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Boone, NC- The Appalachian Theatre has unique film screenings lined up for the month of February. These events include post-film discussions with prominent North Carolina filmmakers. The screenings are presented by The Appalachian Theatre’s new year-round film series, Boone Docs. This series provides a unique lens to view the world through. Boone Docs showcases unique and emerging filmmakers throughout the world and celebrates creative film. FEBRUARY FILM SCREENINGS: Tuesday February 16th at 6 p.m: The Appalachian Theatre presents Trail Magic: The Grandma Gatewood Story. Grandma Emma Gatewood was the first woman to solo thru-hike the Appalachian Trail in 1955 at the age of 67 after raising 11 children and surviving domestic abuse. Before she died in 1973, she had hiked the Appalachian Trail several times, completed hikes in Oregon, Vermont, and Pennsylvania. The documentary film is followed by a Q&A with filmmaker Bette Lou Higgins. This screening is an Appalachian State University Forum Lecture Series event in partnership with Boone Docs. The event is virtual. Tickets are free. Link to trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sd1uqeL78bw&feature=youtu.be Sunday February 21st at 3 p.m: The Appalachian Theatre presents Thumbs Up For Mother Universe! This film is a 95-minute documentary about the life and work of Alabama visual artist and musician Lonnie Holley. Lonnie Holley has been described as a poet, a prophet, a hustler, a visionary artist, and a shaman. The 67-year old Holley has overcome grinding poverty, Jim Crow, and a nightmare childhood to emerge as a creative powerhouse with an agenda to save the planet. This film has much to say about the roles of race and social class in the American South. The film is followed by a discussion with Tommy Nichols, founder of the Charlotte Black Film Festival, Director George King, and Lonnie Holley. The event is virtual. Tickets are free. Link to trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt-X0234jI0&feature=youtu.be We hope you will enjoy these unique screening events from the App Theatre and Boone Docs. Southern Circuit short films are made possible through the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers, a South Arts Program. The program is made possible through a partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.  
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 BOONE, NC — The Schaefer Center Presents (SCP) virtual performing arts series, presented by Appalachian State University’s Office of Arts and Cultural Programs, features one of the country’s most celebrated contemporary dance companies, BalletX, Thursday, Feb. 25 at 8pm. This specially curated broadcast of Philadelphia’s premier ballet company includes an introduction by BalletX co-founder Christine Cox, the BalletX 15th Anniversary Season documentary film, and two of the company’s popular mixed rep selections, “Increasing” and “Fancy Me.” The documentary was commissioned from filmmaker Daniel Madoff, and highlights the company’s growth, trajectory and continued commitment to redefining ballet in the 21st century. The SCP virtual event is free, but registration is required. Figuring out how to effectively deliver dance to a virtual platform — while still maintaining a visceral connection to the dance audience — was difficult enough, but celebrating an anniversary season in the middle of a global pandemic? That posed a new set of challenges, says Cox. So instead of thinking small and insular, Cox and company decided “to go big and bold, by commissioning 15 new works in honor of our 15th anniversary season,” she said. “The entire team at BalletX bonded together to do whatever it took to make it work. … I knew we had a long hard road ahead of us when making the decision to pivot the company to the virtual presentation of our work. I also had an intense sense of duty to do whatever it took to keep on supporting the dancers, staff and artists we had commissioned.” The experience of creating the documentary was a game-changer for the entire creative team, Cox said. In addition to recognizing that they “are far more resilient than [they] thought, we learned that this art form is a lifeline for not only us but for our growing community, [and] we learned that working together and caring for each other really do matter. Each dancer took on new aspects of the job, like creating dances, making films, developing editing skills and learning how to fundraise. The dancers also greatly appreciated the fact that we were able to keep working and instead of losing their jobs they gained perspective and insight into what it takes to keep a company alive during a worldwide pandemic.” The Feb. 25 virtual event precedes BalletX’s scheduled in-person performance with the SCP series in Spring 2022, when the company will take the Schaefer Center stage to perform the beloved story ballet The Little Prince. And while BalletX’s virtual journey has been affirmative and fulfilling, the dancers look forward to the day when they can perform to a live house once again. “The dancers have been at the heart of our pivot as a company,” said Cox, “because instead of dragging their feet and being annoyed at all the new things we were asking them to do, they embraced the challenges and brought new ideas. [But they] cannot wait to be back performing live for an audience. We are in it for the long haul and cannot wait to have the energy and spirit out in the house of a real theater.” About BalletX BalletX, Philadelphia’s premier contemporary ballet, whose dancers were named “among America’s best” by The New York Times, commissions choreographers from around the world to create dance that is “fresh, inclusive, and connects to what people want” (Philadelphia Citizen) while “positioning Philadelphia on the cutting edge of contemporary ballet” (The Dance Journal). Founded in 2005 by Christine Cox and Matthew Neenan, BalletX is led by Cox, whose tenure as Artistic and Executive Director has produced 84 world premiere ballets by 42 choreographers, a record “few companies can match,” according to The New York Times. Under Cox’s leadership, BalletX has been hailed as an “epicenter of creation” (Dance Magazine) and “place of choreographic innovation” (The New Yorker), putting Philadelphia on the map as an international destination for contemporary ballet. The BalletX presentation is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Office of Arts and Cultural Programs at Appalachian State University. COMING SOON… March 11 at 8pm: Steep Canyon Rangers A livestream event brought to you straight from the stage of the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts. Asheville, NC's