Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in Asheville, NC, Offers Two Lecture by Eleanor Heartney in Two Locations – Mar. 5 & 6, 2012

Award-winning arts writer Eleanor Heartney will speak in Cullowhee, NC, and Asheville, NC, about Contemporary Art and Women Artists. Heartney will give two lively presentations about contemporary art on Mar. 5 (Cullowhee) and Mar. 6 (Asheville). Heartney’s talks will include related images and raise philosophical questions about art and the contemporary artist’s role in society.

The first talk, Tales of Plastic Surgery, Genetically Altered Rabbits, and Other Acts of Art, will take place on Monday, Mar. 5, 2012 at 5pm in Western Carolina University’s Bardo Art Center, room 130. The lecture title refers to two of the many artists examined in Heartney’s book Art & Now.

“One of those artists, Eduardo Kac, genetically altered a rabbit to glow green under certain light; the other, French artist Orlan, had parts of her face surgically altered to resemble women in famous art historical paintings,” according to WCU Associate Professor of Art, Marya Roland. “Both Kac and Orlan push the limits of what we consider art, and in her book, Heartney poses the question, ‘should we do things simply because we can?'” The lecture is free and open to the public.

On Tuesday, Mar. 6, 2012, at 7:30pm, Heartney will present Out of the Shadows: the Changing Place of Women Artists in Our Times at the Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, 56 Broadway, Asheville, NC. Heartney will discuss the broader topic of women artists’ changing roles and relate it, in particular, to painter Pat Passlof who has concurrent exhibitions at Western Carolina University’s Fine Art Museum and BMCM+AC. Heartney wrote the essay contained in the exhibition catalogue for the exhibitions. Admission is $10 for public and $5 for BMCM+AC members and students w/ID.

Heartney is a contributing editor for Art in America and has written extensively for other publications including Artnews, The New Art Examiner, the Washington Post, and The New York Times. She is author of several noteworthy books about art such as Art and Now, Defending Complexity: Art, Politics and the New World Order, and Critical Condition: American Culture at the Crossroads, and she is co-author of After the Revolution: Women who Transformed Contemporary Art, winner of the Susan Koppelman Award. The recipient of the College Art Association’s Frank Jewett Mather Award for distinction in art criticism, Heartney is also a past President of AICA-USA, the American section of the International Art Critics Association. In 2008 she was honored by the French government as a Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

Heartney’s visit to WNC is supported by a Western Carolina University Visiting Scholar’s Grant, the WCU School of Art and Design, and Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center with support from the North Carolina Arts Council, the Beattie Foundation and The Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.

The Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center preserves and continues the unique legacy of educational and artistic innovation of Black Mountain College for public study and enjoyment. We achieve our mission through collection, conservation, and educational activities including exhibitions, publications, and public programs.

For further information call 828/350-8484 or visit (www.blackmountaincollege.org).

Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, Offers Lecture by Artist-in-residence Andrea Dezsö – Feb. 9, 2012

Visual artist Andrea Dezsö will speak at 4pm, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2012, in Room 130 of the John W. Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center on the campus of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC.

The lecture is free and the public is invited.

Originally from Eastern Europe, Dezsö specializes in handmade books, cut-paper illustration, embroidery, sculpture, animation and large-scale public art. Her work reflects her childhood in Soviet-controlled Romania. Her hand-painted tunnel books were shown at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York and a room-sized tunnel book was installed at the Rice Gallery in Houston.

Shown here is an original book by Andrea Dezsö about dead insects bound by the artist on cotton paper, 5 inches by 5 inches, 2004.

Her cut-paper illustrations have appeared in numerous national publications including The New York Times, Village Voice, The Wall Street Journal and Harper’s Magazine. She has received fellowships from institutions such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Tamarind Institute and New York Foundation for the Arts. Her large-scale garden mosaic for the New York City subway was awarded Best American Public Art in 2007.

“I’m interested in Andrea’s work because of her rich imagination, impeccable craft and delightful sense of humor,” said Matthew Liddle, associate professor in the WCU School of Art and Design. “Her work is appealing because it is ambitious and fun and includes an exciting variety of approaches and techniques.”

