That’s right – another press release received at Carolina Arts with info we feel you should know about. You can read an article and see some photos of an installation Dougherty created at the Palmetto Bluff Resort in Bluffton, SC, which we presented in Carolina Arts in April 2007 at this link.
Here’s the press release:
Wood Artist to Create Installation for Rock Hill Community Performance Center
ROCK HILL, S.C. – Thanks to collaborative community-wide efforts, Rock Hill soon will become home to one of renowned artist Patrick Dougherty’s unique large-scale wood installations.
Beginning March 8, Dougherty will spend three weeks building an installation at Rock Hill’s new Community Performance Center, located at 249 E. Main St., weaving donated tree saplings into a large, intricate sculptural installation. Throughout the building process, the accessible artist will work with volunteers – including Winthrop University fine arts students – and interact with visitors who stop to watch his progress.
Funded by ACE Projects at Winthrop, a privately funded outreach program, the Patrick Dougherty Installation Project is a partnership among the Arts Council of York County, the Rock Hill Old Town Association, Rock Hill’s Gallery Up, Winthrop and ACE Projects.
The interactive installation project should provide the Rock Hill community with a unique opportunity to “realize the impact of temporary public art on economic development and quality of life in our college town,” said Tom Stanley, chair of Winthrop’s Department of Fine Arts. “Patrick Dougherty is especially gifted in helping to demystify art – helping us to see that it is a vital job that needs to be done.”
As part of the installation project, Dougherty will give a public presentation about his work on Thursday, March 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the City of Rock Hill Council Chamber, located at 155 Johnson St.
Here’s a couple of former installations:
Look Out Tree (2008), photo by Harvey Spector, Turtle Bay Arboretum, Redding, CA
Sortie de Cave/Free at Last (2008), photo by Charles Crie, Jardin des Arts, Chateaubourg, France
Dougherty, a native of North Carolina, first began experimenting with woven tree saplings in 1980. Since then, he has constructed more than 150 monumental tree-sapling sculptures throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. He also has served as artist-in-residence at universities and museums across America.
A resident of Chapel Hill, N.C., Dougherty earned his B.A. at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an M.A. at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and completed post-graduate work at UNC-Chapel Hill.
For more information about Dougherty’s work, visit his website at (www.stickwork.net).
For further info about this project contact Katie Medlock at the Arts Council of York County, 121 E. Main St / PO Box 2797, Rock Hill, SC 29732; call 803/328-2787 or visit (www.yorkcountyarts.org).
