Charleston Center for Photography in Charleston, SC, Offers Second Monday Lecture Series with Chris Smith – May 13, 2013

On Monday, May 13, 2013, at 7pm, the Charleston Center for Photography in Charleston, SC, will welcome Chris Smith. The Second Monday Lecture Series are FREE to attend and are open to the public.

“Being a full time photographer, it’s easy to get into a creative rut,” says Smith, of Chris & Cami Photography. “A trip is the best way I know how to regain my creative edge and fulfill my artistic soul.” Smith displays the artistic results of a trip to Belize.

His focus is on three main techniques he uses to bend the light in his favor:  OCF (Off-Camera Flash), HDR (High-Dynamic Range), and Natural Light (not to be confused with Available Light).

Born to missionary parents in Zaire, Africa, Chris Smith developed a passion for photography in high school. By 10th grade, he was winning photography awards. He continued to study the craft in college, receiving his photography degree from the New York Institute of Photography.   Classically trained, Smith has been doing photography of all types for quite a while — weddings, commercial, travel and sports. An avid tennis player, Smith has been a leading photographer for Family Circle Cup for many years.

Smith, with his wife, Cami, has photographed politicians (former president George Bush), celebrities (Steve Harvey, Misty May-Treanor, and Serena Williams). Their work has been featured in “Family Circle Magazine”, “Sports Illustrated”, “Charleston Magazine”, and “Tennis Magazine”.

Travel is a passion for Smiths. They photograph out-of-country weddings, and wildlife in South America, the Caribbean, Europe, Australia, and Africa. Smith conducts popular Lightbending 411 Workshops in Denver, Colorado.

For info call 843/720-3105 or visit (www.ccforp.com).

Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture in Charlotte, NC, and Wells Fargo Partner to Present Henry Louis Gates and Kinsey Collection in a Symposium – June 27, 2013

The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts+Culture will launch its inaugural Gantt Symposium on Thursday, June 27, 2013, with Harvard University’s Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Gates will speak at 6:30pm at Knight Theater. The 2013 Gantt Symposium – sponsored by Wells Fargo – will also serve as the kick-off for the Center’s summer exhibitions which will include “The Kinsey Collection: Shared Treasures of Bernard and Shirley Kinsey – Where Art and History Intersect”.

“With Wells Fargo’s generous support this year, we are joining with our institution’s namesake to host the Gantt Symposium,” said David Taylor, Gantt Center President & CEO.  “Our objective with the annual symposium is to engage Charlotte residents in conversation about important topics that we believe are relevant, not only to African-Americans, but to the community-at-large.”

Bernard & Shirley Kinsey

The Gantt Center will host an optional reception and guided preview of the Kinsey’s exhibit with collectors Bernard, Shirley and Khalil Kinsey immediately following the symposium at 8:15pm. Exhibition of the Kinsey Collection at the Gantt Center has also been underwritten by Wells Fargo.

“The Wells Fargo Foundation provides grants to support innovative educational programs in the arts, history and culture,” said Kendall Alley, Wells Fargo Charlotte Region Community Banking President. “Our support for the Gantt Symposium and the Kinsey Collection exhibition provides a unique opportunity for the community to experience the intersection of art, artifacts, history and legacy.”

Dr. Gates’ lecture, “Finding Your Roots,” will be a lively discussion about individual lineage and American history. Gates will address research and DNA analysis and will also share poignant family stories during the presentation. A Q&A session, facilitated by Harvey Gantt, will follow.

Dr. Gates wrote and produced the PBS documentary entitled “African-American Lives,” the first documentary series to utilize genealogy and science to provide an understanding of African-American history. His latest PBS special, “Finding Your Roots” examines the nation’s shared history as Dr. Gates peers into the family genealogies of a number of well-known personalities.

