaction, collaboration, and/or performativity. Artists included in the show are Tonico Lemos Auad (Brazil/UK), Harrell Fletcher (USA), Nina Katchadourian (USA), San Keller (Switzerland), Steve Lambert (USA), Darren O’Donnell (Canada), Sherri Lynn Wood (USA) and Erwin Wurm (Austria). In the exhibition, museum visitors will take part in the formation of artwork and through special live participatory events at the June 19th opening.
336.334.5770

One Significant Cup of Joe

"In the Face of Strange Fruit" by Derrick Monk

To expand on some information mentioned in the last post about artist Derrick Monk, here is a piece by Monk from a recently opened installation of eight bronze-cast coffee cups around Greensboro. These cups were sculpted by the "Coffee Cup Collaborative," a group of eight local artists.

These mugs commemorate the moment in civil rights history when a few African American men sat down at a whites-only lunch counter and asked for a cup of coffee. Be sure to check out the full article in the Greensboro News & Record, which beautifully explains the project as well as the significant history behind it.