Charleston Supported Art in Charleston, SC, Offers Fall Pick-Up Event – Aug. 28, 2014

Charleston Supported Art, LLC, in Charleston, SC, is preparing to reveal the second round of artwork for its inaugural year. Offering seasonal shares of art for purchase based on the community supported agriculture model, the group has established an easy, affordable, and fun way for art lovers to begin or add to their personal art collections.

Individual shares are priced at just $450, and consist of six original pieces of artwork produced by a curated group of local, established and emerging artists working in a variety of media. Charleston Supported Art (CSA) shares are limited and delivered through exclusive pick-up events for each season. The first season of work was released at a spring pick-up event at GrowFood Carolina in May. The next pick-up event, dedicated to the fall season, takes place on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014,from 5-7pm at Mixson Bath and Racquet Club in Park Circle, North Charleston, SC. Shares may be purchased on site or ahead of the event at (www.charlestonsupportedart.com).

CSA’s fall season features works by Mariah Channing, Olivia Cramer, Miyako Fujiwara, Fred Jamar, Jennifer Henriques Phillips, and Kristi Ryba. The six artists will be present at the August 28 pick-up event to mingle with patrons and discuss the 32 pieces of original artwork they each created specifically for and exclusive to Charleston Supported Art. The pick-up event, open to current and prospective shareholders, will be the first time these works will be revealed. The pieces, which include photography, jewelry, pottery, oil paintings, and monotypes will not be available for purchase anywhere else.

For more information about Charleston Supported Art or to purchase a share online, visit (www.charlestonsupportedart.com). Shares for both the spring and fall seasons will be available to purchase and carry home at the fall pick-up event. Shares for the winter season may also be purchased, with delivery slated for early December. Questions or requests to be added to the CSA mailing list should be directed by e-mail to (info@charlestonsupportedart.com).

About CSA’s Fall Artists:

Mariah Channing is a Charleston-born photographer who is currently focusing on alternative processing, such as Vandyke Brown. The process in itself is what makes her work unique and interesting. Channing photographs figurative portraits of mysterious, serene women and creates surreal-like settings. Her imagery is printed inside a Victorian inspired cameo frame that is intended to contain the classic beauty of mystery and imagination. Channing graduated from the College of Charleston in the spring of 2014 with a BA in Studio Art, concentrating in photography and minoring in arts management.  She can be found in her studio at Redux, playing with her three cats, or in a coffee shop looking out a window, daydreaming with her cup in hand.

Olivia Cramer is a jeweler and metalsmith from Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, currently living and working in Charleston. She attended the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, California, where she majored in Jewelry Design and won the award for Jewelry Designer of the Year in 2011. When she wants to feel inspired she simply takes a walk outside; picking and sketching various sticks, seeds, and leaves is usually what drives the process. Hand-crafting wearable sculptures by creating casts, making molds, setting stones, and polishing metal is something that also allows each of Cramer’s pieces to be one of a kind works meant to capture all of the amazing details found in nature.

Born in Japan, Miyako Fujiwara was interested in ceramics throughout her youth but did not start her relationship with clay until studying tea ceremony after graduating from college, where she studied Mathematics in Tokyo. After college, while she was working as a computer programmer, she trained in the practice of Japanese traditional arts and crafts, such as tea ceremony, Ikebana flower arrangement, Japanese embroidery, rope weaving, and sewing kimonos. Later she moved to the US and became involved in the ceramics program at Harvard University while working as an Assistant Curator at the Museum of Natural History and Anthropology. Benefiting from that extensive program, she gained experience in all varieties of firing: soda, wood, raku, and saggar. Fujiwara moved to Charleston at the end of 2010 and became a member at Cone 10 Studios. She became an instructor there in 2012. The same year, she also became a member of Charleston Crafts Cooperative by juried evaluation of her work. She continues to interact with potters, ceramics studios, and galleries during her frequent trips back to Japan. In her creative process as a ceramicist, Fujiwara aspires to an essential aspect of tea ceremony, which is to make all guests feel relaxed, content and happy.

Fred Jamar has been painting for 50 years. His favorite medium by far is oil. He likes to experiment with new textures and techniques, sometimes putting brushes aside in favor of a knife or trowel. He typically composes as he applies the paint, with perhaps just one or two lines penciled on the canvas to guide him. Jamar is enormously prolific, with over 100 works completed in the past year alone. He has had several solo exhibitions at local galleries. You can find his work locally at Robert Lange Studios. His recent work has been dominated by Charleston cityscapes – not seen, however, with the traditional eye. The sky is generally very dark, inky “Prussian” blue, and starless. The trees are assembled color masses, balloon-like in appearance, and the buildings are intensely vivid in form and color, an impression heightened by the overhanging darkness. The paintings are bright – but also lonely. The mood is stock-still. Most have no human or animal figures. It is as if Edward Hopper painted an abandoned carnival at 3:00 AM. They are brilliant.