Wells Fargo is funding the national tour of the Kinsey Collection – an exhibition of authentic and rare art, artifacts, books, documents and manuscripts that tell the story of African-American achievement and contribution – to honor the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation,

Tickets to the symposium go on sale to the public May 1, 2013, at (www.GanttCenter.org). Seats are $20 – $35 for adults and $10 for students. Tickets to the post-event reception and preview of the Kinsey Collection on June 27 at the Gantt Center are available as an add-on for an additional $15.

Founded in 1974, Charlotte’s Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture (formerly the Afro-American Cultural Center) exists to present, preserve and celebrate the art, history and culture of African-Americans and those of African descent through dance, music, visual and literary arts, film, educational programs, theatre productions and community outreach. Named for Harvey B. Gantt, the prominent Charlotte architect and community leader and former Mayor of Charlotte, the Center is housed in an inspired and distinguished award-winning structure and is home to the nationally celebrated John and Vivian Hewitt Collection of African-American art. Please visit (www.ganttcenter.org).

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.4 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through more than 9,000 stores, 12,000 ATMs, and the Internet (www.wellsfargo.com), and has offices in more than 35 countries to support the bank’s customers who conduct business in the global economy. With more than 270,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 26 on Fortune’s 2012 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. is the Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Institute for African and African-American Research at Harvard University, and has been credited with transforming the school’s African-American studies program. He is a literary critic, educator, scholar, writer and editor and has been named one of “Time” magazine’s 25 Most Influential Americans. Gates earned a BA summa cum laude in History from Yale University. He continued his education at Clare College at the University of Cambridge, earning his MA and PhD in English literature, making him the first African-American to receive a PhD from the university.

The Kinsey Collection strives to educate, motivate & inspire Americans to learn more about the remarkable contributions of African-Americans in building America. The Kinsey Collection has been featured on “CBS Sunday Morning” and scores of television and radio shows and in newspapers and magazines nationally. It has been cited in three national awards including the nation’s highest honor, The President’s Medal for Museum and Library Services, and was selected one of the “Top Ten Exhibits to See in the World.” With their son Khalil, the Kinseys have developed a 198-page coffee table book that has been adopted by the State of Florida to teach African-American history, and a companion lecture series titled “What You Didn’t Learn in High School History.” The Kinsey Collection exhibition has been on display in eight museums including the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, with an iteration of the collection showing at EPCOT Center, Walt Disney World Resort through 2015.

For further info call the Center at 704/547-3700 or visit (www.ganttcenter.org).

Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, Presents Eclectic Interiors: A Mix of Antique and Contemporary Furnishings with Susan Sully – May 20, 2013

The Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, SC, is pleased to present the next event in the Art with a Twist series, a lunchtime lecture with author Susan Sully. In her latest publication, “Houses with Charm: Simple Southern Style” (Rizzoli International Publications, Spring 2013), Sully explores southern antiques and architecture. During her lunchtime lecture at the Gibbes, audiences will enjoy a virtual tour through the 18th to the 21st century properties featured in the volume.

The lecture explores the two themes of the book—the South’s “Pure and Simple” vernacular architecture and the “Simple Elegance” with which homeowners combine fine antiques with relaxed surroundings. Ranging from a Creole plantation house in Louisiana, a Greek Revival row house in Savannah, a neo-vernacular country house in Mississippi, and a “cottage-Gothic” residence in Atlanta, the featured residences offer insights into the architectural history of the region. Integrating time-honored lessons of the past, a number of homes also incorporate contemporary design sensibilities, making them especially appealing for today’s sensibilities. Many designed by the South’s leading architects and interior decorators, these houses reveal the inspired approach to tradition and gracious simplicity that define Southern charm. “Susan will engage and educate our audience with fascinating details about the history of southern antiques and architecture,” says Angela Mack, Executive Director of the Gibbes Museum of Art.

