MARCH 5, 2009 ISSUE
Gallery News
Downtown Boone Art Crawl Friday
This Friday, March 6, you'll want to get to the Turchin Center with plenty of time to spare, because four brand new exhibitions are opening as part of the Downtown Boone Art Crawl and the Turchin's Spring Exhibition Celebration. And don't miss new works at the Nthº Gallery, Jones House and ArtWalk, as well.
Receptions at several downtown art galleries begin around 5:00 p.m. and continue throughout the evening. The Downtown Boone Development Association sponsors the Art Crawl. For more information, call 828-262-4532.
Turchin Center for the Visual Arts
423 West King Street
828-262-3017
Four new exhibitions open as part of the Turchin Center's Spring Exhibition Celebration. The reception takes place from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
In the Mezzanine Gallery is the much-anticipated Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition. The 6th annual Appalachian Mountain Photography Competition is a program of ASU's Outdoor Programs in partnership with the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation and the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts. The AMPC has grown to become a prominent regional competition attracting the work of amateur and professional photographers from up and down the East Coast allowing them the opportunity to celebrate the unique people, places, and pursuits that distinguish the Southern Appalachians.
Ray Kass' Trays and Tondos—Recent Works on Paper will be on display in the Main Gallery. Kass is Professor Emeritus of Art at Virginia Tech; is a nationally recognized painter and writer; and is founder and director of the Mountain Lake Workshop, a collaborative, community-based art project drawing on the customs, environmental resources and technology of the New River Valley and the Appalachian region. The artist said, "Although abstract, my recent paintings are carefully derived from drawings and life-studies from nature and attempt to represent the processes of nature at work rather than pictorial description."
The works of Teresa Cerda can be seen in the Catwalk Community Gallery. Cerda was born in Santiago, Chile, and moved to Madrid, Spain, in 1990. In 2005, her family made the move to Boone when her husband accepted a professorship at Appalachian. From 1994 until 2000 she served as the director of the Framing and Decoration Workshops at Fundacion de Artes y Autores Contemporaneos. She left this position to establish her own painting and framing studio in Madrid, and in addition to her own studio work, she collaborated with numerous institutions in mounting and caring for exhibitions.
And in the Carroll Gallery in the West Wing Stairwell will be Voyages of the Beagle: Works of Art from An Interdisciplinary After School Art Program. As part of the Darwin Bicentennial Series at ASU, the Turchin Center celebrated the anniversary with a special class where participants used multiple art methods to re-enact the journey of Charles Darwin on the HMS Beagle.
Also on display are the continuing exhibitions Hope Remains—Parts I & II: Charlie Brouwer and God City: They Say You Can't Please Everybody...
The jewelry and original beads of artist Blair Sechrest are featured at ArtWalk during the month of March.
ArtWalk
611 West King Street
828-264-9998
Born in Bluefield, W.V., Blair Sechrest currently resides in Cary. As soon as she could hold a pencil she was making art. She has always loved art and earned her BFA in Art Education from UNC-Greensboro. Before pursuing her love of jewelry full time, she worked in several retail jobs, as an administrative assistant, and finally as an assistant office manager. She has been making jewelry for about 10 years and has made her own glass beads for six years.
Whether it is sites she saw on a vacation, patterns and colors on fabrics or magazine pictures, she looks at the details of her surroundings to find new ideas for beads. She always keeps a notebook handy to write or sketch ideas.
She always wanted to make jewelry, and when she started she bought other artists’ beads for her jewelry creations. When Sechrest discovered that she could make those beads herself, she jumped at the chance to take a class and learn.
The beads themselves are made using glass rods melted in the flame of a bench-mounted torch. She tries to make as many of the components of a final piece of jewelry, from the ear wires to the clasp of a necklace. She mostly uses sterling or fine silver and occasionally accents her own beads with other small, manufactured beads or semi-precious stones.
Nthº Gallery and Studios
683 West King Street
The Nthº Gallery and Studios will feature paintings by Erin Gillespie during the March Art Crawl. The Nthº Gallery and Studios will be open beginning at 7:30 p.m. Snacks and refreshments will be available. The Nthº Gallery is located at 683 West King Street, across from the Post Office and above Loretta’s Vendetta. For more info, email nthdegreegallery@gmail.com or call 828-773-0895.
Jones House Community Center
634 West King Street
828-264-1789
A well-established local artist’s work and a school group exhibits are on display this month in the Watauga Arts Council galleries at the Jones House Community & Cultural Center in downtown Boone. The gallery reception to welcome these exhibits is Friday, March 6, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Free food and beverage will be served, and the public is invited and encouraged to attend.
In the Mazie Jones Gallery, Banister Pope will exhibit photographs from an ongoing series of larger than lifesize portraiture. Self-described as "an extra-large, middle-aged, bearded-American studio artist and photographer," Pope works in multiple media.
In the Open Door Gallery, Two Rivers Community School students' artworks in a variety of media will be shown during March. Two Rivers Community School (TRCS) began serving the families of Watauga and surrounding counties in the 2005-06 school year. Governed by a Board of Directors, TRCS incorporates a curriculum of project based Expeditionary Learning as the framework for its instructional programs. Teaching and learning at TRCS is guided by research-based best practices.
The Collective on Depot
125 South Depot Street
thecollectiveondepot@gmail.com
Artists of The Collective on Depot will open their studio doors to the public around 7:00 p.m. Located through the doors to the left of Black Cat Burrito, The Collective On Depot is principally a work and studio space for local artists and musicians. Current members are Jamie Carroll, Chris Curtin, Travis Donovan, Dan Kaple, Sean Matthews, Peter Oakley, Uijin Park, Melissa Reaves, Virginia Nuckolls and Christian Smith. The Collective seconds as a gallery and performance space for regional and nonregional artists and musicians.
Hands Gallery
543 West King Street
828-262-1970
Stop by the Hands Gallery from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. to browse the works of the Hands Gallery member-artists.
Community Interest
News & Notes
Events
Arts & Entertainment