Sometimes in My Dreams I Fly, by Andrea Dezsö a 2010 site-specific installation at Rice Gallery, 45 feet long and 15 feet tall of painted, hand-cut board, laser-cut paper and lights.

Dezsö’s visit to WCU is part of a multiday residency sponsored by WCU’s Fine Art Museum, School of Art and Design, College of Fine and Performing Arts, Office of International Programs and Services and the Visiting Scholars Program. During her visit, she will work with students, make an original print in the university’s printmaking studio and work with the art museum to plan an upcoming exhibit.

For more information, call Matthew Liddle at 828/227-3594 or e-mail to (mliddle@wcu.edu).

The Catamount Statue at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, is in the Holiday Spirit

The Catamount statue at the main entrance of Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, is in the holiday spirit. The bronze statue is wearing a bright red and green sweater courtesy of the WNC Fiber Folk Group, whose members share an interest in fiber arts including knitting and crocheting. Group members “yarn bombed” the big cat Thursday, Dec. 8, and will remove the sweater Friday, Dec. 16, 2011.

Knitting a sweater for the Catamount grew out of the group’s weekly meetings at the WCU Fine Art Museum. The sweater project not only was fun, but also is part of a contemporary, worldwide artistic movement, said Denise Drury, interim director of the WCU Fine Art Museum and Fiber Folk organizer. Yarn bombing is the practice of wrapping a structure in the public landscape in knitted or crocheted cloth. Unlike graffiti, yarn installations are not permanent and can easily be removed. The practice began in the mid-2000s and has spread around the world.

“As a university, this is where experimentation in the arts begins, and we need to foster that,” said Drury, who alerted University Police prior to the project so the effort wouldn’t be identified as vandalism.

Jessica Breen, a group member and an assistant in the WCU Biology Department, created the five-foot-long sweater over four days on an electric knitting loom. Not only is the project her first experience yarn bombing, but it also is her first experience knitting a sweater. “The Catamount got all my holiday knitting,” Breen said, adding that the statue won’t complain if the sweater is “itchy or doesn’t fit right.”

Other Fiber Folk members who participated in the project were Jen Nickel of the Center for Service Learning, Nicole Parrish of Campus Recreation and Wellness and Elizabeth Snyder of the Office of Planning and Effectiveness. The group sewed the completed sweater onto the statue, and as an added touch, lined the sweater’s collar with battery-powered colored lights.

The Catamount statue is a 2000 gift from longtime WCU benefactor Irwin Belk. It was commissioned by the university and moved to its location at the campus entrance in 2006. Over the years, the Catamount has been victim of numerous improprieties, said Roger Turk, WCU grounds superintendent. “Obviously, this is done in better taste. There was a positive motive behind it,” Turk said.

The WNC Fiber Folk Group formed earlier this year with the intention of creating items to raise awareness about social issues affecting the world community. Members have crafted pieces for the “Asheville Reef,” a satellite of the worldwide “Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef” project, and items depicting food in support of the WCU Poverty Project (those items are on display in the Star Lobby, adjacent to the museum, through December).

For more information about the WNC Fiber Folk Group or the WCU Fine Art Museum, contact Drury at 828/227-2553 or e-mail to (ddrury@wcu.edu).

WNC Fiber Folk Group in Cullowhee, NC, is Looking for New Members

Community members with an interest in fiber arts are invited to join the WNC Fiber Folk Group, which meets weekly from noon to 1 p.m. Thursdays in the Star Atrium of the Bardo Fine and Performing Arts Center at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC.

The WNC Fiber Folk Group crochets items to raise awareness about social issues affecting the world community. The crochet items are intended for display around WCU and Western North Carolina.

Denise Drury, interim director of the WCU Fine Art Museum, formed the WNC Fiber Folk Group with WCU faculty and staff during the summer of 2011. Almost immediately, members set out crafting pieces for the “Asheville Reef,” a satellite reef of the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. The project is designed to raise awareness of dangers threatening the Great Barrier Reef, off Australia’s coast, and groups around the world have created satellite reefs to complement the principal reef. The WNC Fiber Folk Group created the “Asheville Reef” (on free exhibit through Oct. 5 in Karpen Hall at the University of North Carolina at Asheville, NC) in an effort with four other groups from across Western North Carolina.