Jennifer Henriques Phillips was born in Jamaica into a Sephardi family.  Her grandfather was an artist and architect of note on the island and she developed an early interest in art. She was educated in Jamaica, Switzerland, and Paris where she studied at the School of Oriental Language at the Sorbonne. After living and working in London and Jamaica, she settled in Charleston.  Throughout her travels, she retained her interest in art, taking classes and workshops but circumstances prevented her from entering into the formal study of art.  In Charleston, she took her degree in Fine Arts at the College of Charleston, graduating summa cum laude, winning the Carolina De Fabritis Scholarship Award twice, the Fine Arts Award, and a Liquitex Materials Award. In 2009, she received a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission and was also invited to a residency at Wildacres, NC, where she continued to develop the conceptual underpinnings of her work. She was awarded a grant by the Puffin Foundation in 2010. Phillips has exhibited in group shows locally and regionally. Her first solo show, Building Babylon (is woman’s work) opened in 2010. Phillips serves as docent for the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art’s education program “Looking to See.” She is married and lives and works on Johns Island.

Kristi Ryba is an artist living and working in Charleston, South Carolina. Exhibiting since 1990, Ryba’s early work has toured the Southeast in both painting and printmaking exhibitions.  A graduate of the College of Charleston and Vermont College, Ryba also studied at Vermont Studio School and Studio Camnitzer in Valdotavvo, Lucca, Italy. In 2012, Ryba was selected as the SC Arts Commission Alternate Visual Arts Fellow and in 2009 she was an artist in residence at The McColl Center in Charlotte, NC. Her videos debuted at Silo in New York City in 2004 and 2006, and Contemporary Charleston in 2004. Her video animations have been included in film festivals across the country. Ryba has exhibited at 701 Contemporary Center for Art and Columbia College in Columbia, SC; Southern Ohio Museum in Portsmouth, OH; Waterworks Visual Arts Center in NC; The City Gallery at Waterfront Park, Charleston, SC; Sumter Gallery of Art, in Sumer, SC; and Dialect Design in Charlotte, NC.

Charleston Supported Art is a platform to connect emerging and established artists and collectors. Launched in November 2013, the program is part of a nationwide movement that has developed in over 40 communities across the country and is the first of its kind in Charleston, SC. Co-founders include Kristy Bishop, Camela Guevara, Stacy Huggins, Karen Ann Myers, Erin Glaze Nathanson, AnneTrabue Nelson and Ann Simmons. Supporters include 1600 Meeting Street, Artist & Craftsman Supply, Básico, Enough Pie, Frothy Beard Brewing Company, GrowFood Carolina, Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art, Mixson Bath & Racquet Club, Redux Contemporary Art Center, The Cut Company, and Three Little Birds Café.

For further information contact Ann Simmons  by calling 843/819-4167, e-mail to (info@charlestonsupportedart.com) or visit (www.charlestonsupportedart.com).

Come See Famous Victorian Artists at M&G at Heritage Green in Greenville, SC, by Aug. 10, 2014

Since opening August 2013, M&G’s “Charles Dickens: The Continuing Victorian Narrative” exhibition has thrilled thousands with its colorful characters, interactive vignettes, and beautiful displays of period-antiques and works of art. However, two of the most acclaimed works within the exhibition, Elizabeth Gardner’s “La Confidance” and Edwin Landseer’s “The Falconer,” will be returning soon to their respective museums in Athens, GA, and Philadelphia, PA. Plan to visit M&G at Heritage Green by Aug. 10, 2014, to see these masterful works right here in Greenville, before they return home for good!

Painted in 1880, Elizabeth Gardner’s “La Confidance” is featured in the Withdrawing Room vignette, a display highlighting the Victorian woman’s domestic and social roles within nineteenth-century England. After leaving her native New Hampshire in 1864, Gardner’s abilities blossomed in Paris, France, and she became the first American female painter to display work at the Paris Salon exhibition. Viewers will quickly see why “La Confidance” is a Victorian favorite, with its charmingly intimate scene of two female friends sweetly sharing secrets, all set against a backdrop of idyllic security and innocent friendship—reminiscent of Jane Austen’s country settings in Pride and Prejudice.