A leading authority on Southern architecture and design, Susan Sully is the author and photographer of many books published by Rizzoli International Publications, including “The Southern Cosmopolitan” and “The Southern Cottage”. She has also co-authored books with leading Southern architects and interior designers including Bobby McAlpine, Phoebe Howard, and Norman Askins (forthcoming). A graduate from Yale University with a degree in art history, she has contributed articles to “The New York Times”, “Veranda”, “Martha Stewart Living”, “Southern Accents”, “Town & Country Travel”, and other publications. Her books have appeared in magazines including “Architectural Digest”, “Town & Country”, “House Beautiful”, “Traditional Home”, and “World of Interiors”. Sully lectures frequently on the subject of Southern architecture and design at organizations including Sotheby’s Institute and the Smithsonian’s National Building Museum. She also writes a blog called (www.southerncosmopolitan.com).

Monday, May 20 at 12noon: lecture and lunch
$20 Members, $30 Non-Members (includes boxed lunch)
For details and to purchase tickets please visit (www.gibbesmuseum.org/events) or call 843/722-2706 x 21.

Established as the Carolina Art Association in 1858, the Gibbes Museum of Art opened its doors to the public in 1905. Located in Charleston’s historic district, the Gibbes houses a premier collection of over 10,000 works, principally American with a Charleston or Southern connection, and presents special exhibitions throughout the year. In addition, the museum offers an extensive complement of public programming and educational outreach initiatives that serve the community by stimulating creative expression and improving the region’s superb quality of life. Visit highlights of the Gibbes collection on Google Art Project at (www.googleartproject.com).

The Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County, NC, Offers Lunch and Lecture – Contemporary Photography – May 18, 2013

The Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County, in Fayateville, NC, will offers a Lunch and Lecture – Contemporary Photography on May 18, 2013, from 11am-1pm, at the Arts Council, located at 301 Hay Street in Fayetteville. Limited space available!

Ever wonder how photographers become famous? Hear about work by nationally and internationally known artists whose images are in the collection of contemporary photography at the North Carolina Museum of Art – a collection with now over 200 pieces.

Reserve your space at the Arts Council to hear Linda Johnson Dougherty, chief curator at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

This special session includes lunch, a discussion on Contemporary Photography, and an overview of current and upcoming photography shows at the North Carolina Museum of Art.

Registration is $10 for Arts Council and NC Museum of Art members. Non-members registration is $15. The fee includes a light lunch. Space is limited.

Registration and payment are required by May 9, 2013. Registration can be made by cash, check, or credit to The Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County.

Visit (http://www.theartscouncil.com/Exhibits/Registration%20Form%20LunchLecture2.pdf ) for a printable registration form. You can pay securely online using PayPal (full rate): by clicking here.

For more information contact Christina Williams at 910/323-1776, ext. 234 or e-mail to (christinaw@theartscouncil.com).

Crooked Creek Art League in Chapin, SC, Offers Bob Graham for Monthly Meeting – May 20, 2013

Crooked Creek Art League (CCAL) in Chapin, SC, is pleased to announce that Bob Graham of Charleston, SC, will be the May 20, 2013, general meeting presenter. Graham is primarily a watercolorist, most comfortable with western images. He recently completed a showing on Columbia’s Main Street in the Anastasia and Friends Gallery.

Graham graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from Newberry College and received his MFA in Illustration from The Savannah College of Art and Design.

Graham’s recent exhibitions include the 20th Anniversary Juried Art Exhibition at the South Carolina State Museum, the Carolina and Caribbean Connection with the South Carolina Heritage Corridor. Graham exhibits his work regularly across the United States and abroad and is represented in numerous museums, corporate and private collections. His work also graces the covers of numerous books and he also has several magazine illustrations to his credit.

“I have an insatiable interest in America’s west. It has played a vital role in my development as an artist. Combining my love of western art and horses, my work often portrays the rugged rodeo cowboys who sought to explore, tame and ultimately survive the vast wilderness of America. I enjoy painting people, especially cowboys. I’m intrigued by their love of natural bond with their horses and their cowboy code of ethics. They evoke a spirit of a bygone era.” says Graham.

