Call for Artists - Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County

The Bassett Gallery at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County (FAC) is currently accepting artist materials for consideration for exhibition in the Bassett Gallery to be scheduled from September 2016 through May 2017. All submissions will be considered for both solo and group exhibitions.

Artists must submit samples via email, linked to a “cloud” portfolio (Drop Box, Google Drive,) or by sending a CD or flash drive with at least 10 images. These images should encompass the artists’ methods and styles. A resume, submission form, description of the style of work, its size and medium used should all be included. Submissions must also include a brief artist statement and be representative of the work that will be on exhibition. All forms of artistic mediums will be considered.

Submission forms can be found on the Fine Arts Center website at www.fineartscenter.org/gallery, or you may drop by the FAC Box Office to get a copy. Materials will not be returned unless requested.

Materials will be accepted through May 20, 2016. Send to:

Bassett Gallery Exhibits Committee

Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County

810 Lyttleton Street

Camden, SC  29020

Please email your submissions to jpeterson@fineartscenter.org. For questions regarding submissions, contact Jane Peterson at jpeterson@fineartscenter.org or by phone at 803-425-7676 ext. 305.

Artists are responsible for load-in, hanging, and tear-down of the exhibit. Any expenses incurred by the artist(s) for travel, set-up, tear-down, etc. of any exhibition are not covered by the FAC. The cost of exhibiting in the Bassett Gallery is the full responsibility of the artist(s.) Artists should be willing to allow some or all of the pieces in the exhibition to be available for purchase. The selected artists will be notified by the FAC no later than June 30, 2016.

Exhibitions in the Bassett Gallery normally change every four to six weeks.  The Gallery is free and open to the public.  Hours are 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday-Wednesday andFriday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Thursday.  The Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County is located at 810 Lyttleton Street in Camden.  For more information about the FAC, please visitwww.fineartscenter.org or call (803) 425-7676, ext. 300.

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The Jasper Project presents ARTS101 - A 6-Part Arts Appreciation Lecture Series

Ever wanted to take that art history class you neglected in college or revisit some of the stories of arts greats you may have snoozed through way back when? The Jasper Project is making it easy to brush up on your cultural literacy and we’re doing it in intimate settings with folks you already know and admire.

The Jasper Project presents ARTS101, a series of presentations by Columbia artists of stature about the great artists who have gone before us and influenced the world of art. All events are informal, free and open to the public and all start at 7 pm at Tapp’s Arts Center.

Please join us.

September 23, 2015 Mary Bentz Gilkerson talks about John Constable

October 28, 2015 Stephen Chesley talks about Edward hopper

November 18, 2015 Tish Lowe talks about Antony Van Dyck

January 27, 2016 Kirkland Smith talks about John Singer Sargent

February 24, 2016 Mike Dwyer talks about Richard Diebenkorn

March 23, 2015 Cedric Umoja talks about Dondi White

Artists for Africa Postcaard Art Sale - Thursday Night - by Abby Davis

This Thursday, February 12^th, Artists for Africa will host their second annual Postcard Art fundraiser at Embassy Suites Columbia. There will be over 300 pieces of original, postcard-sized works to choose from. The postcard art has been contributed by over 100 artists, some established and some emerging. The pieces will be exhibited anonymously, each available for $65, and the artist’s identity will not be revealed until after the work has been purchased.

Featured artists include Tish Lowe, Mana Hewitt, Bill Davis, Barbie Mathis, Toni Elkins, Robin Gadient, Bonnie Goldberg, Marian Soule, Cami Hutchinson, Susilee Lamb, Julia Moore, K. Page Morris, Nini Ward, Carey Weathers, Charlene Wells, Jen Gorlewski, Steve Teets, Pete Holland, and Michael Krajewski. Additionally, 40 pieces from CA Johnson students will also be featured and sold for $15 each. Each student piece sold will provide a new school uniform for a student in Kenya.

This exciting event offers not only a unique and entertaining way to expand your collection at an amazing price, but it also supports a tremendously worthy cause. The money raised from the Postcard Art fundraiser will be supporting Artists for Africa. Artists for Africa is a non-profit organization created for the purpose of supporting Anno’s Africa, a non-profit organization which brings arts classes to children in the slums of Kenya. Artists for Africa strives to provide an alternative arts education to orphans and vulnerable children in Africa. In the past, funds raised by Artists for Africa have gone towards drums, leotards, guitars, watercolors, trampolines, juggling kits, crayons, sound systems, mono-cycles, and more. The program is currently operating only in Nairobi, but the goal is to spread throughout urban Kenya and eventually expand to other countries in Africa as well.

