NCMC Events From Around the State… September 30, 2013

1). The Ava Gardner Museum recently made Todd Johnson full-time executive director. Johnson has been serving as a part-time director since August 2011. In addition to planning exhibits and events, grant-writing, and management of the Ava Gardner Trust, he has also spear-headed publication of Living with Miss G, a memoir by Gardner’s longtime personal assistant, Mearene Jordan, which the museum published in 2012. Another memoir, Ava Gardner: The Secret Conversations, which Gardner started with London author Peter Evans in 1988, was released by Simon and Schuster in July 2013 and made the New York Times Bestseller List several weeks. The museum’s annual Ava Gardner Festival, to be held October 4-6, will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the film The Night of the Iguana, based on a Tennessee Williams novel. For the kick-off gala, a countywide “Mad About Ava” Cocktail Party is being staged in the museum, with satellite parties in local wineries, breweries, and restaurants. Festival activities also include a Heritage Tour of Gardner’s birthplace, childhood home, and gravesite, as well as new exhibits and screenings of The Night of the Iguana in the museum. For more information, please visit the museum’s website.   

2). Bellamy Mansion presents a special lecture, “Women’s Attitudes towards Secession and the Civil War”, on Thursday, October 10th at 6:30 p.m. Original, unpublished documents and correspondence from gifted Sandhills women provide unique and fascinating perspectives of the beginning, middle, and end of the Civil War period in North Carolina. An initially uplifting, idealistic support of the Union as a great experiment in democracy and self-rule ultimately fades into prayers for return of the surviving men as well as hopes for peace, followed by ultimate acceptance of the bitter realities of war on a land and a people crushed in the aftermath. Poignant descriptions of the impact of Sherman’s “scorched earth policy” on a once proud and surprisingly literary Sandhills community remind us once again that war is hell, even when it is brother against—sister.  Special speaker, Mary Wayne Watson, received her Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and her MA from UNC-Chapel Hill. This lecture is free and open to the public.

3). North Carolina Maritime Museum in Beaufort invites you to stop by and bring your lunch for their first Brown Bag Gam of the season! These informal but informative presentations will cover North Carolina’s rich maritime history, coastal culture and marine animals. On September 18 at noon the Museum will host historian and story-teller Capt. Wayne Willis from down east North Carolina. Capt. Wayne will be covering ‘Stories from Williston, NC’ in his first of a series of presentations. This program is free.

4). NC Museum of Forestry announces the return of Open Minds Teen Science Café for its second year on Friday, September 20th at 5:00 p.m. with the Adventures of the Weightless Lumbees.  Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to be weightless?  How about what effect the force of gravity has on our bodies?  Join Dr. Timothy Ritter, Professor of Physics at UNC Pembroke, and his research group, the Weightless Lumbees, as they discuss the answers to these questions, and many more, drawing from their experiences as members of NASA’s Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program.  The Open Minds Teen Science Café brings teens together in an informal setting to learn about science and technology.  Each café includes a real life scientist speaking about a chosen topic, an interactive activity relating to the discussion, snacks and time to network with other teens that enjoy science.

5). Museum of the Albemarle will celebrate “Take a Child Outside Week” on Saturday, September 28th from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m.  Participants will take a walk through history with postcards.  Compare the past and present through postcards while strolling the streets of Downtown Elizabeth City.  Walks will be held at 10 a.m. and Noon. Free Family Program.  For More Information Call 252-335-1453.

6). Polk County Historical Association will host Bill Moss on Saturday, September 21st at 1:00 p.m.  Bill will discuss his new book "The Westfeldts of Rugby Grange.”  His talk will highlight Sidney Lanier and his connection to Western NC and the Westfeldts.

7). Museum of Anthropology invites you to the new version of their Day of the Dead exhibit this year, entitled “Life after Death: The Day of the Dead in Mexico”. The exhibit will be on display through December 13th. The exhibit's centerpiece is a traditional Mexican ofrenda, an altar with food and beverage offerings, flowers, sugar skulls, and photos of deceased family members. We've also included new information this year about the celebration's history and its skeleton-themed folk art. A children's ofrenda and a digital photo essay illustrating the celebration in San Miguel Allende are also on display. The exhibit features text in English and Spanish.

8). Gregg Museum invites you to an opening reception on Thursday, September 19th at 6:00 p.m. for their new exhibit “MEASURE OF EARTH:  Textiles and Territory in West Africa”.  The exhibit is installed at the African American Cultural Center Gallery, 2nd Floor, Witherspoon Student Center and will be on display until December.Drawing primarily from the rich holdings of African materials in the Gregg Museum’s permanent collections, MEASURE OF EARTH explores the intricate relationships and meanings behind the patterns and imagery of West African textiles. The exhibition title refers to how African art not only serves to form visual links between local traditions and specific features and places in the landscape, but also to the geometric patterning that yields vivid visual energy to the textiles, artifacts and clothing that people wear. The word “geometry” derives from Latin words for "earth” and “measuring.”  The MEASURE OF EARTH exhibition includes a student-participatory fashion show in the Campus Cinema in Witherspoon Student Center on November 7th at 7:00 p.m., created by Ghanaian designer/dressmaker Adelaide Afua Wotortsi who now lives in Durham.

9). SECCA, The Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, will launch its film series to augment the upcoming exhibition Graphic Design: Now in Production, on September 19th at 7:00 p.m. The first film will be From Nothing, Something, a documentary about the creative process by director Tim Cawley. The film features designers from the fields of architecture, cartooning, film creature development, video gaming, songwriting and screenwriting. Fast Company called this film, “Inspiring and motivating.”  The upcoming exhibition (opening October 26) Graphic Design: Now in Production is a dynamic exploration of communication design in all its vitality. This exhibition is an incredible showcase of design-driven magazines, newspapers, books and posters as well as the proliferation of branding programs for companies, communities and individuals that shape our views. Graphic Design: Now in Production gathers the last decade of typography and its evolution, thanks to digital media. The exhibition shows the impact of the storytelling aspect of film and TV titles that pick up where the James Bond opening sequence left off and how design can transform dull data into compelling perspectives and narratives that enlighten thinking.

10). Waterworks Visual Arts Center invites you to their fall exhibition, “Restructure - Contrast and Balance”, September 14th, 2013 – February 1st, 2014.  Three regional artists’ diverging styles meet in a challenging exhibition that highlights the juxtaposition of contrasting elements, challenging the viewer to explore the concept of co-existing contrasts that present an array of conflicts.  This exhibition explores how artists arrange elements in their work to depict the complex dynamic relationships between distinctly different elements and ideas.  They present an array of paintings, sculpture, and photography which investigates perceived visual contrasts that offset one another.  Faculty artists include Lino Azevedo, Jonathan Church, Peter Goff, Rachel Goldstein, Stephen Hayes, Jonathan Hoffman, Anna Kenar, Francine Kola-Bankole, Andrew Leventis, Jenn Selby, Jerome Sturm, and Lorraine Turi.  Opening Reception is Friday, September 20.  Informal gallery talks with the artists begin at 5pm followed by the reception from 6-8pm.  Free and open to the public.  Gallery hours are MWF 10am-5pm, TT 10am-7pm, S 11am-3pm.  Admission is free, donations appreciated.