Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC, Offers Conversation with NC Artist Frank Selby – Jan. 31, 2013

Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, NC, is offering a Talk @ SECCA – Conversation with NC Artist Frank Selby, on Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013, at 7pm. The event is free and open to the public.

SECCA Curator of Contemporary Art Steven Matijcio and artist Frank Selby, whose work is featured in the current exhibition “Frank Selby: Misunderstanding,” will discuss Selby’s philosophy of art and art-making.

Frank Selby, Now on Now, 2011. Graphite on Myler. From the collection of Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman, NY.  Courtesy of the FLAG Art Foundation.

SECCA is located at 750 Marguerite Drive in Winston-Salem, NC.

SECCA is a part of the NC Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency with the mission to enrich lives and communities, and the vision to harness the state’s cultural resources to build North Carolina’s social, cultural and economic future. SECCA is also a funded member of The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County.

For further information call the Center at 336/397-2107 or visit (www.secca.org).

Educators: Let SECCA in Winston-Salem, NC, Spark Your Imagination With its First Teacher Night – Aug. 23, 2012

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, NC, is planning a treat for teachers with a free evening of visual art, hands-on activities, gallery guided tours, food and refreshments, Aug. 23, 2012, from 4 to 8pm.

The event will be held at SECCA, located at 750 Marguerite Drive. The free event is open to teachers and educators from the region. SECCA is an affiliate of the NC Museum of Art, within the NC Department of Cultural Resources.

The purpose of Teacher Night is to welcome teachers back to school and provide classroom resources for their school year.

Please RSVP by Aug. 21, 2012, by calling Kristin Bell at 336/397-2109 or e-mail at (info@secca.org). Include your name, e-mail and a contact number where you can be reached.

Deborah Randolph, SECCA’s new curator of education, says, “SECCA is offering teachers an evening at the museum designed just for them. This evening gives us an opportunity to thank teachers for all they do for the students in our community. Please come and bring your friends.”

The evening will be set up in a series of nine stations located throughout the art center. The stations are offering the following sessions:

North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) Big Picture Project: In the library, staff from this project will present their online concept mapping for teachers.

Open Dream Ensemble: Music theater and dance alumni from The University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) will present their new play developed for school presentations and discuss will teachers the connections between the play and classroom learning. The playwright is a member of the cast and will be available to talk to teachers.

Literature Tour: SECCA’s Curator of Education Deborah Randolph will conduct a tour of the paperless exhibit and connect the artworks to literature.

Curator’s Tour: Steven Matijcio, SECCA’s curator of contemporary art and curator of the paperless,  will conduct a tour of this award-winning exhibition. This tour will give the teachers and the general public a curator’s insight into the exhibit.

Classroom Resources: Materials connecting contemporary art with art and non-art content will be located throughout the galleries.

Literature Readings: Actors will float through the museum presenting readings from literature represented in the paperless exhibit.

Hands-On Activities: Teachers will have the opportunity to create works of art and bring these ideas back to the classroom.

Community Resources: Other organizations will have their education resources available for teachers.

Tour and Upcoming Exhibitions: Information about upcoming exhibitions for the next school year will be available. Teachers will have the opportunity to schedule their field trips to SECCA.

There will be light refreshments with food, beer and wine served throughout the evening.

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem is an affiliate of the North Carolina Museum of Art, a division of the NC Department of Cultural Resources. SECCA is also a funded partner of The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Additional funding is provided by the James G. Hanes Memorial Fund.

The NC Department of Cultural Resources annually serves more than 19 million people through its 27 historic sites, seven history museums, two art museums, the nation’s first state supported symphony orchestra, the State Library, the NC Arts Council and the State Archives.

The NC Department of Cultural Resources serves as a champion for North Carolina’s creative industry, which employs nearly 300,000 North Carolinians and contributes more than $41 billion to the state’s economy. To learn more visit (www.ncculture.com).

 

 

 

Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC, Sees Attendance Go Up 25% and Offers Free Community Day – Aug. 11, 2012

Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, NC, is getting its groove back. More and more people from the community are visiting SECCA’s ever changing exhibits and bringing friends with them.

The result is a spike in attendance of 25 per cent increase in visitors between January and the end of June compared with the same time period last year. Attendance from Jan. – June 2011 was 9,128 and from Jan. – June 2012 was 11,384.

Photo by Jim Sink Photography

SECCA’s Executive Director Mark Leach says, “Everywhere you look something is going on at SECCA. Our exhibitions have truly been world class and draw their own audience. To enhance the gallery experience, we’ve added solar lights to the parking lots and new LED lighting in the public areas of the arts center. We’ve shown wonderful films in our upfitted auditorium and offered talks by artists themselves so people could learn more about the person behind the art and the process used to create it.”

