They’re here! Treasures from the National Music Museum – The Utley Collection of Brass Instruments. Weird, Wonderful and who knows what.

Seven Centuries; a musical tour like no other. Visitors will see & hear important keyboard examples and will be surprised & delighted to encounter not only the instruments known to Bach, Beethoven, & Chopin, but keyboards of a type used by ‘The Animals’, ‘Led Zeppelin’, & TV show themes such as Seinfeld and others!

Tuesday – Saturday, 10am – 5pm

Sunday, 1-5 pm

BY LAUREN GUNDERSON
DIRECTED BY SEAN DANIELS
SPONSORED BY GRETA & GRAHAM SOMERVILLE

The transfer of Merrimack Repertory Theatre’s production of this new play, THE HEATH finds us roaming the green of Gaffney, South Carolina as playwright Lauren Gunderson wrestles with how you make peace with a beloved relative who seems unlike you in every way. It’s a beautiful, funny meditation on life drawing on everything from Shakespeare to bluegrass to science to love to memory.

Thursdays-Saturdays 8pm; Sundays 3PM

Opening Reception: Friday, January 24th from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.

In the work for Zodiac, I am exploring a fantasy landscape of the universe. The four large panels tell the story of each Zodiac sign as they travel through the heavens. The individual symbols use the moon as a point of reference for finding ourselves, and our signs, in the stars.

Learn more by visiting garlandmattox.com

Sculptor and painter Matthew Clay Baumgardner of Travelers Rest, South Carolina, passed away last year, but his art stands as a memorial to his work as it goes on display in the James B. Duke Library through March 2020.

The exhibition is free and open to the public.

The exhibition, “Matthew Baumgardner Cubes,” features dozens of his cube works, paintings and other artifacts that reflect his process and provide an introduction to his career. Presented by the Furman Department of Art and Special Collections and Archives, the exhibition was organized by students enrolled in ART 281: Curatorial Issues and Practice, a course taught by Furman art historian Sarah Archino.

Archino says the estate of Baumgardner approached the art department due to the mutual respect between retired Furman art professor Michael Brodeur and Baumgardner. “I think [the estate] was looking for an institution with students that could undertake the type of research and writing that was necessary for the project,” she adds.

Born in Ohio in 1955, Baumgardner’s professional career began in the 1970s, while studying under South Carolina artists Carl Blair, Emery Bopp and Darell Koons. In 1982, he earned his MFA in painting from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1983, he moved to New York City, where most of his work was created. During that time, he had a family and watched his career climb to new heights.

Baumgardner was awarded a national Visual Arts Fellowship in Painting by the National Endowment for the Arts in 1993 for his birch plywood series, which employed his signature technique of embedded glyphs in multiple layers of pigmented gypsum.

During his 22-year stint in New York, his artwork was exhibited in 14 solo and over 30 group shows, including at internationally known galleries Charles Cowles (New York), Edward Thorp (New York), Jeffrey Coploff (New York), Carrie Secrist (Chicago), and Galerie Marie-Louise Wirth (Zurich, Switzerland), among others.

Baumgardner relocated in 2006 to Travelers Rest where he designed and built a home/work studio on an acre of land, and worked until his death in November 2018.

“Matt’s work looks effortless, but it came at a high personal price,” says Brodeur, who admires Baumgardner’s work. “It’s lushness and ravishing beauty belie the struggle and pain that often reside within the creative artist.”

Said to be “deeply spiritual,” according to his survivors, Baumgardner once described his art this way: “My work imparts a transformative experience that resonates with my longings to channel universal and spiritual planes; I want to transport the spirit, to remind us all that we are perfect beings passing through a transient world. My soul craves expression through poetic and timeless art that beckons the viewer to return time and again to find renewal and fresh experiences.”

The Special Collections and Archives gallery is located on the second floor of the Duke Library, and is open Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., or by appointment.

In the coming weeks, works by Baumgardner will be featured in the main display cases in the Roe Art Building, forming an auxiliary exhibition. The Roe Art Building is open to the public 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday. For more information, contact sarah.archino@furman.edu.

Exhibition: fixins’
Venue: Greenville Technical College’s Benson Campus Galleries
Dates: January 14, 2020 – February 21, 2020
Hours: Monday – Thursday, 8am – 8pm and Friday, 8am – 5pm

Fixins’ is a visual feast of remembered downhome family dinners. The fixins’ for this family feast include memories of beloved, homemade foods, memories of the folks themselves, and a retelling of their wise stories and yarns. Fixins’ contrasts Amber Eckersley’s large scale, abstract and elegant photographs of food or food containers with Logan Woodle’s usable but hardly practical cast metal food preparation utensils.

