June Issue 2000
Boone, NC, Is Focus of WNC With 16th An Appalachian Summer Festival
An Appalachian Summer Festival's sixteenth season, celebrated from July 1-29 in Boone, NC, will present a dynamic visual arts program, including a collection of paintings, pastels and monoprints by Wolf Kahn, the fourteenth Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition & Exhibition with juror Kathryn Hixson, and an array of visual arts workshops, as well as performing artists ranging from violinist Pinchas Zukerman and the Paul Taylor Dance Company to The Duke Ellington Orchestra, Arlo Guthrie, the North Carolina Symphony and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, among others.
Named one of the "top 20 events in the southeast" by the Southeast Tourism Society, the festival has experienced a doubling of attendance during its past two seasons, with attendance reaching nearly 25,000 last July. Festival events are held on and around the campus of Appalachian State University, which has presented the annual arts celebration since 1984.
The visual arts have played a prominent role in the annual arts festival since its inception, and in the cultural landscape of Appalachian State University. In addition to an annual workshop series exploring various media in the visual arts, An Appalachian Summer Festival sponsors two national, juried competitions: The Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition & Exhibition, featuring contemporary sculpture, and The Halpert Biennial (not taking place this year), featuring two-dimensional works. In 1994, the photography of renowned surrealist Jerry N. Uelsmann was featured by the festival. In 1995, the university's Catherine J. Smith Gallery curated "Views From Ground Level: Art and Ecology in the Late Nineties", an exhibition which received national attention and provided an opportunity for the community to participate in the contemporary dialogue concerning art and ecology. The gallery has also featured exhibits by Richard Anuszkiewicz (1997) and Elliott Daingerfield (1999).
An Appalachian Summer Festival's 2000 season will offer the following visual arts programs:
The Catherine J. Smith Gallery will offer an
extraordinary collection of paintings, pastels and monoprints
by world-renowned artist Wolf Kahn which will be on display from
July 1 through Sept. 29.
Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Kahn came to the US in 1940 at the
age of 12. After graduating from the High School of Music and
Art in New York City in 1945, he studied with the noted painters
Stuart Davis, Hans Jelinek and Hans Hofmann. For the past few
decades, he has explored an aesthetic terrain midway between naturalism
and abstraction. "The game that I play has to do with how
far into a coloristic never-never land you can go while still
retaining natural occurrence," he says. "I try to keep
alive a traditional landscape spirit in the face of the most outrageous
colors."
Wolf Kahn's New England is a place of "impossible beauty where the sky blushes hot pink, the rivers run purple, and the trees turn cobalt blue. In form it is the Connecticut River Valley of Vermont; in fact it is a pastel landscape inhabited only by his imagination, a state of mind tinted mauve, magenta and madder."
The exhibit was made possible courtesy of Jerald Melberg Gallery - Charlotte, NC and Charleston, SC, and sponsored by DeWoolfson Down International, Inc.
The 14th Annual Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition is on display throughout the campus of Appalachian State University. The exhibit will continue through Mar. 1, 2001. The juror for this year's competition will be Kathryn Hixson.
Having enjoyed a longevity rare for exhibitions of its type, this national, juried competition is a focal point of An Appalachian Summer Festival. Made possible by the generosity of Martin and Doris Rosen, the exhibition has gained an international reputation for featuring a remarkable array of contemporary sculpture. The competition provides cash awards for ten artists, chosen from a wide range of established and emerging artists. (In 1999, 154 works were submitted by sculptors from every region of the country, with the top award going to Joe Thompson of Athens, GA, for his work "Wisdom-Knowledge"). Works are situated in outdoor, public spaces on the Appalachian campus.
This season's finalists include Bill Anderson (North Wales, PA), Jean-Paul Bourdier (Berkeley, CA), Michael Callaghan (Germanton, NC), Shaun Cassidy (Rock Hill, SC), Don Creech (Edisto Beach, SC), Amy Gerhauser (Norfolk, VA), Matthew Harbstreit (Manhattan, KS), Nitin Jayaswal (Gainesville, FL), Rudy Rudisill (Gastonia, NC), and J. Paul Sires (Charlotte, NC).
Participation by nationally known jurors and artists have contributed to the longevity and continued success of the Rosen Exhibition program. Jesus Bautista Moroles, James Surls, Richard Hunt, Donald Kuspit, Jackie Brookner, John Perreault, and Michael Dunbar are among the renowned artists and visual arts professionals who have served as jurors over the years. Kathryn Hixson, author, critic, and editor of New Art Examiner, will serve as the competition's juror during its fourteenth season.
The Visual Arts Program at An Appalachian Summer Festival offers visual art workshops as an educational component to the Festival.
During this year's Festival, the following workshop series will be offered: "Non-Traditional Materials and Methods in Landscape Painting" with instructor Vae Hamilton (July 12, 13, 14; 9am-4pm); "Beyond the Green: Using Color in the Landscape" with instructor Amy Funderburk (July 19, 20, 21; 10am-4pm); "Jewelry-Making" with instructor Margaret Yaukey (July 10-14, 9am to noon, with studio time from 1-3pm); and "Myth, Legend, and Magic: The Dragon in Art" with instructor Margaret Carter Martine (for children ages 6-12, scheduled for July 10-14). For details, or to register for any of these workshops, please call 828/262-3045.
Other performances scheduled for this year's Festival include: Broyhill Chamber Ensemble, Juilliard Dance Ensemble, and the Parsons Dance Company. A special outdoor concert with Kenny Rogers will take place on July 29. An exciting fireworks display will follow the concert. Tickets may be ordered by phone, mail, Fax, internet or e-mail. By phone call 800/841-ARTS, Mon-Fri., 10am-6pm (starting June 5, also on Sat, 10am-6pm). By Fax at 828/262-2848. By e-mail at (heustessse@appstate.edu). On the internet at (http://www.appsummer.appstate.edu). By mail at: Farthing Auditorium Box Office, Appalachian State University, Boone, NC 28608. Subscription packages are available at a discount or buy individual tickets. For info call 828/262-4046.
For further information the exhibits offered check our NC Institutional Gallery listings or call Hank Foreman at 828/262-3017, e-mail to (foremanht@appstate.edu) or on the web at (www.appsummer.org).
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