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Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail in South Carolina Reaches 44 Stops

Thursday, May 19th, 2011

For the last year and a half, I’ve been bringing you news about South Carolina’s only component of the National Quilt Trail – the Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail, which started out as the Oconee Heritage Quilt Trail, but had grown to cover a much larger area of the Upsptate – now with 44 individual stops.

I’ve had a couple of articles waiting in the wings for photos of the quilt blocks or squares, but I recently checked the group’s website and found that everything I was waiting to tell you can be found there.

The Upstate Heritage Quilt Trail’s new website, found at (www.upstateheritagequilttrail.com) was made possible in part by a grant from the Mountain Lakes Region of the South Carolina National Heritage Corridor.

On the site you can read about the groups history in South Carolina and about the origins of the National Quilt Trail. There is also images of all 44 quilts and descriptions of the quilt patterns and their history. There is also an interactive Google map showing all the locations. You can even print out maps of locations from the website, so you can hit the road and do a scavenger hunt for the quilt blocks.

The locations are now spread throughout Anderson, Oconee, and Pickens counties – from the SC Welcome Center on I-85 in Fair Play, where travelers enter into SC from Georgia – to new locations in Central, Pendleton, Salem, Long Creek, Liberty, and Tamassee. Everyone is jumping on the quilt trail bandwagon – in at least one corner of the Upstate.

One thing I can’t figure out is what’s up with the rest of SC? There are a lot of quilt organizations and groups all over South Carolina, but I haven’t heard a peep out of anyone else about starting a quilt trail in their area of the state.

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Tracking Internet Numbers on the New Online Version of Carolina Arts

Friday, January 14th, 2011

From the minute we first talked with some of our longtime advertisers about taking Carolina Arts totally online, the question asked was – “How will I know how many people see my ad?”

An important question for all advertisers, but one hard to answer for any media outlets.

A few days ago I went to our internet server’s page that tracks statistics and found out some of the info people are wanting to know.

As of Jan. 10th, 3,880 visitors had downloaded the PDF of the entire paper – all 49 pages. We don’t know if they looked at all 49 pages, but we started getting positive e-mails about the new look of the paper by the afternoon of Jan. 1. But, once you download the paper to your computer you can look at it whenever you want – as often as you want.

Now, we have no way of telling how many people just looked at the whole paper on their browsers – our server can’t track that. Some people don’t like downloading anything. Our overall visitations to the website are holding at an average of more than 50,000 a month. Considering the holiday and the weather – that’s good.

Actually the download is just over 10mb which is smaller than some images people e-mail to us. And the download takes less than 2 minutes – sometimes less than a minute on our computers and they’re not so new. But the older your computer or browser is – it could take longer.

Now, we posted individual pages for those who don’t like to download files and we could see those numbers in the hundreds. Some pages attracted more viewers than others – those were pages with colorful ads and color images.

Carolina Arts – the website got over 20,000 visitors in that same timeframe and they looked at 10,000 different pages – some going as far back as 1999. Usually what happens in a search, a viewer finds one link to our paper and then ends up going to different places in time in our archives which date back to 1999. Regular views go straight to where they have bookmarked a page. So ten years from now people will still be looking at pages in this Jan. 2011 issue and downloading the entire PDF for a walk back in time to see what was going on in the Carolina visual art community. It’s amazing.

But our advertisers are more concerned with the present time.

If you haven’t seen our Jan. 2011 issue of Carolina Arts (www.carolinaarts.com) – what are you waiting for?

While you’re viewing that issue, we also ask you to click on some of our advertisers’ ads and go check out what they have to offer. After all, they make the paper possible. They need to know you appreciate their support.

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Carolina Arts Enters the World of Facebook

Thursday, December 16th, 2010

Well, like all things it had to happen eventually – we now have a page on Facebook. And, we invite all our readers out there to Like us. I always hoped you did anyway, but now this is a way of showing it – just like we all want you to feel the same about all our supporters who help make Carolina Arts, Carolina Arts Unleashed and Carolina Arts News possible.

This is all new stuff for us and it will take us some time to get everything just right, but hang in there with us, eventually we may even be Tweeting soon. After all, spreading information about what’s going on in the visual art community in the Carolinas is what we’re all about.

If you have a Facebook account – type Carolina Arts in the search field and pick the one with this image

(the one and only true Carolina Arts Facebook page).

Then Like us. Then see what we’ve posted there.

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Big Art Events Taking Place in the Carolinas – Nov. 18 – 21, 2010

Monday, November 15th, 2010

Starting this Thursday evening with Columbia, SC’s 25th Annual Vista Lights celebration and ending with Seagrove, NC’s 3rd Annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters – this week offers some great visual art events – for both viewing and buying. Make your plans now.