Amber Eckersley’s “Leftovers” series are large scale, stylized photographs of food scraps or well-used food containers centrally placed on a fabric background. Each of her familiar objects are recorded as flat shapes offering the opportunity to rethink these objects as abstractions and also remember our own personal encounters with green bean ends, corn cobs, or a well-used muffin pan. She honors the memories conjured by these objects by presenting them out of context as worthy, formal, elegant abstractions. She states, “This world represented, this life, is dynamic and has a depth far beyond the quaint nostalgia associated with the South.”

Logan Woodle has cast precious copper, brass, sterling, even gold into elegant food prep utensils for making or presenting “low on the hog” foods that laughingly recount the wise and kindly stories of his grandfathers’ courageous, hard scrabble farm life. Woodle remembers hogs head cheese, chitlins, biscuits as sustenance but also as particular treats or rewards. According to Woodle, “Through it all, stories told over meals taught lessons, brought hope, and gave people permission to laugh.” and served as fixins’ with dinner.

Both Eckersley and Woodle mention the South as a particular archive of memories provided by families sharing food and stories. Personal memories inspired by food and family is correctly attributed to the South but is probably also a universal attribute of any culture that honors family and food, valuing the memories of both as an archive of the culture’s traditions.

Both Eckersley and Woodle were reared in Conway, SC. Though only a river separated their respective family’s homeplaces, their singular paths never crossed growing up. Eckersley holds a BA in history from Coastal Carolina University and an MFA in Visual Arts from Clemson University. She is currently the Lead Instructor of Photography at Greenville Technical College. She lives in Central, SC. Woodle holds a BFA in Visual Arts from Winthrop University and an MFA from Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. He is currently an Associate Professor of Art at Coastal Carolina University teaching 3D Design, Small Metals and Sculpture 1. He lives with his wife and children in Conway, SC.

In the fall of 2018, fixins’ was hosted by the Bertha Lee Strickland Cultural Museum, Shelby Henderson, Director, in Seneca, SC.

Benson Campus Galleries are operated by and for the faculty and students of the Department of Visual Arts at Greenville Technical College. The galleries are located on The Benson Campus at 2522 Locust Hill Road, Taylors, South Carolina. For more information call (864) 250-3051 or email fleming.markel@gvltec.edu, or visit www.gvltec.edu/dva.

For more information, contact:
Fleming Markel, Gallery Coordinator
Greenville Technical College
fleming.markel@gvltec.edu
or
Pat Owens, Gallery Assistant
(864) 271-0679

Opening Reception: Friday, January 17 | 6:30 – 9:00 p.m.

David is a retired attorney, having practiced in Greenville for over 45 years.  He was introduced to photography by his late dad, himself a keen eyed, skilled amateur.

David was the photo editor of his high school yearbook and as a senior electrical engineering student in college, built a high speed xenon flash, triggered by his camera.

Throughout the years his focus has shifted from the technical to the artistic, believing the arts enrich lives and bring joy, especially in these contentious times.

Fine art is his medium, as he attempts to appeal to the deeper emotions and passions of his viewers.  Come immerse yourself in the beautiful – and enjoy.

1939 Hollywood is abuzz. Legendary producer David O. Selznick has shut down production of his new epic, Gone with the Wind, a film adaptation of Margaret Mitchell’s novel. The screenplay, you see, just doesn’t work. So what’s an all-powerful movie mogul to do? While fending off the film’s stars, gossip columnists and his own father-in-law, Selznick sends a car for famed screenwriter Ben Hecht and pulls formidable director Victor Fleming from the set of The Wizard of Oz. Summoning both to his office, he locks the doors, closes the shades, and on a diet of bananas and peanuts, the three men labor over five days to fashion a screenplay that will become the blueprint for one of the most successful and beloved films of all time.

Moonlight and Magnolias is directed by Noah Taylor and stars Bruce Meahl, Rod McClendon, Chris White, and Nancy Burkard.

Tickets are only $12, with discounts for seniors, military, and students, and can be purchased online at www.milltownplayers.org, by calling (864)947-8000, or at the door.

