Download the Participation Form and the Entry Form to participate.
Already thousands are being helped because of the International Day of Peace and Ceasefire, now it’s your turn to help bring awareness to this day and its efforts. Charleston Peace One Day presents an open call to artists for its juried show, What a Day of Peace Means, that will be a part of the Charleston Peace One Day Festival September 19th.
Artists will create works that are inspired by what a day of peace means to them, and those works will be available for sale in the Visual Art Tent at the festival. This year the Charleston Peace One Day Festival will be held at the North Charleston Riverfront Park, with the intention of bringing a festival of peace in the most violent city in South Carolina in order to inspire a culture of peace.
Artists need to fill out the participation form and return it by July 30th. All artwork will need to be turned in by September 10th ready to hang and ready for sale. *note: there is no entry fee and all ages are welcome.
We are constantly faced with news stories and statistics about the violence in our cities, leaving us feeling helpless against the destruction it causes. CP1D is working to create news stories and statistics about the PEACE that is happening in our cities through the “2010 Make a Commitment Campaign”.
With the help of WALK Gallery, Open Dome Productions, The Office of Cultural Affairs, and our citizens, CP1D’s 2010 “Make A Commitment Campaign” will educate and inspire people to stand up and take action for a culture of peace by offering real, tangible examples of how people are creating peace everyday.
There will be a “Make A Commitment”visual arts show hosted by WALK Gallery in the windows of the Altman Building, (corner of Cannon and King St, Downtown Charleston) highlighting 10 community figure’s commitments in order to reveal how their commitments are making a real difference. On the website, we show you how these people are following their own passions and in turn creating peace for our community. Explore the possibilities of peace, and then inspire others by MAKING YOUR COMMITMENT TODAY!
The South Carolina Arts Commission is in imminent danger of being totally crippled by Governor Sanford’s budget vetoes. Please contact your Representatives and Senators today & urge them to preserve the arts in SC by overturning the Governor’s veto! They reconvene tomorrow, June 15th, so time is of the essence.
The loss of the SC Arts Commission will affect EVERYONE, whether you are an individual artist, a member of an arts organization or a patron of the arts. The SC Arts Commission supports many arts organizations, large and small, across the state: PURE Theatre in Charleston, SC Philharmonic in Columbia, Burroughs-Chapin Art Museum in Myrtle Beach, HubCulture Inc in Spartanburg, and the list goes on and on.
Please visit the link for each Legislator and urge them to overturn the Budget Vetoes TODAY!
· Eliminates all state funds for grants, programs and services, and their related personnel – the core functions of the agency – and leaves state funds only for administration and fringes.
· A loss of at least 16 of 23 Arts Commission staff positions.
· In FY 2010, the SCAC awarded $2.2 million in 340 grants to arts organizations, schools/districts, and artists in 41 counties.
· Grant dollars helped to support 2,322 full and part-time jobs, and 200+ teaching artists working in our schools.
Veto #105 – cuts $250,000 in ARRA (stimulus) funds
To be invested through general operating support grants to preserve jobs in the arts sector (the primary intent of ARRA funds is to preserve jobs)
Our newest collaboration is with the Jazz Artists of Charleston (JAC). You can check out photographs of Charleston jazz musicians on stage and behind the scenes in the windows of 372 and 575 King Street. We are excited to be partnering with such a young and driven organization that helps promote the local jazz artists, educate the public and help preserve Charleston’s jazz history.
To learn more about JAC’s installation, SEE JAZZ, please follow this link.
If you had the chance to be out and about in Charleston during the Spring month of April, hopefully you had a chance to have breakfast at the Farmers Market and stroll along King Street. If you were so lucky then you couldn’t have missed WALK Gallery’s latest exhibition, Juxtaposition, in the windows of the old Millennium building across from Marion Square Park. In true WALK form the foundation of the
exhibition was immersed in collaboration. There was the familiar collaboration between property owners, community volunteers and artists. This particular show was different from past WALK exhibitions by curator, Christina Bailey’s, idea to pair all selected painters with a poet. The poems and paintings for the exhibition were generated in collaboration. The Haikus were written in freehand on the windows along King Street and Calhoun Street adjacent to their respective painting.
