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Art walk highlighted by Scrapel Hill awards

CloudSeriesGomes
Uni mall, scrapel hill winner

Usually, 2ndFriday Artwalks serve as a night for local galleries to put new works on display.

But this Friday featured something more unusual: the wrapping-up of the 3rd Annual Scrapel Hill art exhibit — a “green” initiative dedicated to art made from recycled materials.

At University Mall, after tallying more than 250 votes, representatives named the winner of the Scrapel Hill People’s Choice and Corporate Choice Awards.

“Cloud Series,” by local artist Nuno Gomes, is this year’s winning piece for both awards. The piece features a series of reused record album covers placed together like a jigsaw collage.

Gomes received $500 for the People’s Choice Award. As a result of the Corporate Choice Award, Gomes’s “Cloud Series” will remain in University Mall for one year. He also received a $1,000 honorarium.

“It was like putting together a big puzzle without having instructions to follow,” Gomes said. “I laid the records all out and spent a bunch of time arranging them all until I have something that feels interesting.

“As soon as I saw the records, I knew I wanted to do something with them,” he said.

Gomes said it felt great to be recognized for his artwork, and that he had worried that it might have been too abstract.

“It’s always nice when a piece can reveal itself over time, and the more you look at it the more you can get out of it,” he said.

The pieces from this year’s showcase will remain on display throughout the mall until June 25.

“The exhibit had been well-received from the public, and the interest grows each year,” said Jennifer Collins-Mancour, University Mall’s Arts Initiative Director.

With a composting class on June 13 and an information session on Orange County’s waste management system on June 20, the mall is attempting to bridge the gap between creativity and environmental efficiency, Collins-Mancour said.

“This year, we have tried to do a lot more programming around the exhibit,” she said.

While University Mall was handing out awards, the floors of 523 E. Franklin were riddled with the chalk doodles drawn by the children of residents of the Abbey Court apartment complex on Jones Ferry Road in Carrboro.

The Dream Acts exhibit features the works spearheaded by artists like Eleanor Blake. The artwork is derived from the artists’ continued interactions and collaborations with residents of Abbey Court.

“It is something for the residents that we hope they will hold for a long time,” Blake said.

The exhibit is part of the “Into the Streets: Community Arts Engagement Project,” sponsored by Chapel Hill’s Public and Cultural Arts Office and the Public Arts Commission.

Formed in the likeness of the apartment complex itself, the exhibit features various art media — from paintings and miscellaneous objects to video projections and photographs — that seek to delve into the character of the community. The works will be on display until July 9.

“This is a public showing of the project that has been months-long in the making of Abbey Court for the larger Chapel Hill and Carrboro communities to come and view,” said Lesley McBride, an intern with the Public and Cultural Arts Office.

McBride said the dynamic nature of the project gives the exhibit different value with each visit.

“You can see something once, and I’m sure you will notice something different the next time you go,” McBride said.

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Contact the Arts Editor at arts@dailytarheel.com.