Enjoy a lovely evening, expand your collection at an incredible price, and support an invaluable cause all at once! The event will last from 6 – 10pm, with the sale beginning at 7. Artwork will be sold first come, first served, at $65 each ($15 for student pieces) and buyers are invited to purchase as many pieces as they wish. Tickets to the event are $15 and can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com. For more information about Postcard Art and Art and Artists for Africa visit www.artistsforafricausa.org.

-by Abby Davis

Palmetto Opera, Lowe, Lenz, Krajewski & McClendon all help Jasper celebrate its fourth year of publication - Thursday Night!

We’re starting our fourth year of bringing Columbia in-depth local arts coverage in theatre, dance, visual arts, literary arts, music, and film, (and we’ll be adding design soon), and we’re celebrating with a multi-disciplinary release celebration to kick the year and the arts season off right.

Please join us on Thursday, September 18^th at 5 pm at Vista Studios – Gallery 80808 at 808 Lady Street as we welcome the new issue of Jasper Magazine.

Classical oil paintings by internationally renowned realist Tish Lowe will set the stage in the main gallery.  Palmetto Opera’s artistic director, Walter Cuttino, will lead a one-night-only performance of highlights from Puccini’s La Bohème, hits from familiar musicals such as Phantom of the Opera and Carousel. .

The atrium will showcase a collaborative installation by fiber and installation artist Susan Lenz, who was Jasper’s 2012 Visual Artist of the Year and artist Michael Krajewski, who was Jasper’s first centerfold.  Their work, Threads: Gathering My Thoughts, will be a manifestation of the mental images and ideas that naturally flow through the human mind while engaged in the viewing of La Bohème.  Lenz’s tangle of unraveled, old threads will cascade in and out of suspended baskets mimicking the colors, complex plots, and emotions of a performance. Krajewski’s bohemian, pencil graffiti will literally express the connections between the visual, musical, dramatic, literary, and poetic world of a bygone, operatic world still dancing in the twenty-first century mind.  The arts exhibition will remain on view through Tuesday, September 30^th.

Jasper adores the film Wade Sellers, our beloved film editor, made for Susan Lenz -- you can watch it here - and you should because it's really lovely.

Following the presentations by Palmetto Opera, multi-talented musical artist Tim McClendon, who is also featured in this issue of Jasper Magazine for his design work, will perform an impromptu set of music.  One Columbia will also be on hand to kick off their Cultural Passport program as will the Rosewood Arts Festival and the Jam Room Music Festival to share information about their upcoming events. The event is free and open to the public.

Tish Lowe exhibition, Claire Bryant & Friends concert in Camden

Two of Jasper's favorite artists, painter Tish Lowe and cellist Claire Bryant, are featured tonight at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County, in downtown Camden.  Lowe, whose work was profiled in the Jasper 003 cover story, will be on hand for a reception from 5:30 to 7:00 PM to kick off her exhibition "Contemporary Classics" in the Bassett Gallery.   From press material:

Letitia "Tish" Lowe is an award-wining American artist whose work is represented in private collections in Europe, Canada and the United States.  Trained at the Angel Academy of Art in Florence, Italy, Lowe specializes in portrait, still life, and figurative oil paintings in classic realist style.

Lowe captured the Chairman's Choice Award for her still life, "The Pram," at the International 2007 ARC Salon, competing with over 1600 entries, and won Best of Show for her "Portrait of a Young Woman" in a citywide competition in Florence, Italy. She took an Award of Merit for her painting "Spanish Bowl" at the 2011 South Carolina State Fair and was recently invited to participate in an exhibition in Leipzig, Germany.

"A classic realist, I seek beauty in all things and paint to help people see and appreciate that beauty," says Tish. "The human  spirit and the natural world inspire my art. I view outward appearances as expressions of the spirit and strive in my paintings to reflect the essence of the subject that makes it unique."

The exhibition will be on display through November 30; details can be found at: http://www.fineartscenter.org/events/2012/10/19/tishlowe/

Then at 7 PM, Claire Bryant & Friends will perform with the Danish String Quartet.

In its fourth season, Claire Bryant and Friends is an exciting collaboration between communities, campuses, health care facilities, and arts organizations across the United States and some of New York City's most sought-after professional young artists.  South Carolina native and Artistic Director, Claire Bryant, and fellow alumni from The Academy—a program of Carnegie Hall, The Juilliard School, and the Weill Music Institute, offer innovative and collaborative community and campus residencies through Chamber Music with the intention of deepening societies' relationship with the arts and music education. These musicians are dedicated to the importance of community connection, through work in the public schools, retirement communities, health-care facilities, departments of disabilities, community centers and other venues that make up the core of our society.

Camden native and cellist Claire Bryant (featured in Jasper 004) is joined by violinist Owen Dalby, both from the newly minted and acclaimed NYC chamber music society, The Declassified.