19 Awards is a unique opportunity to view challenging, thoughtful art produced by student artists from Greenville Technical College’s Department of Visual Arts (DVA). These award-winning student artists were selected from the 2019 Visual Arts Annual Student Exhibit to receive cash awards and recognition at the DVA Halloween Gala on October 30, 2019. The Kroc Center has graciously provided the DVA this opportunity to again acknowledge the craft and dedication of these outstanding students in an additional venue.

The Annual Student Exhibit of the DVA at Greenville Technical College is a juried competition. DVA students committed the time and resources to enter 128 works in the competition. Jurors Sandy Singletary and Elizabeth Snipes-Rochester from Lander University chose 72 works by 36 individual students to include in VA’s Annual Student Exhibit. According to the jurors, “Use of materials and mastery of techniques was apparent across all the media, and work selected for each category was selected based on both this and strength of subject matter…” “Craft, composition, exceptional use of materials, creativity, and professionalism were the determining factors in our choices for awards.“ 19 Awards represents all the art disciplines included in the DVA’s curriculum. The exhibition speaks to the success of the Department of Visual Arts in producing successful employees and transfer students. Best in Show was awarded to Sydnay Greene for her drawing “Grayscale Study.”

The DVA at Greenville Tech offers associate degrees and certificates in art education, fine arts, photography, graphic design and web design. The DVA’s artist/educators ensure Tech’s DVA graduates are prepared to begin a career or continue their academic studies at regional 4-year colleges and universities. Tech’s DVA graduates are highly sought after by local advertising firms and regional universities. 19 Awards showcases the DVA’s varied courses of study; design & color, digital imagery, drawing, graphic design, painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, and web design. Any high school student interested in continuing studies in visual arts needs to see 19 Awards to discover the quality of Greenville Tech’s locally available art education.

The Kroc Center is located at 424 Westfield Street, Greenville, SC 29601 The Kroc Center is open 7 days a week all day with shortened weekend hours. Please visit their website krocgreenville.org for specific hours. For more information you can call the Kroc Center at 864 527-5948. You may also contact, Fleming Markel, Greenville Tech Gallery Coordinator at fleming.markel@gvltec.edu or 864 250-3051.

Ray Christian is a storyteller, whose storytelling began while reading for his illiterate parents at age 10. When Ray speaks, people listen, because Ray magically weaves together personal experiences of deep pain and doubt with innocence and childlike hope. A regular contributor to The Moth, Ray won the 2016 National Storytelling Festival Story Slam. He hosts the podcast “What’s Ray Saying?”

Watch Ray tell a story in this short film produced by Capita Co-Founder, Brandon Hinman.

All proceeds benefit Capita, a non-profit ideas lab working to ensure a future in which all children and families flourish. Capita is powered by the social innovation team at Openfields.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/an-evening-with-award-winning-storyteller-ray-christian-tickets-86207443785

Come be swept away by the fiery, romantic music created by the Phoebus Ensemble on woodwinds and keyboard. Virtuoso vigor in our intimate venue.

FAC Sutherlin Recital Hall

Peter is a “Bad” tenor man. He possesses the big sound and soulful jazz phrasing that is reminiscent of many of the great tenor saxophonist of the 20th century. A native of Florence, SC and graduate of Furman University, Peter is plotting his move to the jazz big leagues – New York City. Fortunately for us, he is still living and performing (with just about everybody) right here in Greenville.

For this session we showcase Peter in a trio setting featuring bassist Shannon Hoover and drummer Kevin Korschgen. The saxophone trio was once a rarity, but when jazz artists (Sonny Rollins, in particular) began experimenting with chordless ensembles in the 1950s, it became a daring extension of those experiments, and eventually a staple of small-group jazz. The lack of a piano or any other chordal instrument gives the band’s sound an openness, a devil-may-care that suggests anything can happen at any moment. Less is more will definitely be the case at WS 77!

The “Wheel Sessions” is a jazz performance series hosted in Greenville South Carolina. Performances begin at 7:30 pm, and are held in front of an intimate listening audience. There is a $15 entrance fee, which includes complimentary beverage and two sets of music; all proceeds go to the artists. Attendees may also BYOB. To reserve a seat, phone or text (312) 520-2760

ANNUAL DONOR
Contributors Level – DIANA FARFAN STUDIOS

Sponsor Level – METROPLITAN ARTS COMMISSION
“This program is funded in part by the Metropolitan Arts Council which receives support from the City of Greenville, BMW Manufacturing Company, Michelin North America, Inc., SEW Eurodrive, and the South Carolina Arts Commission.”

