Hendersonville – With all the uncertainty surrounding this COVID 19 pandemic, the Henderson County Arts Council continues to make plans and support artists. They are well aware that it has been a difficult time for all artists as galleries and museums have had to close their doors with any opening canceled.
Currently, the Arts Council of Henderson County is supporting the artists by holding a bi-weekly art “virtual auction” to help raise money and display their works. Go to https://go.rallyup.com/hendoarts10. This is an opportunity for an artist to be featured with one of their pieces that is valued under $100. In May art creations by Alice Greko, Debra Mager, Jo-ann Jensen, Jennifer Mills were shown virtually. To learn more about the artists join Arts Council of Henderson County Executive Director, Hannah Duncan, and board President Josh Dunkin on the Facebook page. Ninety percent of the proceeds from the auction go directly back to the artist and the other 10% support the artists in schools program, where the organization pays artists to teach at underserved schools in the county. To participate in the virtual auction, an artist must email info@acofhc.org with the name, telephone, email, price, medium, size and title of the piece. At least three photos of the item need to be included.
The Art and Architecture Day Tour
Sadly the Art & Architecture Tours usually held early Saturday mornings have had to be canceled. In its place is Art and Architecture Day 2020 on Saturday, July 18th — a first-time event—will take place. That day Main Street will be blocked off to vehicular traffic. Folks will have the opportunity to tour Main Street safely in small groups of six to eight. There will be six presenters that day instead of one tour guide, one on each of six blocks on Main Street. Doug Gilbert, who has given over 400 walking tours across the United States and Canada, has written for six historic personages and what they will be describing on their blocks. Each presenter will assume the identity of an historic personage from Hendersonville’s heritage who helped shape the streetscape. Tour participants will move up Main Street in their small group and meet each presenter who will describe their block in about ten minutes, then on to the next. To give you a glimpse of who some of the docents are: One will be Erle Stillwell, Hendersonville’s leading architect. Another will be Al Edwards, the longest-serving mayor in the history of North Carolina. The entire tour will take a little longer than an hour.
The tour route runs for six blocks up Main Street. There are specific buildings but they are used not so much to describe the building but to place it into a larger context. For instance, the Historic Courthouse is representative of the City Beautiful Movement in America in the early 1900s. The Neoclassical banks on Main Street lead into a discussion of why banks were built to look like Greek Temples. Aluminum facades place buildings in the neo-modern age of the mid-20th century and what downtown retailers were trying to say to shoppers with their space-age inspired redesigns.
To attend this exciting Art and Architecture Day an advance registration is needed; the group size is limited. First, you must sign-up, and then the groups are built after which a “starting time” for the tour is assigned. The groups will depart the Center for Art and Inspiration at 115 S Main Street every 15 minutes beginning at 9 am. The event is still free. Dogs are welcome and donations are also welcome for this most enlightening tour.
Art on Main Show
Plans are being made to hold the annual Art on Main Show on the weekend September 26-27 and to make it an amazing event, as in the past. The Arts Council of Henderson County and the Art on Main Committee announced that they have been named one of the 200 Best Shows in America for Fine Art & Design from Sunshine Artist Magazine! They want the “show to go on.” Although they are preparing for the possibility of stay-at-home orders being in place come the scheduled dates of Art on Main, if necessary, the Arts Council is prepared to execute a “virtual” event. The new Executive Director, Hannah Duncan, comes with a background in digital media marketing and video production, which will hopefully allow the show to take place no matter what happens with the pandemic.