Friday, October 19^th at 7:00 p.m. will be the main-stage event at the Fine Arts Center of Kershaw County. Claire and her friends from NYC and Denmark will culminate the week’s residency with a full-length chamber music performance, featuring an all-romantic program from Eastern Europe with works by Ernő Dohnányi, Leoš Janáček, and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  Audiences will be transported by the Hungarian folk-styles of Dohnányi’s "Serenade" for string trio, experience passion and pain during Janáček’s “Kreutzer Sonata” for string quartet, and finally, will be enveloped in the Italian sights and sounds of Russian composer Tchaikovsky’s blockbuster for string sextet, "Souvenir de Florence."  Details are at: http://www.fineartscenter.org/events/2012/10/19/claire2012/

Line-up for Jasper Volume 002, Number 001 Release Event this Thursday

If you've been hearing about the big shindig Jasper is planning to celebrate the release of the first magazine in VOLUME TWO of our little publication, then you know how excited all of us on the Jasper staff and in the Jasper Family* are. The event is this Thursday night at the Arcade Studios on Main and Washington Streets in downtown Columbia -- we'll start about 7 and proceed through the night with food, fun, adult beverages, and all kinds of art.

Here is a rundown of what to expect and when to expect it.**

7:00 -- Doors Open -- Open house in Jasper Studios #75 upstairs

7:30 -- World Premiere Film, THE CRICKET TRIAL, starring Scott Stepp and Trey King, directed by Jeff Driggers; Drew Baron, producer (Jasper Studios #75)

8:00 -- Don McCallister will be reading from his new novel, Fellow Traveler, coming in October from Muddy Ford Press   (Jasper Studios #75)

8:00 -- Countertenor Danny Jenkins will perform in the Arcade Atrium (Washington Street side)

8:30 -- Centerfold signing by surprise artist (Jasper Studios #75)

8:30 -- Marshall Brown performs (Arcade Atrium, Washington Street Side)

9:00 -- Don McAllister second reading (Jasper Studios #75)

9:30 -- THE CRICKET TRIAL second showing with repeat showings throughout the remainder of the evening (Jasper Studios #75)

9:30 -- Devils in Disguise band performs (Arcade Atrium, Washington Street Side)

Throughout the Arcade, please visit the following Arcade Studio Artists who will have their studios open at times of their own discretion during the evening:

Blue Sky     Bonnie Goldberg     Tish Lowe     Eileen Blyth     Beth West

Mike Spotts     Payton Frawley     Leah Avery     Walton Selig

Martha Thomas     Suzi Shealy     Page Morris

Bryce Dixon     Whitney LeJeune     Veronica Jeffcoat

Guest Artists from the September issue of Jasper will also be on hand showing samples of their work.

Chef Joe Turkaly will be serving up the results of the fine art of BBQ ($).

The Jasper EconoBar will be in full swing with cheap beer $3, decent wine $4, and big spender craft brew $4***

Paradise Ice will have their cart of cold sweet yumminess ($).

Artisanal jewelry and candles will be available via LA Ti Da and Southern Baked Candles.

Learn about upcoming arts events from Trenholm Artists Guild and the Rosewood Arts Festival, Columbia City Ballet, and more.

And here's one more thing --

Against the likely good advice of our friends and family, Jasper has decided to continue to put together these lovely celebrations free of charge. It's important to us that everyone be able to get in the door and experience this fascinating amalgam of performing and visual arts that we get to write about and photograph for Jasper Magazine on a daily basis.

At the end of our first year, we are delighted that issue No. 001, Volume 002 is the first issue that has paid for itself (before paying out commissions and honoraria to our talented staff of writers, photographers, and our heart-of-gold designer). We've come a long way in a year and we're very proud of the work we do.

That said, it's a labor of love.

If you love our labor and would like to pitch 10 cents or 10 bucks into the pot to help Jasper continue to grow healthy and strong, we'd like to help you do that -- and we'd like to publicly give you credit for having done so!

Please visit the Jasper Studios in the Arcade upstairs in suite #75 Thursday night and see one of our staff members about publicly supporting the arts magazine that supports your city's arts. We won't be able to put your name in lights, but we can put it in print. 

We're calling it the Jasper Guild and you can learn more about it Thursday night.

See you then!

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*We're an affectionate bunch. And sometimes when we meet another arts organization, or even an advertising client, that shares our mission of nurturing Columbia as the Southeastern arts destination it was born to be, we get all chummy with them. They become "Family."

**Please keep in mind that these times are represented (rather than in EST or DST) in CAT (Columbia Artists' Time). Our artists keep a chronograph all of their own making -- and Jasper loves this about them.

***The Jasper EconoBar is a fundraising arm of Jasper Magazine -- all prices are suggested donations. Please be prepared to show ID to partake of adult beverages.