own Steep Canyon Rangers are GRAMMY winners, perennial Billboard chart-toppers, and frequent collaborators of the renowned banjoist (and occasional comedian) Steve Martin. March 25 at 8pm: Best of the Appalachian Dance Ensemble This digital compilation, a best-of showcase of student performances in App State's Dept. of Theatre & Dance, features popular works from faculty choreographers. Thank you to our SPC sponsors: The Horton Hotel, Creekside Electronics, Boone Tourism Development Authority, Our State Magazine, Spectrum Reach, High Country Radio, WDAV 89.9 FM, WFDD 88.5FM and WASU 90.5FM. **The 2020-21 Schaefer Center Presents season is funded in part by a grant from the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. www.NCArts.org About “The Schaefer Center Presents” “The Schaefer Center Presents” is a series offering campus and community audiences a diverse array of music, dance and theatre programming designed to enrich the cultural landscape of the Appalachian State University campus and surrounding area. By creating memorable performance experiences and related educational and outreach activities, the series promotes the power and excitement of the live performance experience; provides a "window on the world" through the artistry of nationally and internationally renowned artists; and showcases some of the finest artists of our nation and our region. Musical events range from symphony orchestra and chamber music performances to jazz, folk, traditional, international, and popular artists. Theatre productions run the gamut from serious drama to musical comedy. Dance performances offer an equally wide array of styles, from ballet to modern dance to international companies representing cultural traditions from around the world. For more information, visit http://theschaefercenter.org.  BRAHM partners with Small and Mighty Acts for Black History Month programs and the Altar for Black Lives exhibition
Over the next five weeks, Blowing Rock Art and History Museum will celebrate Black History Month and explore the intersections between social justice and creative expression. The program series has been organized around the current exhibition, Small and Mighty Acts Altar for Black Lives. Link to exhibit: blowingrockmuseum.org/see/altar Small and Mighty Acts serves as a platform to bolster the High Country of North Carolina and beyond toward a more peaceful, just and productive future. The murder of George Floyd in May of 2020 sparked a global outcry and a resurgence of interest in the Black Lives Matter Movement. In response to the murders, Small and Mighty Acts constructed The Altar for Black Lives as a call to action and place for our community to come together, grieve and co-create an equitable future. The Altar for Black Lives is a recognition of the power in ritual in socio-political turmoil. Social change is not only a matter of policy- it is a matter of imagination and spirit. BRAHM is hosting The Altar for Black Lives in the Alexander Community Gallery until March 27. We have photographed every piece of the altar. Additionally, we have created a web page for the exhibit featuring additional information and images of every piece on the altar. Many of the pieces were made anonymously. If anyone sees their work and would like to claim it, there is a form on the exhibit web page for you to do so. UPCOMING BLACK LIVES MATTER PROGRAMMING: Thursday February 11th at 6 p.m. we will premiere “Songs of Freedom” with Boone based artist, Melissa Edd. This program will explore songs from the civil rights movement and tell you stories behind the lyrics and the people named in them. February 17th and 24th at 6 p.m: We hope you will join us for Writing on Justice, a two-part workshop on back-to-back Wednesday's, February 17th and 24th at 6 p.m., inviting participants to engage in a creative writing practice around concepts and themes related to BLM. Pieces created in this workshop will be included in a community exhibition booklet for the Small and Mighty Acts, Altar for Black Lives exhibition (not mandatory for participating in the workshop). The workshop will be led by Small and Mighty Acts founder, Cara Hagan. Link to the program: https://youtu.be/EA6t4DMugs. February 21-28: BRAHM is hosting a virtual screening of the documentary Wilmington On Fire and a discussion with the film’s director, Christopher Everett. The film will be available for viewing through BRAHM’s website for 1 week from Feb 21-28, and on Thursday the 25th at 6 pm we will host the discussion. Link to the program: https://zoom.us/j/95917762436 March 4th: BRAHM is hosting “Pivot Step: Black Choreographers and the Intersection of Dance Arts and Social Justice.” This event will feature a discussion between Tamara Williams, dance professor and UNC Charlotte, Cara Hagan dance professor at Appalachian State University, and Dr. Julie B. Johnson, professor at Spelman college. Link to the program: https://zoom.us/j/97242717937 All of these events are free and open to the public. They were made possible by the hard work of Small and Mighty Acts, and by financial support from the North Carolina Humanities Council and the Watauga Arts Council. If you are not able to make any of these programs, don’t worry - they will be recorded and posted to our YouTube page! Just make sure to subscribe to stay up to date. All of this and more can be delivered to your inbox when you subscribe to our weekly e-news letter or follow us on social media @brmuseum Watauga Arts Council is proud to support this innovative project..... The Curio Machine is a new Boone-based company specializing in creative vending machines with a rotating collection of local creative goods. The overall goal is to collaborate and help more artists making a living doing the things they love up here in the High Country! With grant support from Watauga Arts Council, Curio is preparing to launch their first full-sized machine at our downtown King Street space and the submission process is open! For any artists interested in vending their products through the new machines, you can submit your ideas and get the full details with the form at bit.ly/SubmitToCurio or by contacting thecuriomachine@gmail.com. The machine can accommodate items 1"-6" wide, but all artists are invited to also list larger works on the Curio online marketplace, up now at thecuriomachine.com. This is an amazing opportunity for artists seeking to make passive income from their work and will be launching this month. Send your art in now and feel free to share with your other artist friends!  |
AuthorsAmber Bateman- Council Executive Director Archives
February 2021
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