Graham further states, “I want my work to sing. I want it to capture that unique sense of feeling of that one moment in time. My work reflects a lifelong pursuit of art. My goal is to tell a story and evoke an emotion in the viewer. I feel art is a journey whose elusive goal is to communicate beauty that the creator has placed before us.  Although my paintings exhibit a realistic approach, my primary goal is to give a spirit of life to the subject. I don’t want to take my dreams to the grave.”

The May 20 meeting will be the last meeting until the September meeting. As always the general public is invited to attend the meeting held at Crooked Creek Park in Chapin, SC. Social time begins at 6:30pm followed by a short business meeting and the guest presenter at 7pm.

For further information call Pam Steude at 803/345-1767 or e-mail to (psteude@aol.com).
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Mint Museum Uptown in Charlotte, NC, Offers Lecture and Conference on F.O.O.D. (Food, Objects, Objectives, Design) – Apr. 25 & 26, 2013

The public is invited to join a roster of chefs, writers, historians, and international designers – led by internationally renowned architect Michael Graves – who are visiting the museum later this month for a conference devoted to the innovative Mint-organized “F.O.O.D. (Food, Objects, Objectives, Design)” exhibition. Graves will be speaking on Apr. 25, 2013, as part of the Mint’s Contemporary Architecture + Design (CAD) Series at Mint Museum Uptown, in Charlotte, NC, which will serve as the F.O.O.D. Conference’s keynote address, and the day-long conference which follows on Apr. 26, 2013.

Michael Graves and his firms have received more than 200 awards for design excellence since he founded his practice in 1964, including the 1999 National Medal of Arts from President Bill Clinton. Michael Graves & Associates provides planning, architecture and interior design services, and Michael Graves Design Group specializes in product design, graphics and branding. As one of the most well-recognized contemporary architects in the country, Graves is widely credited with the ‘democratization of design’ through his partnership and accessible product line with Target.

“Good design not only addresses practical problems, it humanizes the products we use daily. Fittingly, the Mint’s CAD Series (Contemporary Architecture + Design) concludes its season and opens the F.O.O.D. Conference with a lecture by Michael Graves, the visionary architect and designer. More than anyone else, Graves has changed the field by championing good design as essential to everyday life, and by creating objects that are accessible, intuitive, functional and beautiful,” said Cheryl Palmer, the Mint’s director of Learning & Engagement.

Graves’ lecture begins at 7pm and the lecture is $5 for museum members, $15 for non-members, and free for students with valid ID. A light reception precedes the program at 6pm. Registration is required by visiting (www.mintmuseum.org/happenings).

The F.O.O.D. Conference promises a day of learning and creativity with presentations from industry leading writers, historians, chefs, and designers to complement the museum’s current exhibition devoted to objects designed to prepare, cook, and present food. The conference sessions mirror the four sections of the “F.O.O.D.” exhibition – Kitchen, Pantry, Table and Garden.

Presenters include Jessica Harris, author of 11 cookbooks and contributor to magazines such as Gourmet and Saveur; James Beard Award-winning author, bread expert and Johnson & Wales chef Peter Reinhart; Darra Goldstein, food historian and founding editor of Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, named the 2012 Publication of the Year by the James Beard Foundation; Asheville-based architect Ken Gaylord, and Matteo Bologna, founding partner and principal of Mucca Design in New York.

Designers Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin of the FormaFantasma Studio, who created the work “Autarchy” for the Mint’s “F.O.O.D.” exhibition, will also be presenting. Based on a prototype from 2011, this version of Autarchy was created especially for the Mint, and is made of agriculture waste, spices such as turmeric and paprika, and Geechie Boy corn meal. The two Italian designers are based in The Netherlands and their work seeks to bridge the relationship between craft, industry, object, and user. This is the studio’s first showing in an American museum. In 2011 the studio was nominated as one of the 20 most promising young design studios by Alice Rawsthorn, the design critic of The New York Times and Paola Antonelli, the senior design curator of the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art.

