NCMC Events From Around the State… March 22, 2010

1). Joel Lane Museum House The Joel Lane Museum House is proud to announce a lecture by Peter Sandbeck, an eminent architectural historian who is currently Administrator of the State Historic Preservation Office. Peter will speak on 18th-Century Architecture in North Carolina at 7 pm on Thursday, April 8, 2010 in the Visitors Center at 160 South Saint Mary’s Street, Raleigh, NC 27603. Admission will be $15 for the public and $10 for members of the Joel Lane Historical Society. Refreshments will be served. Seating is limited, and pre-payment is strongly suggested as seating is very limited.

2). N.C. Transportation Museum A Civil War mystery involving one of the most well-known landmarks on the N.C. Outer Banks was the focus of a recent presentation at the N.C. Transportation Museum. Kevin Duffus program, “The Lost Light: The Mystery of the Missing Cape Hatteras Fresnel Lens,” based on his book of the same name, was held Saturday, March 6 in the museum’s Bob Julian Roundhouse. Duffus recounted his three-year journey to locate the lighthouse lens, missing since the early days of the Civil War. Tracking the optic as it traveled by wagon, steamboat, rail and ocean liner, Duffus was finally able to locate the lens and restore it to Cape Hatteras.

3). Asheville Art Museum The Asheville Art Museum invites you to a screening of True Stories on Saturday and Sunday, April 3 and 4, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. each day. This film screening is free with Museum Membership or admission. “True Stories” is a cult-classic starring David Byrne with music by the Talking Heads. This film portrays a gallery of eccentric personalities including the “laziest woman in the world” with her array of time-saving gadgets and a man with a “Wife Wanted” sign on his front lawn, all residents of the fictional town of Virgil, Texas.

4). Turchin Center for Visual Arts presents First Annual Draw-a-Thon! March 26-27. The Draw-a-thon is a free campus and community inclusive event that celebrates and promotes drawing, creativity, spontaneity, and artistic collaboration. Students, professors, and local artists will be invited to gather at the Turchin Center and draw together for an approximately, 24 hour stretch. Some basic meals and art supplies will be provided with the goal of creating a casual, fun atmosphere that is welcome to both the curious novice, the devoted expert, and every level in between.

5). Ackland Art Museum Each spring, the Ackland Art Museum at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill presents New Currents in Contemporary Art (April 9 - May 23, 2010), an exhibition of works by graduating UNC-Chapel Hill master of fine arts students. Marking the culmination of a two-year program, this exhibition introduces four emerging artists who interpret ideas ranging from the personal to the political in a wide variety of media, styles, and approaches. “New Currents in Contemporary Art” features the work of artists T. Coke Whitworth, Jessica Dupuis, Kia Mercedes Carscallen, and Emily Scott Beck.

6). Cameron Art Museum presents Literary: Diana Hume George, author on Thurs. Mar. 25, 8:00 pm. Diana Hume George is the author or editor of eight books of nonfiction and poetry. Founding former director of both the creative writing and the women’s/gender studies programs at Penn State/Behrend College, she is a core faculty member of Goucher College’s MFA program in Nonfiction, and co-director of the Chautauqua Writers’ Festival. Recent personal essays and interviews appear in “Creative Nonfiction and River Teeth”, among other publications, and “Watching My Mother Hallucinate” was named a Notable Essay of 2008 by Best American Essays.

7). Kings Mountain Historical Museum The Kings Mountain Historical Museum would like you to come by and view our current exhibit Early Inhabitants of the Western Piedmont which will run through May 1, 2010. This exhibit features private and other Museum collections of early pottery, basketry and weapons from the Native Southeastern Indians and early pioneers that lived in the Western Piedmont many years ago.

8). N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher Kristen Edgell’s photography can put the hardened of hearts at ease. Her work, which is being exhibited in the NC Aquarium at Fort Fisher’s Spadefish Gallery, is full of peace and tranquility captured through the eyes of the a beach lover. Her photographs portray the heart and soul of the Wilmington waters in her Coastal Carolinas collection.