If Gardner’s “La Confidance” represents the ideal of Victorian femininity, Edwin Landseer’s “The Falconer” portrays the quintessential nineteenth-century male. As art critic Christopher Wood notes of the Victorian gentleman, he was “a keen hunting man … professional, disciplined, and autocratic.” Located within the Athenaeum vignette, Landseer’s “Falconer” allows the viewer to understand a cultured and restricted Victorian world open only to those men of the highest birth and best breeding.

M&G is delighted to host this truly unique and accessible exhibition to the guests and residents of Greenville and the Upstate at M&G at Heritage Green. Make your plans to see this fascinating examination of the life, times, and influence of the one-and-only Charles Dickens. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors, and $3 for students. Children 12 and under attend free and can enjoy an exhibition scavenger hunt and children’s learning center.

For more information about this exhibition and the paintings and events to come, please contact the Museum & Gallery, at 864/770-1331 or visit M&G’s website at (www.bjumg.org).

McKissick Museum in Columbia, SC, Presents the 2nd Annual FOLKFabulous Festival – Aug. 23, 2014

The University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum in Columbia, SC, will present the 2nd annual FOLKFabulous festival on Aug. 23, 2014, from 10am-4pm, in front of the Museum on USC’s historic Horseshoe. This event is free and open to the public.

FOLKFabulous is the largest, single-day gathering of Southeastern Native American artists in the history of the University of South Carolina. The festival will feature Native American musicians, storytellers, artisans, and community leaders from more than six Southeastern tribes, each sharing their cultural traditions. Participating artists include Keith Brown demonstrating Catawba pottery, Choctaw bead artist Roger Amerman, Tuscarora music by the Deer Clan Singers, and Cherokee storyteller and stonecarver Freeman Owle.  Traditional food will be available from the Native American Café and attendees will have numerous opportunities for direct dialog with artists and community leaders.

For a full listing of participants, please visit (http://artsandsciences.sc.edu/mckissickmuseum/folkfabulous-2014).

FOLKFabulous will open McKissick’s newest exhibition titled, “Traditions, Change, and Celebration:  Native Artists of the Southeast”. This exhibit represents year two of McKissick’s Diverse Voices series, which celebrates the traditional arts and folkways of the Southeastern United States.  The South is home to a wide variety of deeply-rooted Native American tribal groups, each with its own dynamic history. Traditions, Change, and Celebration pays particular attention to five primary culture groups: Iroquoian, Muskogean, Algonquin, Mobilian and Siouan, and features the expressive culture of over forty Natives tribes throughout the Southeast.

Keith Brown

McKissick Museum is located on the University of South Carolina’s historic Horseshoe with available parking in the garage at the corner of Pendleton and Bull streets. All exhibits are free and open to the public.

This program is funded in part through the support of the South Carolina Arts Commission and the Humanities CouncilSC.

For more information, call Ja-Nae Epps at 803/777-2876.

Lancaster, SC’s Bob Doster’s Works Chosen for Exhibitions in the Carolinas

Lancaster, SC, sculptor Bob Doster’s recent works from his “Dancer” series have been accepted into national, traveling, and public exhibitions. A three-foot high version of “Dancer”, which was exhibited in 2014 North Charleston Arts Festival has been chosen for “2014-2015 SC Palmetto Hands Traveling Exhibition”. This exclusive show, featuring nineteen pieces of exceptional quality hand crafted works by SC artisans, is available through the SC State Museum Traveling Exhibits Program. Juror for the exhibit was Alfred Ward NDD, ATD, Emeritus Professor in the Fine Art Department at Winthrop University.

Juror Brad Thomas, Director of Residencies & Exhibitions at the McColl Center in Charlotte, NC, chose a 12’ “Dancer” for the “2015-2015 National Outdoor Sculpture Competition & Exhibition”, which will be on view until March 22, 2015 at North Charleston Riverfront Park. The public art exhibit is organized by the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department as a component of the North Charleston Arts Festival, which has been named a Top 20 Event by the Southeast Tourism Society.

Work at North Charleston Riverfront Park

At the Maria V. Howard Arts Center at the Imperial Centre in Rocky Mount, NC, another “Dancer” series sculpture has been selected for the “57th National Juried Art Show” (JAS), an exhibition of fine arts and crafts from across the United States. Nationally recognized Juror, Catherine Coulter Lloyd, selected 60 works from 42 artists out of  217 entries submitted by 64 artists from 11 states. The exhibit will remain on view at the Maria V. Howard Arts Center until September 19, 2014.