SECCA has a free Community Day coming up on Aug. 11, 2012. This program is part of the statewide Department of Cultural Resources program called “Second Saturdays”. SECCA is an affiliate of the NC Museum of Art, within the NC Department of Cultural Resources.

During the afternoon, interactive projects will be held for children related to the paperless exhibition, on view through Sept. 16, 2012. One project will explore the art of making paper airplanes. For more details about programs and exhibitions, visit (www.secca.org).

SECCA is located at 750 Marguerite Drive, is open free to the public Tuesday through Sunday. Hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 10am to 5pm; Thursday evening from 5 to 8pm, and Sunday from 1 to 5pm.

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem is an affiliate of the North Carolina Museum of Art, a division of the NC Department of Cultural Resources.  SECCA is also a funded partner of The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Additional funding is provided by the James G. Hanes Memorial Fund.

The NC Department of Cultural Resources annually serves more than 19 million people through its 27 historic sites, seven history museums, two art museums, the nation’s first state supported symphony orchestra, the State Library, the NC Arts Council and the State Archives.

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, NC, Sees the Light – LED Light

Imagine never having to change another light bulb. That’s just one of the advantages of the newly installed LED (light-emitting diode) lighting at The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA).

SECCA, located at 750 Marguerite Drive near Wake Forest University, in Winston-Salem, NC, replaced more than 500 lights in public spaces (excluding the galleries and stage lighting) with state-of-the-art LED lights.

Elumenus, a leader in LED replacement lighting and distribution of lighting products that are environmentally friendly, handled the project along with SECCA’s facility manager Mark Graves. The project was privately funded by a grant provided by the John Wesley and Anna Hogin Hanes Foundation.

“Our old fluorescent lighting system is being phased out by a federal government energy mandate,” said Graves. “Even if we could get replacement bulbs other parts would be unavailable for us to purchase in case of needed repairs. Replacing the old system with LED lighting makes sense not only for energy savings but the on going maintenance of difficult to access lighting fixtures.”

Some of the advantages of LED lighting are: a very long lamp-life (the warranty promises that these lights will provide 28 years of lighting), the lights burn cooler, the light is crisper, and the light is constant rather than the flickering of florescent tube lighting.

“Another key advantage will be the cost savings,” says Mark Leach, SECCA’s executive director. “We will be using only a quarter of the wattage that we were previously using and thus bringing increased efficiency and lower utility costs.”

In addition to the LED lights inside, SECCA also has solar parking lot lights.

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem is an affiliate of the North Carolina Museum of Art, a division of the NC Department of Cultural Resources. SECCA is also a funded partner of The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Additional funding is provided by the James G. Hanes Memorial Fund. Admission to SECCA is free.

The NC Department of Cultural Resources annually serves more than 19 million people through its 27 historic sites, seven history museums, two art museums, the nation’s first state supported symphony orchestra, the State Library, the NC Arts Council and the State Archives.

The NC Department of Cultural Resources serves as a champion for North Carolina’s creative industry, which employs nearly 300,000 North Carolinians and contributes more than $41 billion to the state’s economy. To learn more visit (www.ncculture.com).

For further info about SECCA visit (www.secca.org).

SECCA Works with Students from Reagan High School in Winston-Salem, NC, to Create Large Wall Mural Made of Recycled Magazines

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem, NC, recently held an artist residency at Ronald Reagan High School, located at 3750 Transou Road in Pfafftown. The residency by American paper artist Johannes VanDerBeek is part of SECCA’s ongoing educational outreach initiative called The Intersections Project (TIP).

During the 3-day program, students in Jennifer Rice’s art classes worked with VanDerBeek to create a permanent piece of artwork for the Reagan High School Media Center. VanDerBeek taught the students his method of using compressed and sanded magazines to create the large-scale work. Each student worked on smaller parts of the whole mural composition.

VanDerBeek is one of 15 international artists in SECCA’s current exhibition “paperless,” which is on view until Sept. 16, 2012. VanDerBeek has two works in the exhibition: “Ruins” and “Time Tomb”. To create his artwork, he compresses and sands magazines like “Time”, “Life” and “National Geographic” into the building blocks of his large-scale contemporary murals.

Reagan High School students in Jennifer Rice’s art classes worked with SECCA exhibiting artist Johannes VanDerBeek to create a permanent piece of artwork for the Reagan High School Media Center. SECCA photo, 2012.