Columbia, SC’s 25th Annual Vista Lights celebration, sponsored by the Vista Guild, will take place on Thursday, Nov. 18, 2010, from 5-10pm in Columbia’s Congaree Vista area along the Congaree River. Click on the name of the event to read an article from Carolina Arts newspaper).

Some of the highlights include:

Fabric artist Susan Lenz will be collecting socks for her art project called, Looking For a Mate, a community based art quilt. The public is invited to bring their “mate less” socks to River Runner, at 905 Gervais Street, as donations to the project. Lenz will be hand stitching these “found objects” onto recycled acrylic felt in order to create a unique art quilt. The felt was formerly packaging material for canoes and kayaks being shipped by distributors to retail shops like River Runner. If you bring a sock – children or adult; serious or comic – you may discover it in the final quilt, which will be unveiled at Artista Vista in Apr. 2011. Here’s a link to a blog entry I wrote about this project.


Poster image by Jeff Donovan

Vista Studios, one of the first art venues to locate in Columbia’s Vista area is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year with a special 20th Anniversary Show which will be on display from Nov. 16-30, 2010. The show will open on Nov. 18 in connection with this year’s Vista Lights celebration. At Vista Studios, more than 30 artists (current and past members) will be exhibiting paintings, drawings, mixed media, and sculpture in Gallery 80808. For further info call the gallery at 803/252-6143 or visit (www.vistastudios80808.com). Here’s a link to a blog entry I wrote about this exhibit.


Work by Bruce Nellsmith

Homeland, a collection of new paintings by Bruce Nellsmith, is another highlight of the Vista Lights celebration in the main gallery at City Art Gallery. This exhibition will be on view from Nov. 18 through Dec. 30, 2010. Various other types of art including textiles and jewelry will be featured at City Art Gallery during the celebration. For further info contact Wendyth Wells at 803/252-3613 or visit (www.cityartonline.com). Here’s a link to an article we presented in Carolina Arts. A collection of handmade jewelry by Cindy Saad will also be featured during the Vista Lights celebration.

And, no Vista event is complete without stopping by One Eared Cow Glass where Tommy Lockart, Mark Woodham, and their assistant, Ryan Crabtree will be doing the dance of glass blowing for everyone to see. They’ll have plenty of wonderful glass objects – just right for holiday gift giving and some pretty spectacular fine art objects for collectors. Here’s a link to a blog entry I’ve done in the past showing you just a peek at what you’ll be able to witness during Vista Lights.

To learn more about the Vista Guild, call 803/269-5946, e-mail to (staff@vistacolumbia.com) or visit (www.vistacolumbia.com).

The 3rd Annual Celebration of Seagrove Potters will open on Friday evening, Nov. 19, 2010, at 6pm with a Gala Preview Party at the historic Luck’s Cannery in Seagrove, NC. Meet the artists and enjoy the opening night festivities of this fabulous event as visitors have the first opportunity to browse and purchase from the thousands of pieces, sip a favorite beverage and enjoy hors d’oeuvres, while listening to the jazz band of Joe Robinson. In addition, attendees will have the opportunity to preview a select collection of unique collaborative pieces to be auctioned. This highly successful venture, teaming Seagrove artists, to produce highly collectable one-of-a-kind pieces was very popular in prior years. This artwork will be auctioned at 8pm on Friday evening.


Ben Owen III holds a pot created by himself and Will McCanless

Tickets are limited and must be purchased in advance. They may be purchased on-line at (www.CelebrationOfSeagrovePotters.com). Gala ticket price includes admission to the event on Saturday and Sunday as well. Here’s a link to an article we offered in Carolina Arts newspaper.

Saturday, Nov. 20, 2010, the show is open from 9am to 6pm and from 10am to 4pm on Sunday, Nov. 21, 2010. For further information visit their website at (www.celebrationofseagrovepotters.com).


Jug made by Sid & Matt Luck

But here’s a link to a blog entry we posted at Carolina Arts Unleashed.

And, finally, this is the last weekend to see the South Carolina Watermedia Society’s 33rd Annual Exhibition, on view at the Center for the Arts in Rock Hill, SC, through Nov. 21, 2010. Here’s an article we offered at Carolina Arts newspaper (http://www.carolinaarts.com/1110centerforthearts.html) and a link to a blog entry we posted on this exhibit, with more images.


Work by Steve Garner

The gallery at the Center for the Arts is open Fridays, 9am-5pm; Saturdays, 10am-2pm; and Sundays, 2-4pm. For further info call 803/328-2787 or visit (www.rockhillarts.org).

There, that’s three good possibilities to fill your weekend.

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An Anniversary Blog Entry

Saturday, September 11th, 2010

Notre Dame 24 – University of Michigan 28

Way to go


BIG BLUE


Again!