In Cary, NC, another “Dancer” standing a little over 12’ high was chosen for the seventh “Cary Visual Art Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition”. The public art exhibit, which will remain on display until July, 2015, is comprised of twelve nationally-recognized sculptors, including Bob Doster.

Doster has been a teaching artist for more than fifty years and has operated Backstreet Studio &  Gallery in Lancaster, SC, since the 1970’s. His works are found in museums, collections, and galleries worldwide.

For more information on the artist or “Backstreet”, visit (www.bobdoster.com).

Matthews Artists Guild in Matthews, NC, Features Curt Butler at Monthly Meeting – Aug. 12, 2014

“Notan” is the Japanese word for dark-light harmony. Notan is also used to establish balance in a painting’s composition. Gastonia, NC, artist Curt Butler will be demonstrating his use of this tool to enhance composition when planning a work of art to members and friends of the Matthews Artists Guild on Aug. 12, 2014.

Please join the Matthews Artists Guild on Tuesday, Aug. 12 at 6:30pm at the McDowell Arts Center, 123 E. McDowell Street in Matthews, NC, for this very special demonstration. Meetings are free and open to the public starting at 6:30pm, with refreshments and a presentation by our guest artist at 7pm.

Butler received both a BA from Kent State University and a MFA from Savannah College of Art and Design. He has taught at various institutions including Braitman Studio, Gaston Day School, Gaston College and Gaston School of the Arts. In 2004, he was recognized and honored with Teacher of the Year award at Gaston Day School. He has also hosted a number of guild workshops throughout the Southeast for art students as well as professional artists. He considers himself an artist who teaches and enjoys sharing his passion and knowledge with others to create a journey for someone else.

His own journey has lead him to start his own business called Butler Studio, where he creates between 90 to 120 paintings a year for galleries, corporations and private collections. In 2009, Butler Studio opened a gallery/studio in downtown Gastonia where he currently teaches small classes and paints full time

Butler’s interest in impasto and scumbling techniques is evident in his currently medium of oil and encaustic. The word encaustic literally means to “burn in” and involves a heating tool of some kind with the addition of colored pigments or oil paints mixed into the wax.

“I enjoy the play of carving back into the wax with a palette knife to create different textures. Heating up the wax allows me to fuse layers of paint to create a surface that is varied and complex. Each layer must be carefully fused to the next to ensure there is no cracking. Stand oil is routinely applied to the wax to give it a little flexibility and makes it possible to work on a canvas surface rather than board. I sometimes put the wax and pigment on cold and melt it with a heat gun, and at other times, I start with a hot wax directly on the canvas. I have found these techniques feel very sculptural in nature. At times, I am building up the surface and at other times, I am subtracting or carving into the surface of the paint. Encaustic painting with oil has given me the emotional response that I am currently seeking in my work. To be able to suggest a subject rather than illustrate it, to literally feel the surface of the paint and to be able to engage the viewer from a distance, and yet retain them when they are close are all reasons I choose to work the way I do,” says Butler.

His work has been represented in numerous permanent collections including Dallas Art Museum, Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens, Gaston Day Gallery, and Duke University Cancer Center.  He is currently represented by Providence Gallery, Wells Gallery, The Design Gallery, Thomas Deans Gallery, Tyler White Gallery, Stellars Gallery, and Brandt Roberts Gallery.

The Matthews Artists Guild is a nonprofit organization that welcomes and encourages both the beginner and established artist.  In addition to our free monthly programs, the organization offers weekly plein air painting on Tuesdays, life drawing on Wednesday evenings, critique sessions every other month, art shows, art related field trips, workshops and seminars.

For additional information call 704/321-7275 or e-mail to (info@matthewsartistsguild.org), follow us on Facebook and Twitter (@MatthewsArtists).

Art League of Henderson County in Hendersonville, NC, Features Mike Tiddy for Monthly Meeting – Aug. 10, 2014

Mike Tiddy, a well-traveled and successful artist from Brevard, NC, will be guest speaker at the next meeting on Aug. 10, 2014, of the Art League of Henderson County.  The event is held at the Opportunity House, 1411 Asheville Highway, Hendersonville, NC, and begins at 1:30pm with a reception, followed by the meeting and program. Tiddy will demonstrate “Creating Art Using Pens and Watercolors”.