The intent of the TIP program is teaching students traditional subjects in an innovative way through art. The program was developed by educators, artists, The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA), The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County and the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School Board. These educational experiences address learning objectives in the visual arts as well as in other disciplines such as science, technology, engineering, math, language arts and others. SECCA applied for an Arts and Education Grant from The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County to create TIP. SECCA was awarded the grant for three years for a total of $26,820 (2009-10 — $8,820; 2010-11 — $9,000; 2011-12 — $9,000).

The TIP program has also resulted in a Web site for teachers. The Web site (www.theintersectionsproject.org) includes profiles about the artists and educators who have participated, along with resulting student artwork and responses. There are additional resources relating to arts-integration, project-based learning, creativity, technology-based learning platforms, and lesson plan materials.

SECCA’s Executive Director Mark Leach says, “The objective of the TIP program overall is to connect the disciplines through the arts. The lessons can be used by teachers across North Carolina. In addition, all of the TIP lesson plans support the National Common Core and North Carolina Essential Standards in multiple disciplines and encourage project-based learning through the arts.”

SECCA is open Tuesday through Sunday for those who wish to see VanDerBeek’s work in “paperless”. Admission to SECCA galleries is free. For hours of operation, visit (www.secca.org).

To see the students’ work, please call Reagan High School at 336/703-6776 to make an appointment with the school media center.

The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem is an affiliate of the North Carolina Museum of Art, a division of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.  SECCA is also a funded partner of The Arts Council of Winston-Salem and Forsyth County. Additional funding is provided by the James G. Hanes Memorial Fund.

The NC Department of Cultural Resources annually serves more than 19 million people through its 27 historic sites, seven history museums, two art museums, the nation’s first state supported symphony orchestra, the State Library, the NC Arts Council and the State Archives.  The NC Department of Cultural Resources serves as a champion for North Carolina’s creative industry, which employs nearly 300,000 North Carolinians and contributes more than $41 billion to the state’s economy. To learn more visit (www.ncculture.com).

North Carolina Pottery Center in Seagrove, NC, Receives Grant from NC Arts council

The North Carolina Pottery Center in Randolph County has been awarded $20,412 from the North Carolina Arts Council for State Arts Resources, and $8,000 for the Traditional Arts Program in the Schools held each year in the Center’s educational building for fifth grade students from the Seagrove Elementary School in Seagrove, NC.

Board president, Linda Carnes-McNaughton said “State funds allow Randolph County to provide quality arts programming for students and adults, while also sustaining our local economy.”

Last year, the North Carolina Pottery Center provided programming for more than 11,000 visitors, including students. Highlights of our programming is the Traditional Arts Program In Schools held each year at the Center’s education building in partnership with the Seagrove Elementary School. The two ten-week workshops are conducted by local fifth-generation potter Sid Luck. Educational programs are also provided by the Center at the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival held in Hickory, NC, each March by well-known pottery historian, Dr. Charles “Terry” Zug of Chapel Hill, NC, and at the local Seagrove Celebration of Seagrove Potters held each November which provides exhibits and educational information to pottery attendees.

“The support of our grants program by the General assembly during these economically challenging times demonstrates the role the arts play in our economy and our quality of life,” said Mary B. Regan, executive director of the NC Arts Council. “Nonprofit arts organizations employ workers, stimulate commerce, generate tax revenues and help communities retain their vibrancy.”

More than 8.7 million people participated in NC Arts Council-funded projects last year in schools, senior centers, museums, concert halls and community centers. Nearly 2.9 million of these were children and youth.

The NC Arts Council awards grant money each year to provide diverse arts experiences for citizens to all 100 counties of NC. In fiscal year 2011-2012, the Arts Council is expected to distribute $6.4 million in state and federal grant funds to arts organizations, schools and other nonprofit organizations that sponsor arts programs.

The NC Arts Council is a division of the NC Department of Cultural Resources, the state agency with the mission to enrich lives and communities and the vision to harness the state’s cultural resources to build North Carolina’s social, cultural and economic future. Information on Cultural Resources is available at (www.ncculture.com).

The North Carolina Pottery Center offers educational opportunities to statewide schools and individuals, changing historical and contemporary exhibitions, demonstrations, and information about statewide potters. The NCPC is a private nonprofit entity, funded primarily through memberships, grants, admissions, and appropriations.

The Center is open, Tuesdays – Saturdays 10am to 4pm, admission (excluding free special events): $2 – adults, $1 – students 9th through 12th grades, free – children through 8th grade, and free – NCPC members.  Handicap accessible. Groups and tours welcomed.

For further information and details call 336/873-8430, e-mail to (info@ncpotterycenter.org) or visit (www.ncpotterycenter.org).