From left, group members Jen Nickel, Denise Drury and Laura Sellers crochet additions to the “Asheville Reef”.

The group helps contribute to the greater art community of WNC, Drury said. “It also is a way for nonprofessional artists to add to the creative future, while building a sense of community around the Fine Art Museum,” Drury said. “We’re not just a white box full of art. We are a community.”

With the reef project complete, the 10-member group is on to new things. Group member Jen Nickel suggested that the group take on a new project for a national hunger awareness event in November. This time, instead of crocheting items depicting coral, group members will crochet items depicting food.

For more information about the WNC Fiber Folk Group, contact Drury at 828/227-2553 or e-mail to (ddrury@wcu.edu). The group also is online on the WCU Fine Arts Museum’s Facebook page.

Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, Sponsors Contest Focused on Native American Life – Deadline Sept. 20, 2011

“Contemporary Native American Life” is the theme of an arts competition sponsored by Western Carolina University, Southwestern Community College and the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts in Cherokee.

The contest is open to kindergarten through high school students of the six western most counties (Cherokee, Clay, Graham, Jackson, Macon and Swain in NC) and the Qualla Boundary, and to students of WCU and SCC. Entries are limited to one per person, with cash prizes of $200, $150 and $100 awarded to the top three entries in each of two categories: photography and two-dimensional art (not including photography).

The contest, in its first year, is meant to encourage emerging artists as well as to generate poster art for the 2011 Native American Heritage Expo, planned for Nov. 7-9, 2011, at Western Carolina, said Hartwell Francis, director of WCU’s Cherokee Language Program. “We’re interested in what it means to be an Indian today,” Francis said. Robert Conley, the WCU Sequoyah Distinguished Professor in Cherokee Studies, will serve as a contest judge, along with two community members. The six winning contest entries will be incorporated into expo posters and also featured in a 2012 wall calendar from WCU and the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts, which partners with WCU and SCC to help students progress from an associate degree to bachelor’s degree in fine arts.

Winners will be announced in early October, and an exhibit of the top 20 submissions is planned at OICA beginning Oct. 10, 2011.

Entry submissions are free and are due by Friday, Sept. 30, 2011.

Artwork should be at least 8 inches by 10 inches but no larger than 11 inches by 17 inches. Artwork may be submitted in person to the Oconaluftee Institute for Cultural Arts at 70 Bingo Loop Road in Cherokee, NC, or by mail (postmarked by Tuesday, Sept. 20) to OICA, P.O. Box 920, Cherokee, NC 28719. Entries must include the artist’s name, address, telephone number and e-mail address.

Entry forms are available online at (https://media.wcu.edu/groups/natam/). WARNING: This link causes   some browsers to block it.

For more information, contact Francis at 828/227-2303 or e-mail to (hfrancis@wcu.edu).

Western Carolina University Professor Anna Fariello Writes Book on Cherokee Pottery

Anna Fariello, associate research professor at Western Carolina University’s Hunter Library in Cullowhee, NC, and director of the craft revival project, has completed a new book titled, Cherokee Pottery.

The book traces the designs and patterns of Cherokee pottery as they have developed over centuries and into contemporary times. It recounts “the history of a tradition passed from elder to child through countless generations,” according to the book’s publisher, History Press. The 160-page book, published in March, contains both archival and new images of the region, pots and potters. The book is $12.99 and available through (www.historypress.net) and local booksellers.

Cherokee Pottery follows Fariello’s Cherokee Basketry of 2009. Both are part of the “From the Hands of our Elders” series, and both were funded in part through the Cherokee Preservation Foundation.

Fariello also recently was awarded a $24,998 grant from the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area Partnership that will fund an online component of mountain potteries and Cherokee potters as part of the craft revival project (www.wcu.edu/craftrevival/) and the creation of a trail brochure covering both Cherokee and mountain potteries. The BRNHA Partnership is the nonprofit organization charged with preserving, interpreting, developing, and celebrating the rich and unique natural and cultural heritage in the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area.