Growing up an “Army Brat,” Tiddy travelled the world.  Many years later, he still does!  However now he carries a sketchpad, pens and watercolors wherever he goes.  He paints what pleases his eye and what he wants to remember. Tiddy’s artwork is perhaps best described as a visual journal of the places he loves and the characters that live within them. He frequently makes extended visits to France. While on these journeys, he sketches, takes hundreds of photographs and paints what he sees. Sharing visually what he has learned on his journey through life is one of his greatest joys.

Tiddy’s favorite subjects are the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, the French countryside and Paris street scenes. Many pieces of his artwork are in private collections in France and throughout the United States. His “French Gallery” is located at ‘Coco&Co’’ in Brevard.

The Art League of Henderson County is an association of persons interested in visual art and meets the second Sunday of each month. Each meeting features an experienced artist who presents a program on some aspect of fine arts. The League displays members’ paintings each month in the hallway at the Opportunity House. In addition to the regular monthly exhibit in August, the members have been challenged to create artwork using “animals” as the theme.  This exhibit will be displayed in the Sylvia Campbell Room. Both exhibits will be available for public viewing Aug. 9-Sept. 12, 2014.

Meetings and programs are open to the public.  For information call 828/435-1415.

Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC, Receives Conservation Gran

Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet, SC, is one of the 30 institutions in the country to be awarded the “Nature Play Begins at Your Zoo & Aquarium” grants by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums (AZA). The $5,000 grant will fund the expansion of the new “Children’s Nature & Sensory Trail” that opened earlier this year. Supported through a special gift from the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund, these competitive grants, selected through a rigorous review by a panel of industry experts, are presented to accredited zoos and aquariums to encourage family nature play and conservation education.

“We were extremely pleased to receive the grant which will enable us to expand the Children’s Sensory and Nature Trail,” said Bob Jewell, President and CEO at Brookgreen Gardens. “The new Trail supports our mission to build a connection and a deep appreciation of the natural world.

“Accredited zoos and aquariums are one of the first places families experience nature together,” said Jim Maddy, President and CEO of the Association of Zoos & Aquariums.

Research has shown that free play immersed in an outdoor setting is fundamental to connecting children with the natural world around them. The value of these experiences is further reinforced when shared as a family unit. The Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund awards of $5,000 or $10,000 were made available to extend existing family-based nature play programming or to create new, innovative, and engaging programs.

A total of 30 grant recipients were selected to receive more than $200,000 in awards. They include (institution, project/program):

Adventure Aquarium, “Family Fun at the River”

Audubon Nature Institute (Audubon Zoo), “Audubon Celebrates the Wonder of Nature Play”

Brevard Zoo, “Family Nature Stations”

Bronx Zoo/Wildlife Conservation Society, “Bronx Zoo Nature Club”

Buffalo Zoo, “Nature Play Begins in the Niagara Frontier”

The Butterfly House, “Nature T.R.E.K.”

Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens, “Sprouts and Seedlings Children’s Garden”

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, “Zoo Nature Club”

CuriOdyssey, “Stewards from All Settings”

Dallas Zoo, “Wild FUN (Families United in Nature)”

Detroit Zoological Society, “Zoo Tots Outside”

Great Plains Zoo and Delbridge Museum of Natural History, “Great Plains Zoo Nature Club for Families”

Greenville Zoo, “Get Outdoors Greenville”

Grizzly & Wolf Discovery Center, “Kids’N’Snow”

Lee Richardson Zoo, “Developing Children ‘Naturally’”

The Living Desert, “Me and You at the Gardens”

Minnesota Zoo, “Hanifl Family Wild Woods Nature Play Program Pilot”

Mystic Aquarium, “Family Nature Club in Connecticut”

Peoria Zoo, “Peoria Zoo Natural Play Area”

Pittsburgh Zoo & PPG Aquarium, “Families Untamed: Zoo Nature Club”

Prospect Park Zoo, “Nature Play Time!”

Riverbanks Zoo & Garden, “Backpack to Nature”

Roger Williams Park Zoo, “Nature Play in “Our Big Backyard” and Beyond”

San Antonio Zoo, “San Antonio Family Nature Club”

Sedgwick County Zoo, “Sedgwick County Zoo’s Get into Nature Program”

Vancouver Aquarium Marine Science Centre, “Home Learner Partnership Program”

Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center, “Nurturing Naturalists: Helping Families Take a Walk on the “Wild Side””

Western North Carolina Nature Center, “Nature Play at the WNC Nature Center”

Zoo Miami / Zoological Society of Florida, “ZooNature Family Adventures”

Brookgreen Gardens, a National Historic Landmark and non-profit organization, is located on US 17 between Murrells Inlet and Pawleys Island, South Carolina, and is open to the public daily.

