WAC Gallery Information for June 2009

Music, dancing, book signings and visual art will all be featured at the Jones House Community Center in downtown Boone on Friday, June 5 beginning at 5 p.m.

The first performance of this season’s Concert on the Lawn will kick off this evening of the arts with Blues, Country, Rags, and Soul music presented by The Lazybirds and Crys Matthews.

Immediately following the concert, Saphira and others of the Three Graces International Dance Company will perform several styles of belly dance, including the Wings of Isis, Sword, Shamadan (Egyptian Wedding Dance), and fusion belly dance. Saphira, who received the Lewisville Area Arts Council Achievement in Dance Award for 2006, now resides, teaches, and performs in Watauga County. For more information about belly dance classes or performances, see www.ThreeGracesEntertainment.com or call 336.830-3479.

Also, throughout the evening, Sharon Mitchell, songwriter, singer, and musician, will entertain gallery patrons as she plays popular standards and old favorites on the antique upright piano in the parlor.

Orville Hicks will also be on hand in the parlor to sign copies of his newest book Jack Tales and Mountain Yarns as transcribed by Julia Taylor Ebel and illustrated by Sherry Jenkins Jensen.

The music, dancing, food and beverage are all free and the public is invited and encouraged to attend. This evening of the arts happily coincides with the downtown Boone First Friday Art Crawl. Art patrons can enjoy the dancing and then wander through the house to view this month’s gallery exhibits which are being honored by an opening reception 

In the downstairs Mazie Jones Gallery, “Postcards,” a unique traveling art display coordinated by the Western Arts Agencies of North Carolina (WAANC) features the original postcard size works of 70-some artists who created their works specifically for this exhibit.  The postcards, framed in elegant black shadow boxes, are on display from April through October in each of the seven art councils. The sale of the art will raise awareness and funds in support of the mission of the councils involved.

Local artists with postcards in the exhibit are Beth Andrews, Tara Belk, John Bond, Glenn Bruce, Marion Cloaninger, Anne Hardin, Marsha Holmes, Marie Hosfield, Judy Humphrey, Susan Marlowe, Edwina May, Kent Paulette (Derfla), Lisa Pepper, Barbi Quatrano, and Holly Soukup.

Denise Cook, Executive Director of the Toe River Arts Council and President of WAANC stated, “the Postcard exhibit is intended to increased awareness of the roles artists, arts councils and WAANC play in the life and economy of Western North Carolina. Additionally, arts patrons will have the opportunity to buy works of art created by some of the areas’ finest artists at a very reasonable price.”

WAANC’s mission is to strengthen the arts community in western North Carolina through peer support, shared resources, and collaborative programming. To accomplish this mission, WAANC works diligently to provide services to member organizations; to provide programs that nurture arts administration professionals; and to provide programs which support the work of local arts organizations.
WAANC’s mission and programs are accomplished through the efforts of a volunteer board consisting of Western North Carolina arts council executive directors. Visit www.waanc.org for further information on the Western Arts Agencies of North Carolina

Postcard 2009 Schedule:  April - Cultural Arts Council of Wilkes County, North Wilkesboro; May - Ashe County Arts Council, West Jefferson; June - Watauga County Arts Council, Boone; July - The Arts Council of Henderson County, Hendersonville; August - Caldwell Arts Council, Lenoir; September - Burke Arts Council, Morganton and Mid October/Mid November - Cleveland County Arts Council, Shelby.

In the Open Door Gallery, Eric Reichard is exhibiting, “Petite to Powerful: A Plethora of Pottery.” Reichard began teaching as a graduate assistant in 1972 and teaching continues to be a great joy for him. He is currently a full professor at Appalachian State University, in the Department of Technology, where he has taught for over 35 years in courses in ceramics - design and construction, furniture making and design, metals, leather, technical illustration and design in drawing.  His primary focus is now on ceramics and he has had the experience of teaching and studying in this field throughout the United States and in Japan, Africa, Australia and Tasmania.  Though he has made art pieces, his greater interest is on functional pieces of pottery and this timeless form of art.

In 1998 he began a crafts enrichment  program to offer hands on experience with crafts. As the Director of the Michael R. Patricelli Craft Enrichment  Program, he hopes to preserve traditional crafts such as pottery both thrown and hand built, basket making, weaving,  jewelry,  and quilting. Students from grade school through retirement are involved in this program.

“My mission has been to encourage folks to see and experience creativity and to develop their own creative outlets.  My medium has changed over many years, but my constant has been working in clay and working with students of all ages.  To teach is to learn and I have gained much from teaching in the academy as well as the community, in this country and abroad,” Reichard said.

Reichard has created the works for this exhibit in his home studio in Boone on a recently hand-built kiln in an Asian inspired kiln shed. His work is also on display at the Main Street Gallery in Blowing Rock.  Contact him at www.erpotter.com

These Watauga Arts Council gallery exhibits are available for viewing Tuesday, June 2 until Friday, June 26 from noon to 5 p.m., Tuesdays through Fridays. The galleries are also open Thursdays from 7:30 to 11 p.m. during the acoustic jams and on Fridays from 5 to 7 p.m. during the concerts on the lawn.

The Arts Council galleries are sponsored in part by Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff and Grassroots Funds of the North Carolina Arts Council. The WAC’s offices and galleries are located in downtown Boone at the Jones House Community & Cultural Center, owned by the town of Boone.