The craft revival website makes a massive database of images and documents accessible online. The site has been nominated for awards from the Appalachian Studies Association and the North Carolina Folklore Society, it was a monthly feature on the State Library of North Carolina website in December 2009, and it was awarded a “Best of the Web” designation from LearnNC, a leading scholarly website focused on K-12 education. The website and work on Cherokee crafts earned Fariello the NC Folklore Society’s 2010 Brown-Hudson Folklore Award.

Since arriving at WCU in 2005, Fariello has written eight successful state, federal and private foundation grants for the library’s digital collections totaling $609,400.

“I am aiming for a million,” Fariello said.

She is author of two previous interpretive texts, Objects & Meaning and Blue Ridge Roadways as well as visual arts editor for the Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Fariello holds advanced art and museum study degrees from James Madison University and Virginia Commonwealth University. She was a former research fellow at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

In March, Fariello participated in the ninth annual think tank sponsored by the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design at the Kellogg Center in Hendersonville, NC. This year’s discussion focused on exploration and collaboration, ways to advance craft practice and theory in education, and conceptualizing the place of the individual artist outside the studio.

For more information about Cherokee Pottery or the Craft Revival project, contact Fariello at 828/227-2499 or e-mail to (fariello@wcu.edu).

Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, Offers Lecture by the Muistardeaux Collective – Apr. 14, 2011

The San Francisco-based duo of artists called Muistardeaux Collective will present a public lecture at 4pm Thursday, Apr. 14, 2011, in Room 130 in Western Carolina University’s Fine and Performing Arts Center.

Founding members Tom Borden and Eric Gibbons produce works by combining techniques from a wide array of artistic media, including music, photography, painting and etching. Their work has been exhibited throughout the country, most notably at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Their lecture “The Maccardo Perspective” will include the creation of an artwork before the live audience.

“In the tradition of the Fluxus artists, we issue performance with an irrepressible attraction to uncertainty and imbue our work with the potential for spectacular failure,” they said. “We are interested in the potential for great triumph in the face of this risk of failure.”

The performance is sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the School of Art and Design’s Visiting Scholars Program. It is intended for mature audiences.

For more information, contact the School of Art and Design at 828/227-7210 or visit (http://www.wcu.edu/3313.asp).

Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, Offers Handmade Items for Sale – Apr. 14, 2011

It’s a busy spring at the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University, in Cullowhee, NC, with exhibits, receptions and a sale of handmade items all in April.

Finally, in time for Mother’s Day and spring commencement ceremonies, the Fine Art Museum will host a Handmade Springtime Sale from 3 to 6:30pm, on Thursday, April 14, 2011, in the Star Lobby, with a wine and appetizer reception from 5 to 6pm. A selection of handmade items by WCU students and staff will be for sale, including ceramics, jewelry, cards, scarves and more.

For more information, contact Denise Drury, museum interim director, at 828/227-3591, e-mail to (ddrury@wcu.edu) or visit (http://www.wcu.edu/museum/).

Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, Offers WCU’s International Festival – Apr. 6, 2011

For the 32nd year in a row, Western Carolina University is bringing a variety of world cultures to Cullowhee, NC, at its annual International Festival, to be held on Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2011, from 10am to 3:30pm, on the A.K. Hinds University Center lawn.

The International Festival encourages understanding of the world through music, dance, arts and crafts, entertainment and food from a variety of countries in an effort to promote cultural awareness and appreciation. The festival is open to the public and is free of charge. The festival has attracted close to 2,000 people in the past, and the number of visitors seems to grow larger each year.

Scottish Highland pipes and drums, an Indonesian gamelan ensemble, and even a Saudi Arabian mock wedding are among festival events, along with information booths about everything from Oriental crafts and study-abroad opportunities to the numerous student organizations found on campus, including the Pagan Student Organization and Di-Ga-Li-I, the Native American student organization. There also will be servings of international food from countries as diverse as Paraguay and Japan.

To see a full schedule of festival events, go online to (www.wcu.edu/28443.asp). For more information, contact Christopher Pedo at 828/227-2557 or e-mail at (copedo@wcu.edu).

Martin DeWitt, Founding Curator and Director of the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee, NC, to Retire

Martin DeWitt, founding director and curator of the Fine Art Museum at Western Carolina University, in Cullowhee, NC, has announced his retirement.