“Designers are creative individuals who apply art and engineering to solve a problem. Regarding food, that problem might be making a spoon that holds just the right amount of liquid, that is comfortable to hold, and that looks really cool.  It might be creating a kitchen that incorporates sustainable appliances, green machines, and ergonomic furniture.  And it could even be coming up with a typeface, and innovative graphic designs, for restaurant advertisements, menus, or cookbooks. The Mint’s F.O.O.D. Conference brings together top international talent – chefs, culinary historians, designers, and architects –  to discuss their perspectives on the meaning of table, pantry, kitchen, and garden in our lives today,” said Annie Carlano, the Mint’s director of craft + design.

The conference runs from 9:30am-4pm and the cost for Mint or Center for Craft, Creativity and Design members is $60 with a box lunch and includes admission to Michael Graves’ CAD lecture. Cost for non-members is $85 with a box lunch, or $100 for lunch and admission to the Graves CAD lecture. Registration is required at (www.mintmuseum.org/happenings).

The conference is co-presented with The Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in Hendersonville, NC, and funded by the Founders’ Circle. In-kind partners include Johnson & Wales University and The Mother Earth Group. Michael Graves’ lecture is generously supported by a grant from the Arts & Science Council.

The “F.O.O.D.” exhibition features approximately 300 modern and contemporary pieces, including unique and mass-produced works chosen from the Mint’s permanent collection, loans and new acquisitions. The exhibition is co-organized by the research center FoodCultura, Barcelona, and remains on view through July 7, 2013. “F.O.O.D. (Food, Objects, Objectives, Design)” is made possible through major support from PNC with additional support from Piedmont Natural Gas. Acquisition support was provided by the Design Committee of The Mint Museum.

For more information, visit (www.mintmuseum.org).

NC Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC, Offers Lecture by Richard Kendall on Apr. 28, 2013

On Sunday, Apr. 28, 2013, Richard Kendall, Consultative Curator of 19th-Century Art at the Clark Art Institute, will be hosting a Humber lecture at the NC Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC. Details on the lecture, titled “Degas’s Women,” are below.

Lecture: Degas’s Women
Sunday, Apr. 28, 2013, at 2:30pm
East Building, Museum Auditorium
Free for members; ticket from Box Office required
$5 Nonmembers
Reception follows lecture.

Edgar Degas is famous – even notorious – as an artist who devoted much of his life to depicting women. Laundresses and cabaret artistes, society ladies and prostitutes all featured in his work, but it is the ballet dancer who has dominated his reputation. This lecture explores Degas’s obsession by focusing on “Dancer with Bouquets” from the Chrysler Museum of Art. One of the artist’s largest and most intriguing canvases, it was long regarded as a fantasy scene from the artist’s imagination. But new research shows that this dramatic painting is related to a celebrated ballet scene of the era and to a documented production on a Paris stage. Just as intriguing is evidence that the ballerina herself was linked to one of Degas’s sculptures.

To read more about the paintings and sculptures on loan from the Chrysler Museum of Art (on display in the NCMA permanent galleries), please visit the exhibition’s website at (www.ncartmuseum.org).

Edgar Degas, “Dancer with Bouquets”, circa 1895–1900, oil on canvas, 71 x 60 in., Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., Gift of Walter P. Chrysler Jr. , in memory of Della Viola Forker Chrysler, 71.507

For further information call 919/664-6795 or visit (www.ncartmuseum.org).

Clinton Junior College in Rock Hill, SC, Offers Gallery Talk by Arianne King Comer – Apr. 18, 2013

Clinton Junior College in Rock Hill, SC, will offer a Gallery Talk and Reception in the Harry & Rebecca Dalton Gallery with Arianne King Comer on Apr. 18, 2013, beginning at 6:30pm. The talk will be about her exhibit indigo batik artworks, “Voices from the Waters”, on view at the gallery through May 3, 2013.