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The Deadline to Enter the 2010 Carolina’s Got Art! in Charlotte, NC, is August 15, 2010

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

It’s a month away, but I know some of you artists out there will have to hustle to make the deadline. Almost 500 artists from throughout the Carolinas entered last year. It’s an electronic entry process so you won’t have to haul your work to someplace just to find out if you made the cut. You won’t have do that until you know you’re in! But you have to enter first.

But, first – here’s a press release we received at Carolina Arts about last year’s event you need to read.

Unexpected things can sometimes change a life – just ask recent Winthrop University graduate, Jon Wald, who was awarded the top prize in the 2009 inaugural Carolina’s Got Art! competition.

When asked about winning the $2,500 Best-in-Show award and subsequently selling his artwork during the show, Wald said, “First, I paid off my debts, which is a huge relief in itself. Then, I bought new supplies. One item was an Arduino (an easy-to-use microprocessor). I used the prize money to justify leaving work early every day to teach myself how to program the chip. Ultimately, I think it has helped lead me toward an entirely new method for making art.”

Wald was one of seven other artists from North and South Carolina who walked away with a portion of over $9,000 in prizes awarded by Carolina’s Got Art! that premiered in October, 2009. The initial success of the exhibition has motivated Carolina’s Got Art! founder and owner of Elder Art Gallery, Larry Elder, to launch the second annual competition, slated to open October 1, 2010, with an awards presentation to this year’s winners. The exhibition will continue through October 30, 2010, at Atherton Mill in Charlotte, NC’s Historic SouthEnd District.

“We had no idea that Carolina’s Got Art! would generate such excitement for the local visual arts community,” says Elder. “We accepted over 1100 entries and our juror selected 135 original pieces to comprise the exhibition.” During the month of October, 2009, the exhibition attracted over 2000 visitors.

Columbia, SC-based Edens & Avant, owners of Atherton Mill, is once again demonstrating its commitment to the visual arts in the two Carolinas by offering their historic property for the host location. Artists are encouraged to visit (www.carolinasgotart.com) for complete details. Carolina’s Got Art! is accepting online entries for the 2010 exhibition until August 15, 2010.

This year’s juror will be Mario Naves, an artist, writer and teacher who lives and works in New York City. He is renowned for his torn and cut abstract collages, works of art that have been described by The New York Times as being “delicate and gorgeous” and by Art in America as “joyous, sophisticated, charming, and goofy”.

The Elizabeth Harris Gallery in Chelsea represents Naves’ art. His collages are included in private and corporate collections across the world. Naves has been the recipient of awards from The National Endowment for The Arts, The George Sugarman Foundation, the E.D. Foundation and The National Academy Museum. He was recently named a Distinguished Alumni by the College of Fine Arts at the University of Utah.

A critic as well as practicing artist, Naves has written on the visual arts for over twenty years. He has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The New Criterion, Smithsonian, New Art Examiner, Slate and, from 1999-2009, The New York Observer, where his sometimes prickly opinions earned him the reputation of being a “maverick dissenter”. He is currently a gallery critic for City Arts, a bi-weekly journal devoted to culture in New York.

Naves has taught and lectured at The Cooper Union, The New York Studio School, Montclair State University, Rutgers University, The National Academy and The Ringling College of Art and Design. He currently teaches at Pratt Institute and Brooklyn College.

For further information contact Elder Art Gallery (www.elderart.com) by calling 704/370-6337 or visit (www.carolinasgotart.com) or (www.facebook.com/carolinasgotart).

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HAM Festival on July 24, 2010

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Somehow we got the date wrong for the HAM Festival taking place in Seneca, SC. See the posting – two down. It’s not July 14 – it’s July 24, 2010. I’m sorry for this mistake and hope no one misses the event due to that mistake.

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New Duke Energy Tower Hijacks Charlotte, NC’s Night Skyline

Thursday, April 8th, 2010

During the last delivery of the April 2010 issue of Carolina Arts in Charlotte, NC, as I was cruising down Central Avenue – there was something new in the late night sky. The top of a tall building looked like it had a large white collar draped with a medal hung on a blue and red stripped ribbon. As I got closer to the Center City area I soon realized that it was the new Duke Energy tower across from the new Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts & Culture on S. Tryon Street – one of my delivery stops.

My first thought was that if I owned one of the other high-rise buildings in Charlotte I wouldn’t be so happy about this new arrival. I liked the way all the tall buildings twinkled in the night sky, but now, this new building’s top was stealing the show. Of course there was always the flashing neon display on one of the buildings, but you had to be in a certain area of the city to see it. But, there is no way you won’t see the top of the new Duke Energy tower.

I don’t know what the folks in Charlotte think of this new development, but it may start a night sky war – where every owner of a tall building tries to come up with something new to steal the show. And, before you know it Charlotte’s night sky looks like Las Vegas, and I don’t think anyone would be for that. And, I think the general public should have a say as to how the night sky is used in their community.

