April Issue 2007
Commentary
by Tom Starland
What To Do?
We are officially in that time of the year when you most likely will have no problem coming up with an answer when someone asks the question, "What's there to do?".
As far as the visual arts go, if you are having trouble answering that question - let me suggest a few things.
Right off the bat, on the first weekend of the month - most art communities in cities throughout the Carolinas will be offering some sort of art gallery tour - art walk, art stroll, art hop - or depending how big the gallery community is - an art crawl. It's a good way to meet a variety of artists and art lovers in a more festive scene. Check out our gallery listings - these events are usually found at the beginning of a city's listings.
More organized events include arts festivals. This month seems to be the start of the festival season - starting off with Greenville, SC's, Artisphere 2007, an international arts festival including many visual art offerings. The festival takes place in Greenville's West End area along Main Street near the new Falls Park on the Reedy River. The event takes place from Apr. 20 - 22, 2007 - for info visit (www.artisphere.us).
In Columbia, SC, along the Congaree River, known as the Vista, the annual Artista Vista takes place Apr. 26 & 28, 2007. This event includes numerous exhibitions of art by area galleries, the SC State Museum and other merchants. The 4th Congaree Arts Festival takes place at the Museum on Apr. 28. For more info visit (www.vistacolumbia.com).
Artista Vista is also the kickoff of the Columbia Festival of the Arts, taking place from Apr. 26 - May 6, 2007, featuring the first annual celebration of the extraordinary arts and culture that is part of the Columbia community. The festival will highlight and showcase the phenomenal theatre, dance, music, and visual arts that are an integral part of this community. To learn more about the festival visit (www.columbiafestivalofthearts.com).
Don't wear yourself out - there's more coming in May - more art walks, and more festivals.
Start out with the 11th Annual Blessing of the Inlet in Murrells Inlet, SC, which takes place on May 5. For info visit (www.belinumc.org). The 2007 North Charleston Arts Festival takes place from May 4 - 12, 2007, in North Charleston, SC. For info visit (www.northcharleston.org). The 9th Sculpture in the South exhibit and sale will take place at Azalea Park in Summerville, SC, on May 19 - 20, 2007. For info visit (www.sculptureinthesouth.com). And, the whopper of all arts festivals, the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC, takes place from May 25 - June 10. For info visit (www.piccolospoleto.com).
I would mention Charleston's Spoleto Festival USA, but alas - it doesn't offer any visual arts. So go for Piccolo Spoleto.
Website Facts
A recent check of (www.carolinaarts.com) shows 7,146,300 visits to the site since 1999. Of course during the last couple of years at least half of the visitors each month are robot spies, searching for new content for web search engines. They love our site as we post a whole lot of new content each month - as do other viewers. But, it's the old content that can mean the most to some folks. And, we've got lots of that too. Feature Articles, some seen in the printed version of the paper and some from the web only, date back to June 1999.
We've been posting individual pages from the printed paper, from every month, since Aug. 2004 - including all the ads found in the paper.
I found myself checking out our past commentaries for the month of April. In 2006, I was talking about the power of color - just after our first color cover and also the curse of color - in that it's a lot harder to get right. I was also talking about a certain art museum in Greenville, SC, that we don't mention in this paper.
In Apr. 2005, I was reminding folks that our deadline was now the 12th of the month, NOT the 15th. Here it is two years later and I could still be talking about that. I also was dismayed at the fact that there seemed to be no room for the South Carolina Watercolor Society to have it's annual show in Charleston, SC. The word was that Charleston wasn't interested in their kind of art, which seemed funny to me since Charleston's gallery spaces are full of SCWS kind of are. All turned out A OK. That show went to Columbia, SC, and helped that city have one of the best Artista Vista events ever.
In 2004, I was talking about Corrie McCallum turning 90 years young - since I had seen her at an art reception on her birthday. She's 93 this month. She's not going to any receptions these days but she's still with us.
In 2003, I was griping about whether we were living in Iraq or the US of A - freedoms of speech and opinions seemed to be in jeopardy. Questioning whether we should go to war with Iraq was being called un-American.
Now that we know we were being lied to and kept from the real facts - we understand why they were against free speech.
In 2002, I was talking about doing the commentary.
It's good to have documentation.
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