Martin DeWitt, in the museum’s main gallery with a piece that renowned ceramicist Don Reitz created during a demonstration at WCU and is now part of the university’s permanent collection.

“I think the timing is right for changes,” said DeWitt, whose career spans more than 30 years in museum administration. He will end his work at the museum in December.

“Martin has been an outstanding founding director of the Fine Art Museum,” said Robert Kehrberg, dean of WCU’s College of Fine and Performing Arts. Kehrberg praised DeWitt for his strength in defining a vision for the museum and cultivating it as a cultural destination. He also credited DeWitt with strengthening the university’s ties with the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.

DeWitt joined the university in 2003, with the museum opening in 2005 as part of WCU’s Fine and Performing Arts Center, a $30 million, 122,000-square-foot facility. With a mission of cultural enrichment for the region, FAPAC also houses a 1,000-seat performance hall and classrooms, studios and offices for the School of Art and Design.

As founding director, DeWitt launched the 10,000-square-foot Fine Art Museum, which comprises a main gallery and three auxiliary spaces. He was involved in the facility’s construction, curated the museum’s permanent collection (which grew from about 400 objects to now more than 1,200), drafted the museum’s policies and procedures – a blueprint for the facility’s operation – and scheduled the museum’s inaugural exhibitions.

A reception honoring DeWitt’s service will be held from 2-4pm, Tuesday, Dec. 7, 2010, in the Fine Art Museum atrium.

Denise Drury, curatorial specialist at the museum, has been named the museum’s interim director beginning in January, when the museum reopens after the university’s holiday break. Prior to her arrival at the museum in January 2010, Drury spent four years, including two as executive director, with 621 Gallery, a nonprofit, contemporary visual art space in Tallahassee, FL. “Ms. Drury brings experience, professionalism and forward-looking vision to this position,” Kehrberg said. A national search is planned to permanently fill the director’s position by July 1, 2012.

Since the museum opened, DeWitt has overseen approximately 100 exhibitions, ranging from historical and collaborative projects to work by WCU students and internationally known artists alike. “These exhibits, like children, have all been favorites,” DeWitt said. Many accomplished regional artists have exhibited at the museum, among them Harvey K. Littleton, a pioneer of the studio glass movement and creator of the vitreograph technique of printing; Lewis Buck, who creates paintings and assemblage pieces; glass artist Richard Ritter; and Mike Smith of Tennessee, who photographs contemporary Appalachia. “Fragile Earth, an environmental-themed competition, featured works by 40 regional artists, and DeWitt and Drury recently oversaw the installation of a one-year outdoor sculpture exhibit in the FAPAC courtyard that features five artists from the Southeast.

Exhibits by American Indian artists have been “especially rewarding,” DeWitt said. These include “Hive” by Natalie Smith, “Pilgrimage Ribbon” by Luzene Hill, and “Reclaiming Cultural Ownership” by Shan Goshorn. DeWitt has showcased the expanding permanent collection in an ongoing “Worldviews” series.

Colleagues say DeWitt has a particular talent for discussing complex concepts in plain language and for gallery presentation that draws visitors into exhibits, a valuable skill in a university setting. DeWitt teaches an exhibition practicum class where students learn how museums and galleries function.

“He is so astute at judging and evaluating art and being able to give thoughtful comments and feedback to artists,” said Luzene Hill, an Eastern Band member and conceptual artist. “His manner is so wonderful. He’s accessible and approachable. I think he’s fantastic in his job and in his life.”

DeWitt received his master’s degree in fine art from Illinois State University in 1978. He began his career in 1980 as executive director of the Rockford Art Association in Illinois. From 1989-2003, he was director of the Tweed Museum of Art at the University of Minnesota Duluth. A painter and sculptor, DeWitt widely exhibits his own work and looks forward to more time in his studio. Other postretirement plans include appraising art; traveling, particularly to Mexico and Latin America, countries he loves and has long enjoyed; and moving with his wife, Sharon Sanders, a federal government employee, to Minneapolis to be closer to family.

For more information about WCU’s Fine Art Museum, contact Denise Drury at 828/227-3591 or by e-mail at (ddrury@wcu.edu), or go online to (http://www.wcu.edu/museum/).