WALK Gallery has had success in collaborating with property owners of vacant retail spaces on and slightly off King Street in the past year to show work by artists. This particular WALK exhibition took it one step further. For the closing reception Bailey hooked up with the local real estate agents of the Midtown Community. Together they brought artists, poets and audience members together to experience the art work in a new way, a more intimate way. Many local galleries and art spaces lent WALK easels to display the paintings in the living rooms and kitchens of the homes off Saint Philip St. known as Midtown Square.
The striking difference between venues was as important to the show as the paintings and poets. Inside the homes audience members had the privilege to hear poets and artist talk about their practice and the
process of collaboration. We also had the honor of watching two poets, Marcus Amaker and Mary Hutchins-Harris, perform in context to the work created in collaboration. Adding this intimate component to the closing reception and to the exhibition was a perfect way to conclude Juxtaposition. As the title, Juxtaposition, suggest viewers are to look for contrasts and links between the poets and paintings. The curator’s choice of displaying the works in multiple venues asks the viewer to think about where we view art and how the environment affects the understanding of the work.
I’m happy to see an organization that refuses to perpetuate the idea that art is made important when displayed in the proverbial white box. Let’s hope that more artists connect with WALK and that they are able to continue generating art experiences all over Charleston. I hope that WALK will continue to think outside the box.
JAC, Jazz Artists of Charleston, will be showcasing photographs from their exhibition “SEE JAZZ” with WALK Gallery during the Closing Reception for “Juxtaposition: artists respond to poets and poets respond to artists.”
6, 8, and 12 Brewster Court (view map) in the Midtown development have been made available to WALK Gallery by Poston and Co., Carolina One Real Estate, and Midtown developers to showcase the artwork from the “Juxtaposition” exhibit and JAC’s exhibit, “SEE JAZZ” on May 15th from 2 – 5 pm.
Come celebrate the artists’ and poets’ inspired collaborations, “SEE JAZZ” — listen with your eyes, and take a tour of some of the homes in Midtown. There will be spoken word, food, and light refreshments available for the public. This is a free event.
The artists and poets a part of Juxtaposition are the following: Artists include | George Black, Sarah Boyts-Yoder, Christine Bush, Karole Turner Campbell, William Davies, Renee Kahn, Lori Love Penland, Cynthia McNaughton, Rebecca Shaw, Thomas Sweeney Poets include | Kwame Alexander, Marcus Amaker, Ellie Davis, Mary Hutchins-Harris, Bryan Penberthy, Marjory Wentworth, Dan Wright
The following is a little write up about “SEE JAZZ:”
Get in touch with your Duke Ellington side. Think and feel beyond the category. Witness “SEE JAZZ” and listen with your eyes.
In the case of this carefully curated exhibition, style and presentation are at play as much as the people, places and objects pictured.
Visuals include images from JAC resident photographers Alice Keeney, Priscilla Thomas, Ben Williams and Reese Moore
The Water Lily Pond by Renee Kahn and Haiku by Marjory Wentworth
Margery Wentworth and I kept in touch by email.At first I assumed she would be writing a haiku poem inspired by one of my paintings. As time went on, it seemed that my schedule was lighter than hers so it was decided that she would send me a list of her Garden haiku poems. They were beautiful, succinct as haiku is, and straight and to the point. As that’s what my style of painting is all about, it was a perfect fit.
One poem in particular struck me and inspired me to do a painting. It was less specific than the other haiku poems that she had written ,so it was more conducive for me to do a figurative painting,( which is what I love to paint ) relating to it.
