NCMC Events From Around the State… September 28, 2009

1). Ava Gardner Museum Each year the Ava Gardner Museum celebrates Ava's life and career by hosting the Ava Gardner Festival. This annual event includes heritage tours, screenings of classic Ava Gardner films, and special exhibits. This year’s festival will kickoff during the “Ava Gardner Festival Gala” on Friday evening, October 9th and will continue Saturday, October 10th from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm. The theme for the fifth annual festival celebrates the special relationship Ava shared with Ernest Hemingway.　

2). Weatherspoon Art Museum The Weatherspoon Art Museum at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro is pleased to present the Fall Weatherspoon Community Day on Saturday, October 17, 2009, from 1-4 pm. The focus of the day’s activities will be Willem de Kooning’s painting “Woman”, which turns 60 this year. A special community birthday cake will be cut and served at 2 pm.

3). Museum of the Albemarle The Museum of the Albemarle will host Kate Willink, Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Communication Studies at the University of Denver, on Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 2:00 pm in the Gaither Auditorium. Ms. Willink author of Bringing Desegregation Home: Memories of the Struggle toward School Integration in Rural North Carolina will present a lecture and sign books.

4). N.C. Maritime Museum Seafaring vessels of the 1700s and 1800s have been captured on canvas by internationally known maritime artist Paul Hee. The N.C. Maritime Museum in Beaufort will display an exhibit of his paintings from Oct. 3, 2009, through March 7, 2010. Unlike many who follow the “super-realistic” school, his paintings accurately portray the historical prototype ships yet also carefully reproduce the styles of contemporary maritime artists.

5). Hickory Museum of Art is pleased to announce Folk Art Festival at the Lake on October 3rd from 11 AM to 4 PM at 4689 Giles Avenue, Sherrills Ford, North Carolina. Admission and parking are free and open to the public. There will be folk artists booths, demonstrations, live bluegrass music, a hands-on activity for children, and food provided by Horsefeathers Roadhouse of Sherrills Ford – including pork shanks as well as barbecue chicken and pork plates.

6). N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences On Tuesday, September 29, Senior Curator of Paleontology Dale Russell presents a talk based on his new book Islands in the Cosmos: The Evolution of Life on Land, which follows evolution from its origins to the present day. The talk begins at 6:30 p.m. at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences in downtown Raleigh and is the fourth offering of the Museum’s Charles Darwin Lecture Series.

7). Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site Experience the blended aroma of assorted homemade foods cooked over on open hearth at Bentonville Battlefield during the Fall Civilian Living History Program on Saturday, Oct. 3, from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. At this free event visitors can learn about the hardships women endured in order to provide for their farms and families during the Civil War.

8). Historic Oak View County Park will host their annual Heritage Day on October 3, 2009, from 10am until 4pm, featuring lots of live animals, antique farm equipment displays, heritage crafts, handmade items, live music, antique cars, horse-drawn carriage rides, and much more! Back again this year: a fantastic display of quilts throughout the Main House, and a quilt auction with a professional auctioneer!

9). Reynolda House Museum of American Art In recognition of the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species,” Reynolda House will host an interdisciplinary symposium titled ‘Curious Spectacle’: Charles Darwin and the Art of Observation on Saturday, Oct. 3, from 12 to 5 p.m. The symposium will focus on the book’s influence on American visual culture and thought, while examining the tropical landscape paintings of Frederic Church and their connections to the tradition of scientific inquiry exemplified by Darwin.

10). Fort Dobbs State Historic Site Head out to the most authentic and diverse event of its kind, the 18th-Century Trade Faire at Ft. Dobbs State Historic Site in Statesville. Admission is free to North Carolina’s 18th-century frontier on Saturday, Oct. 3, and Sunday, Oct. 4, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. At the site where soldiers once defended frontier settlers during the French and Indian War, visitors will have a chance to experience a vivid recreation of a lively colonial American marketplace and reenactments, military and Cherokee camps.