For more information, visit our web site at (www.brookgreen.org) or call 843/235-6000.

Artspace in Raleigh, NC, is Calling for Entries for the “Fine Contemporary Crafts of the Southeastern US” Exhibit – Deadline is Sept. 22, 2014

Artspace in Raleigh, NC, invites artists working in a variety of craft media to enter the “Fine Contemporary Craft Exhibition of the Southeastern US”, a biennial national juried exhibition. Eligible media include functional or sculptural works in the following: basketry, ceramics, fiber, furniture (any media), glass, jewelry, metal, mixed media, handmade paper and wood. Entries will also be juried for cash prizes.

This year’s juror is Stefanie Gerber Darr, Gallery Manager at Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts. Application Fee is $30. Submit applications ONLY to CaFE at (www.callforentry.org). For more information, visit Artspace website at (http://artspacenc.org/artists/opportunities/call-for-exhibitions/fine-contemporary-craft/).

Artspace is a nonprofit visual arts center dedicated to providing arts education and community outreach programs, creating an environment of 120 professional artists and presenting nationally acclaimed exhibitions. Located in downtown Raleigh in the historic Sanders Ford building, Artspace has been providing the community with the opportunity to interact with working artists and to participate in hands-on arts education since 1986.

For more information about Artspace, exhibitions, or membership, please visit (www.artspacenc.org).

Lancaster County Council of the Arts in Lancaster, SC, Calls for Entries for the “2014 Marian Hagins Memorial Art Competition” – Deadline is Aug. 28, 2014

The Lancaster County Council of the Arts in Lancaster, SC, is issuing a call for entries for the “2014 Marian Hagins Memorial Art Competition”. This juried show is open to all Lancaster County artists, high school age and older.

Cash prizes are awarded to nine winners, including the People’s Choice Award. Artists may submit up to two paintings which must be delivered to the LCCA, 201 W Gay Street, in Lancaster, between Aug. 25-28, 2014, during office hours.

This community exhibit will be on display in the Springs House Galleries from Sept. 8 through Oct. 27, 2014. A reception will be held on Sunday, Sept. 21, from 3-5pm.

The gallery exhibit and reception are free and open to the public and is sponsored by the LCCA, the Lancaster County Art League and the Hagins Family.

For more information or a registration form, please contact or visit the Lancaster County Council of the Arts, 201 W. Gay Street, Lancaster, by calling 803/285-7451 or visit (http://www.lccarts.net/).

Rutherford County Visual Artists Guild in Rutherfordton, NC, Calls for Entries for Celebration of the Arts – Deadline is Sept. 5, 2014

Artists are invited to participate in “Celebration of the Arts” (COTA), the annual judged art show/competition sponsored by the  Rutherford County Visual Artists Guild in Rutherfordton, NC. The 2014 event is set for Sept. 18-21, 2014  at The Foundation Conference & Performing Arts Center located on the Spindale Campus of Isothermal Community College in Spindale, NC. Entries are not limited to Guild members or Rutherford County residents and all 2D and 3D artists who meet eligibility and other requirements as outlined in the COTA application are invited to participate.

Cash prizes will be awarded for Best of Show and 1st, 2nd and 3rd place in 2D and 3D categories. Ribbons for Honorable Mention and for People’s Choice, in both categories also will be awarded.  Awards are to be presented at a private Artists Reception on Thursday evening, September. All artists with entries and a guest are invited to attend free of charge.

Artists may submit a total of three pieces of 2D or 3D art.  Submissions must be ORIGINAL works (painting, drawing, photographs, sculpture, jewelry, clay, glass, fiber, wood, basketry) completed within the last two years and not previously displayed at a Celebration of the Arts. Items made from kits, commercial molds or patterns, computer generated works, or instructor-assisted works are not eligible for inclusion in the competition.

The entry fee for a RCVAG Guild member is $20 per person ($15 if submitted by Aug. 30) and $35 for a non-Guild member. The deadline for entries is Sept. 5, 2014 and no late entries will be accepted. Complete requirements and other information about entries and participation can be found at (www.rcvag.com) or by calling 828/288-5009.

Information is also available by visiting the Rutherford County Visual Arts Center, 160 N. Main Street, Rutherfordton, NC, Tue.-Sat., 10am until 3pm.