The Water Lily Pond by Renee Kahn
In the Water Lily Garden, a young woman is reaching for the bud of a flower. She is caught in a moment of time, unaware of the viewers presence. The water lilies are growing, as the poem indicates. They reach to the sky, to the light.
Here in the garden
Where we have liked amazed birds
Poems grow everywhere
I think my painting captures the essence of Margery Wentworth’s haiku poem.
The following is Cynthia McNaughton’s experience with WALK’s current exhibit, Juxtaposition: artists respond to poets and poets respond to artists, and Bryan Penberthy the poet she was paired with. Check out all the artists and poets that participated here!
Painting by Cynthia McNaughton and Haiku by Bryan Penberthy
I was finally able to meet with Bryan at a downtown coffee shop one Sunday afternoon, shortly after the pairings between poets and artists were announced. Although I had reviewed his poetry online, I didn’t know if the selections were representative of his body of work. I was happily surprised to find out that Bryan had looked at my website of work, and even more pleased to realize that he had a clear understanding of my artist statement. He jumped right in with questions about my art; he had collaborated with artists before, so he had a much better idea of the direction to steer our conversation.
Bryan also came with a published collection of his poetry (that he kindly inscribed and gave to me), which was a great help in getting a better sense of his work. As we chatted I read some of the poems, and was immediately struck by a strong sense of time and place. This turned our conversation to the use of place in both visual and literary works, eventually tying into whether the poem should be a traditional haiku with a strong reference to nature. In my work I try to avoid any allusion to man-made objects as I prefer the forms and lines of nature, and also want to avoid any underlying synthetic imprint. I mentioned that I had recently become very interested in the forms of shells, and Bryan and I agreed to use water as a theme for our work. We also decided to make it a true collaboration, with me creating a new visual piece and Bryan writing a new haiku.
I began with a series of rough sketches, and also experimented with using layers of paper as a medium. I decided on just using canvas, acrylic and ink for my media. Although we had chosen water as a theme, I was adamant I would avoid what I felt were clichés as a visual association; beach scenes, pools of water, lowcountry marshes. I chose two oyster shells as my inspiration, keeping the color palette monochromatic like the shells. I have a fondness for forms that fall away or merge into another space, and I combined this approach with gestural lines and transparent layers of paint.
Closer to the finish date I emailed Bryan photos of the painting when it was about 75% complete. He responded with three haikus he composed. I love the poem he chose, with its perfect description of the Ashley River and sense of history with “my grandmother’s braid”. I feel Bryan’s poem and my painting are very harmonious in their expression. I am so pleased that we both arrived at the same place with our artistic responses.
Bryan’s Three Haiku:
The Ashley River
becomes a ribbon of smoke
in winter moonlight.
The Ashley River
ribbon of smoke in moonlight
my grandmother’s braid
The dusk wind brings snow.
Winter is a bird–her wings
stir snowflakes, your breath.
Rebecca Shaw’s experience working with poet, Dan Wright. Check out their profiles here.
"Dear Cicero" by Rebecca Shaw
Dan and I had recently met when I heard about the Juxtaposition show for WALK Gallery. I knew that he had been a literature major in college and so I asked him if he would write some haikus that I could make paintings after. He agreed. One stipulation. I had to give him a piece of my artwork after we were finished. I agreed. I can only use one word to describe this journey, “intense”. We created three pieces of artwork and three haikus and entered them together. I was incredibly thrilled that we were accepted as a team. The final piece was no less intense. I asked him to write the final haiku and a few days later I received it in my Facebook inbox.
“Where’ve you gone, my peace?
All I’ve carried, all I’ve lost,
Only you, I miss.”