King Comer uses traditional African art forms of batik and indigo dyeing to honor the gifts of heritage and healing. In 1992, she traveled to the Yoruba tribal region in West Africa where her connection to the indigo plant was kindled. She returned to the states and bought land on St. Helena Island in South Carolina to grow her own indigo, a plant that yields an inky blue dye and was once a leading cash crop cultivated in the area’s coastal tidal waters.

The images in “Voices from the Water” reflect her ancestral discoveries and journey from across-the-water places in Africa to the Carolina Lowcountry. In 2007 the proclaimed “indigo child” traveled to Nairobi, Kenya as part of The Charleston Rhizome Collective to conduct a textile workshop in batik and indigo at the World Social Forum. The fabric of her artwork and life is illuminated in the cultural legacy of Indigo Blue. Weaving together the roles of arts educator and textile artist, King Comer believes that art is a healing process that communicates peace.

Support for this project is provided in part by the Arts Council of York County Small Grants Program, which receives funding from the Rock Hill A-Tax/Tourism Commission, the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Arts Fund of the Coastal Community Foundation of SC, the SC Arts Commission, and the National Endowment for the Arts.

For further information contact Marie Cheek, Associate Professor of Art and Dalton Gallery Director by calling 803/372-1102l or visit (http://www.clintonjuniorcollege.edu/daltongallery.html).

Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC, Offers Installation Events Beginning Apr. 19 and 20, 2013

Penland School of Crafts in Penland, NC, will have two events marking the opening of a group of four art installations on the Penland campus. The installations are the work of Dan Bailey, Alison Collins, Kyoung Ae Cho, and Anne Lemanski, and they are part of a project called “0 to 60: The Experience of Time through Contemporary Art,” which is a collaboration between Penland School and the North Carolina Museum of Art. The opening events will include a evening slide lecture on Apr. 19 and an afternoon walking tour on Apr. 20, 2013.

On Friday, Apr. 19, the four artists will each make a short slide presentation about their work. They will be joined by Linda Dougherty, the museum’s chief curator and curator of contemporary art, who will give an overview of the project. This event will take place in the Northlight building at Penland at 8pm. On Saturday, Apr. 20 there will be a walking tour of the four installations beginning at 1:30pm. Penland’s director, Jean McLaughlin, will make some introductory remarks at the Pines Portico and then each of the four artists will speak when the group visits their installation. The installations will remain on view through Aug. 31, 2013.

Filmmaker, animator, and photographer Dan Bailey has created a two-part work using time-lapse and low-altitude aerial balloon photography. “Looking Up” is a slow-moving time-lapse video of the sky over Penland. The vantage point is reversed in “Looking Down”, a large printed wall piece that is a collage of photographs of the campus made over many months using a camera attached to a helium balloon.

Alison Collins’s “Temps Perdu” will fill the Dye Shed, a historic log structure at Penland, with hundreds of yards of muslin and hundreds of muslin leaves. On the yardage is text from Marcel Proust’s novel “In Search of Lost Time”. On the leaves are words that refer the things the artist herself has lost. The text is written using a dye Alison made from the rust that collected under some of her steel sculptures.

Anne Lemanski’s “Extirpated” is about animal species that once inhabited this region but have disappeared with no hope of return. The format of Lemanski’s piece is a series of clotheslines suspended between steel supports based on the contour of Kentucky long rifles. Hanging from the lines will be silhouette images of species that have disappeared from Mitchell County.

Kyoung Ae Cho’s “Shining Ground,” memorializes her discovery of mica the first time she visited Penland in 2000. The piece incorporates mica collected from the banks of the Toe River into vertical panels made of cloth, pins, and wood, which will be installed on the outside of the Northlight building. The piece is her attempt to recapture, many years later, the moment of quiet surprise when she first saw the ground covered with the sheen of mica sand.

