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April Issue 2007
Artisphere 2007 Announces Lineup for Greenville, SC's International Arts Festival
Artisphere - The International Arts Festival of Greenville will take place for the third time in Greenville, SC, from Apr. 20-22, 2007.
Artisphere's Opening Ceremonies will be at 4pm on Apr. 20 in Falls Park. The Festival hours are: Fri., Apr. 20, 4pm-8pm, Sat., Apr. 21, 10am-8pm, and Sun., Apr. 22, 11am-6pm. The Opening Night Gala will be held Thur., Apr. 19, 7pm-11pm at the Bowater/Wyche Pavilion across the Liberty Bridge in Falls Park. Tickets for the Gala are $75 each and can be purchased by contacting: e-mail at (mary@greenvillearts.com) or call 864/271-9398.
Artisphere is pleased to welcome as its feature presenter of the 2007 festival, Dr. Maya Angelou. This performance will take place on the evening of Apr. 21 at 8pm in the Peace Center's Main Hall. Tickets can be purchased at the Peace Center Box Office at (www.peacecenter.org) or by phone at 864/467-3000 or 1/800-888-7768.
Artisphere welcomes Global Guitar, the Chamber Orchestra Series with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra and guest artist Sharon Isbin. Boston Magazine hails her the "pre-eminent guitarist of our time," and the Atlanta Journal calls her "the Monet of classical guitar." As Greenville celebrates Artisphere, the chamber orchestra enthralls us with Rodrigos amazing composition. A must for guitar lovers! Tickets can be purchased at the Peace Center Box Office by telephone at 864/467-3000 or 1-800/888-7768.
The First Citizens' Stage is located on the Dow Amphitheatre behind the Peace Center, and all performances on this stage are free to the public. On Apr. 20 at 8pm, this stage will feature Amos Lee, described as a "folk-soul" artist taking inspiration from Stevie Wonder and Bill Withers, and recent opener for Norah Jones. Other performers include: Grupo Fantasma, named Austin Music Awards Best Latin Contemporary Band for the past four years; the Adande African Drum and Dance group; the Carolina Mass Choir; Flamenco Dancers; Italian Flag Wavers; and performances by local Carolina Ballet Theatre and South Carolina Children's Theatre, among many others. Additional acts will take place on the street by a multitude of European style street performers and human still sculptures, and several large sidewalk murals will be created by Italian Renaissance Street Muralists.
Local theatres will participate with performances, including the Warehouse Theatre, Centre Stage - SC!, and the Greenville Little Theatre, and local galleries and museums will participate by showcasing special exhibitions for the festival, including the Metropolitan Arts Council Gallery, the Greenville County Museum of Art, and many other downtown galleries.
Returning to Artisphere this year is the "Art in Action" artist Brian Olsen. His exciting live performance paintings of rock stars and pop culture icons choreographed to music will take place on the Carolina First Amphitheatre in lower Falls Park and are free to the public. His first performance will immediately follow the Opening Ceremonies at 4pm Apr. 20.
The Blue's Café will serve cuisine from 10 local restaurant vendors, will host a stage of the region's best blues musicians, and will be located on South Main Street between Camperdown Way and Augusta Streets just south of the Falls Park entrance.
The Open Air Artists Row includes 100 of the
country's highest caliber visual artists exhibiting and selling
their works along Main Street in the West End. These artists are
juried annually through a strict scoring process, and award winners
from the previous year are invited back to participate.
Jurors of the 2007 show include: Terri Dowell-Dennis, Curator
of Education at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in
Winston-Salem, NC; Harriett Green, the Program Director for Visual
Arts at the South Carolina Arts Commission in Columbia, SC; Dennis
Harper, the Curator of Exhibitions at the Georgia Museum of Art
in Athens, GA; and Franklin Riehlman, owner of Franklin Riehlman
Fine Art Gallery in New York, NY.
The 2006 Award Winners who will be returning to the 2007 festival are: Best in Show Fiber artists Hetty and Norman Metzger from Homosassa, FL, 2nd Place Drawing artist John S. Gibb from Cumbria, England, 3rd Place 2D Mixed Media artist Ginny Herzog from Minneapolis, MN, Honorable Mention Ceramic artists Claudia and Michael Martell from Akron, OH, Honorable Mention Furniture artist Dale Lewis from Oneonta, AL, Honorable Mention Fiber artist Kathleen Weir-West from Deer Park, IL, and Honorable Mention artist Kate Rothra Fleming from Charleston, SC.
Kidsphere, Artisphere's Children's area, will be open on Saturday and Sunday only, providing internationally themed craft activities for Greenville's youth. This area is free of charge and will include a stage of performances, a face painter, and kid-friendly food and beverages.
Artisphere financially supports the local arts community by giving back through partnerships with local arts organizations whereby the local groups provide volunteers for many areas of the festival and, in return, receive a portion of the proceeds from the Blues Café food vendor sales. Participating organizations include: Blue Ridge Arts Council, Carolina Ballet Theatre, Centre Stage - SC!, Chicora Voices, Greenville Chorale, International Ballet, Metropolitan Arts Council, South Carolina Children's Theatre, South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Upstate Visual Arts, and Wits End Poetry. In 2005, Artisphere gave back a total of $5,000 and in 2006 this amount increased to $15,000.
Artisphere is governed by a 35 member board of directors, is staffed by a full-time executive director, a visual arts project manager, a partnership with Main Street Events, Inc. which lends seven additional staff-members to assist in carrying out the festival logistics and operations, and further outsourced project managers as needed for the long-weekend festival event.
Artisphere's mission as an annual signature event for Greenville, SC, is to showcase the arts, reflect the area's international flair, encourage economic development and bring awareness to existing local arts programs. The festival provides a diverse menu of experiences that center around the arts, both visual and performing, and Greenville's multicultural offerings to appeal to visitors from around the world, as well as residents throughout the region.
Artisphere includes
an array of cultural activity, with both performing and visual
arts, at both indoor and outdoor venues. Artisphere, in
just its third year, is a major contributor to the flourishing
arts community of Greenville and the Upstate of South Carolina.
Attendance for Artisphere 2005 was approx. 30,000 and for Artisphere
2006 was approx. 45,000.
More information can be found on the Festival's website at
(www.artisphere.us).
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Copyright© 2007 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston
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