Instantly I pictured a dove and then a raven. My thoughts were churning 24/7. I couldn’t sleep. I ate the same three things every day for weeks. I did no laundry, no dishes, and no cleaning. I spent a night with sketch paper and a marker writing anything that came to mind. Pages of writing, repeating lines were scattered all over my floor. I crawled from the living room floor into my bed and instantly passed out. Through the laborious writing, I conceived four components for the painting: the dove, the raven, the fool, and the void. I could not find a paper that was large and sturdy enough for the job. There was a stretched canvas waiting in the corner of my living room that had been a left-over from a previous project. I was saving it for something special and this was it. I had never tried ink on canvas so I tested it on a scrap piece. Ink on canvas, ink on masking fluid on canvas, varnish on ink on canvas. I learned what didn’t work and executed what did. It took so much work, so much energy, so much time and I don’t regret a second of it. I’m glad I finished it when I did, because I felt myself getting ill. I felt dead to the world around me. Dan has most of my art pieces from this experience and I wouldn’t want anyone else to have them.. not even myself. This has been the greatest series of work I have produced and continue to produce. I owe it all to Dan and his unfathomable creativity, but most of all, his loyalty in seeing this project to the end.
The following is an account of two of the participants experiences with the show, Juxtaposition: artists respond to poets and poets respond to artists. Their process is obviously a labor of love. “Captured Essence” by Mary Hutchins Harris and Karole Turner Campbell…
I called her to invite myself to her house, a notebook and a pen more easily carried than a canvas, but she invited me into her home. And that is how the collaboration of skills and of spirit between Karole and me began. Not wanting to take up too much of her time, I plunged in with my questions, my past experiences, my attention to the task at hand. Karole made homemade guacamole, laid out a tray of cheese, poured me some wine. Then she proceeded to ask questions about me, not just as a poet, but as an artist and a woman. Eventually we wandered through her rooms of paintings, evocative and colorful, making me jealous not only of her graciousness but her talent. She creates a three dimensional world on a two dimensional canvas, a moving personal art gallery that I envy. And as we wandered we talked of her work, her vision for what she wanted to convey, how important it is to get out of the way of the work so it can live for what it wants to be…and how my vision, my goals, my desires for my own work mirrored hers. That day and the several days hence that we collaborated on painting and poetry, I found a visionary, an artistic soul mate and a friend.
"To Haiti: And, They Came Out Singing"
The first collaboration came by way of a canvas with a foamy yellow design that intrigued us both, wondering what it wanted to be. And then a story in the news we had both been taken by, not knowing, until the final painting that it had touched us both so strongly. Although we did not know it as it was happening at the time, one thing Karole and I had talked about in the hours at the kitchen counter, sharing our lives, was the collective consciousness of the world, especially the artist’s world. When I saw the finished piece and felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, I knew that was what had happened. This was our collaboration piece for the show.
"Mary's Words"
But then…something even more extraordinary took place. After reading some poems I sent to her, she asked to hear me read my own work, my poems, out loud to her, so she could “hear my voice.” A kindness, genuine and humbling, and only fair, we joked since I had seen her work and heard it speak. But then she decided to paint while I read aloud. I had no idea what that would be like but put myself in the folding chair in the studio/garage and began to read. I still cannot find the words to articulate that experience. I can only tell you what happened. I read at right angles to her canvas, unable to see anything of the process except her body as she painted. The poems came out of my mouth and my memory as they usually do when I read them aloud but the energy in the room was totally different, like a low hum of electricity. And when I was done reading, she was still painting so I waited, watched. Then began to write as I watched her, not taking the pen from paper except to watch her squeeze paint on the canvas, look through her glasses at the something of me only she could see. When we were both done—she‘ll have to tell you about the overlap—I felt full and emptied and stunned at her work, at her taking my words, my voice, me, and putting them into colors and shapes and a place I cannot name but draws tears from my eyes.
“Mary’s Words” was created while Mary read some of her poetry and then continued to write as I painted. At one point I became self-conscious. I called out that I was “finished,” but she continued to write. I got over myself and continued to paint. If Mary had not had the tenacity and intuition to continue writing, instead of listening to me. The painting would have been a “cute” experiment instead of inspired art. – KTC