My vote would be for Duke to turn the lights out, but then I don’t get my energy from Duke Energy – so they can’t turn my lights out for saying I don’t like it.

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Help the Charleston County Public Library – Donate Your CDs, DVDs, LPs and Videogames

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

Well – it seems one of my favorite places needs help. I know I’ve got some CD’s and a few DVD’s I wonder why I ever purchased to begin with that I could donate. I’m not going to name names – to protect me. But, here’s an opportunity to get them out of my collection and spare me the embarrassment the next time someone is looking to see what I have and then it happens – they pull one of those mistakes out and give me that look. Oh man, it’s a look I don’t want to see again.

So, I guess I’ll be going through and doing some sorting. The Library will get some cash for my mistakes and I’ll have that warm fuzzy feeling. Like they say – one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. And, I’ll be clearing some space for some new – better – music and movies. You’ve just got till Apr. 15, 2010 so don’t delay.

Here’s the pitch:

The Charleston Friends of the Library, in Charleston, SC, is holding a special Media Donation Drive to help raise money to support the Charleston County Public Library (CCPL). Now through Apr. 15, 2010 (tax day), donate your gently-used CDs, DVDs, LPs and videogames to any of the 16 public library locations in Charleston County.

With neighboring libraries like the Public Library of Charlotte-Mecklenburg County in North Carolina announcing the closing of half its branches and the recent announcement of reduced library hours at CCPL starting April 1st, the Friends of the Library is looking to raise money in new and innovative ways like online sales, in addition to the popular book sales held throughout the year.

The Charleston Friends of the Library, a non-profit volunteer organization, raises money through book sales and membership to help fund over 4,000 Library programs each year that are free to the community. The Friends of the Library is partnering with AbundaTrade.com (formerly Millennium Music) and CCPL for this special donation drive.

The Friends of the Library accepts donation of books and media all year long, but needs your help now. Your donation is tax-deductible and supports your local Library.

If you would like to become a member of the Charleston Friends of the Library, or for more information on the Media Donation Drive, please visit (www.CharlestonLibraryFriends.org).

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Charleston County Public Library in Charleston, SC, Offers Downloadable Audio Books

Thursday, March 25th, 2010

It’s always a pleasure to bring you news about one of my favorite places in South Carolina – the Charleston County Public Library and libraries in general. This announcement actually involves people not needing to go to the library for service, but I will still go – as there is always something new to discover and I spend enough time on the computer anyway.

This announcement is also timely as you will be able to purchase Apple’s new iPad in April, which enables you to download digital audio books and read them with its bigger screen. You’ll be able to do a lot more with an iPad, but that’s a different entry.

So here’s the press release we received at Carolina Arts:

Listening to a great book is easier than ever for local residents with Charleston County Public Library’s latest Web service – free downloadable audio books.

This new service, partly funded by the Friends of the Charleston County Library, gives patrons the ability to download books free from the library’s Web site just by using their library card number. Books are compatible with both PCs and Macs, and people can use iPods, iPhones and most MP3 devices to listen to the books. (I’ll add in iPads)

The library contracted with Ingram Digital’s MyiLibrary Audio service and has added more than 550 downloadable titles, ranging from the latest best sellers by James Patterson or Anne Tyler to non-fiction biographies and children’s classics like the Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

With the system, patrons go to the library’s Web site – (www.ccpl.org) – and look for the “Listen to Me” icon on the left side of the home page, then select the link for MyiLibrary audio. Patrons will need their library card number to login and peruse the collection. Once they find something of interest, the audio book should be added to their virtual “bookshelf.” Initially, the system will prompt them to download Ingram Media Manager to their computer before downloading their first audio file. Patrons can have up to two downloadable audio books at a time checked out and up to two hold requests. The audio books can be checked out for up to 14 days.

MyiLibrary is the latest in CCPL’s efforts to provide more services online for patrons. In addition to the downloadable audio books, the library has online book clubs, databases and talking storybooks for children.

The Tumblebooks Library includes animated talking storybooks for children plus puzzles and games to encourage learning and reading. In the library’s online Reader’s Corner, patrons can sign up for Online Book Clubs, which send short snippets of a different book via e-mail each week so they can decide if they want to check it out. NextReads allows patrons to sign up to receive e-newsletters based on their areas of interest. NextReads’s 19 e-newsletters profile recent releases and offer suggestions based on the subject, such as science fiction, business and personal finance, popular culture and historical fiction.

In addition to these reader services, CCPL offers more than 100 research databases, with most available remotely on the Internet. The databases cover topics including history, genealogy, finance and investing, legal forms, career and job assistance, literature and science.

To learn about all the online offerings, visit (www.ccpl.org) or call Charleston County Public Library at 843/805-6930.

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