The other component of the “0 to 60″ project is a major exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh, NC. The exhibition, which is open now and runs through Aug. 11, 2013, includes work by the four installation artists along with twenty-eight other artists, many of whom have connections to Penland. This exhibition engages the viewer in an experiential and conceptual journey through time, looking at how time can be used as form, content, and material, and how art is used to represent, evoke, manipulate, or transform time.

For information about the Penland installations and the events on April 19 and 20, call 828/765-2359 or visit (www.penland.org/0to60). For information about the exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of Art, visit (www.ncartmuseum.org/exhibitions). Penland School of Crafts is located just off Penland Road, near Spruce Pine in Mitchell County, North Carolina

Penland School of Crafts is an international center for craft education dedicated to helping people live creative lives. Located in Western North Carolina, Penland offers workshops in books and paper, clay, drawing and painting, glass, iron, metals, printmaking and letterpress, photography, textiles, and wood. The school also sponsors artists’ residencies, an outreach program, and a gallery and visitors center. Penland is a nonprofit, tax-exempt institution which receives support from the North Carolina Arts Council, an agency funded by the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.

For further information call Robin Dreyer at 828/765-0433 or visit (www.penland.org).

Sunset River Marketplace in Calabash, NC, Presents Iconic Historian Jack Thompson to Address Calabash Art Gallery – Apr. 11, 2013

On Thursday, Apr. 11, 2013, at 10am, Myrtle Beach historian, photographer and beloved local icon Jack Thompson, will make a presentation at Sunset River Marketplace as part of the Calabash, NC, art gallery’s Coffee With the Author series. His book, which is titled “Memories of Myrtle Beach: a Pictorial History of the Grand Strand Through the Eyes of Jack Thompson,” features over 175 Grand Strand images that take the viewer on a journey through the author’s life at the beach.

Originally from Greenville, SC, Thompson has been photographing Myrtle Beach happenings since he stepped off a bus and accepted a job at the Myrtle Beach Pavilion back in 1951. That was Jack behind the camera snapping “mug shots” at the Myrtle Beach Jail. He was there during the heyday of the Ocean Forest Hotel and he was there when it imploded. Last year the state of South Carolina recognized Thompson as the Official Chronicler of South Carolina’s Grand Strand and celebrated his birthday, Sept. 21, 2012 as Jack Thompson Remembering Myrtle Beach Day in Myrtle Beach.

Thompson admits to his love at first sight with Myrtle Beach. “ …She has an alluring charm about her … If you give in to her promise … she will cast a spell over you and fill your shoes with sand that will sweep into your blood and melt your heart. That’s Myrtle, she’s a lady and she has my number … and continues to call!”

During the Coffee With the Authors event, Thompson will discuss some of his famous images including the now defunct local Ocean Drive dance joint, The Pad; the implosion series of the Ocean Forest; and chronicling the city’s Sun Fun Festival through its 60-year run.

The event at Sunset River Marketplace is free, but space is limited so reservations are required. Call 910/575-5999 or send an e-mail to (lassiter@sunsetrivermarketplace.com). Join the mailing list for notice of future events at the same number and e-mail address.

Sunset River Marketplace showcases work by approximately 200 North and South Carolina artists, and houses some 10,000 square feet of art work in virtually every genre. Custom framing, painting and pottery classes and art workshops are also offered through the gallery. Since opening its doors in 2002, Sunset River Marketplace has supported not only the visual arts, but literary and performing arts, as well. It has become a popular community center and art hub for both NC’s Brunswick County and nearby Horry County, SC.

Sunset River Marketplace is located at 10283 Beach Drive SW, Calabash, NC. Regular hours are Monday through Saturday, 10am to 5pm.

For more information call 910/575-5999 or visit (www.sunsetrivermarketplace.com). For daily updates, “like” the gallery’s Facebook page.