Champions Level – THE PEACE CENTER

Put on your dancing shoes and kick off the new year with Centre Stage’s hit annual Rock Show I Feel Good: A Trip to Motown! Celebrating the music and success of Berry Gordy and his iconic Motown record label, this concert-style show features hits from Diana Ross, James Brown, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson and MANY more. Join the featured live band and talented cast of Centre Stage favorites as they journey through this electrifying time in American music!

January 23 – February 16, 2020

with Benjamin Dobbs, emcee

January 25 – February 2, 2020

What begins as an innocent exploration of an old home, winds up taking siblings Lucy, Edmund, Susan and Peter far beyond their wildest imaginations, as they step through a huge wardrobe, into a land where an evil witch has taken control and misery reigns. They soon realize they haven’t arrived in Narnia by chance, but have been brought here to play a very important part in restoring natural order and keeping the peace in this magical land.

By demonstrating love, keeping faith and showing courage, the children find they have the power triumph over evil and return Narnia to its rightful leader. Children and adults alike will be enthralled by this classic C.S. Lewis story.

Join us for an art reception on January 25th to celebrate the opening of an exhibition of paintings by artist Jose Romero. The show will hang through February 29th in the gallery space at the Greer Center for the Arts.

Join us for a lecture by Christopher Belluscio who is a leading expert on historical trumpets. Experience the English Slide Trumpet, Keyed Trumpet, Keyed Bugle, and early valve trumpets and the beautiful music written for them.

Join us for the longest-running poetry showcase in South Carolina, celebrating 17 years! Wits End’s Say What Sundays Poetry Events are at Coffee Underground at 7:30 pm in Downtown Greenville every Sunday night (excluding major holidays and Super Bowl Sunday – see website for details on events).

Each event features touring poets from across the southeast, poetry slams, plus our weekly open mic. Founded by Kimberly Simms. Hosts include Moody Black, Jencie Pleasant, and Black Phoenix plus DJ Southern Stylz. 1 E. Coffee Street. All poetry styles welcome. Wits End is a 501(c)3 Charity.

Shows often sell out, so get their early or buy tickets at Eventbrite! http://witsendpoetry.eventbrite.com. (Click on pictures for a link to tickets on Eventbrite).

Follow our social media @witsendpoetry across all platforms. Produced by Wits End Poetry, these poetry events are made possible in part by the generous support of the South Carolina Arts Commission and the Metropolitan Arts Council. More information at www.witsendpoetry.com.(864) 298-0494

Lisa M. Hase-Jackson’s debut collection of poetry, Flint and Fire, was selected for the 2018 Hilary Tham Capital Collection Series prize by Jericho Brown.  She holds an MFA in poetry from Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, and a MA in English from Kansas State University. Her award-winning poetry has appeared in such journals as The Midwest Quarterly, Kansas City Voices, Fall Lines, and The South Carolina Review. Born in Portland, Oregon and raised primarily in the Midwest, Lisa is a traveler at heart and has spent her adult years living and writing in such places as Anyang, South Korea, Albuquerque, New Mexico and Spoleto, Italy. Her current perch is Charleston, South Carolina where she writes and teaches at the College of Charleston. Lisa is Editor in Chief for South 85 Journal and founding editor of Zingara Poetry Review.

Emrys Reading Room is very 4th Monday of the month at 7:00 p.m at The Velo Fellow.
Reading Rooms feature a published local/regional writer. Come early to select your seat, grab a drink and mingle!
January’s featured writer is Lisa M. Hase-Jackson.

From Lincoln Center Theater that brought you The King & I and South Pacific, comes a new production of Lerner & Loewe’s My Fair Lady. Boasting such classic songs as “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “The Rain in Spain,” “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly” and “On the Street Where You Live,” My Fair Lady tells the story of Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower seller, and Henry Higgins, a linguistics professor who is determined to transform her into his idea of a “proper lady.” But who is really being transformed?

Enjoy a screening & discussion on the film which connects the rich cultural origins of the banjo in Africa & the Caribbean to the U.S. Appalachian region, tracing its evolution as an instrument. In partnership w/ Carolina Music Museum & the Spartanburg Philharmonic. Registration required.

An evening to make wish lists for your Valentine’s Day gift

Sit back & groove to some great jazz from two great artists. Our local friend Keith Davis has distinguished himself as a jazz pianist, composer & educator. Neal Starkey, bassist from NY, currently residing in Atlanta, has performed with many notable names such as Sonny Stitt, Duke Pearson, Barney Kessel & many more.