7 items found for your search. If no results were found please broaden your search.
(12/07/09 6:06am)
Twelve recycled drummers stand in marching positions, 10 UNC basketball “lords” leap on a mechanical Christmas tree and two turtle doves sit in a display in the middle of the lobby.As a part of its 12th annual “Twelve Days of Christmas” month-long celebration in December, the Carolina Inn commissioned local artists to do works based on the song, “The Twelve Days of Christmas.” It also has arranged events all throughout the month to celebrate the holiday season.Each year, the inn commissions a new piece from a local artist to display in the Christmas exhibit. Past works are also included in the show.This year, textile collage artist Elaine O’Neil was the commissioned artist for the exhibit. She created a piece titled “It’s Snowing at the Carolina Inn.”O’Neil’s piece depicts the Carolina Inn surrounded by falling snow. She makes her artwork by layering and sewing together pieces of fabric. “I want my art to be happy and for people to smile when they look at it,” O’Neil said.She said she tried to capture the spirit of the Carolina Inn during Christmas time. This holiday spirit at the inn is also complimented by the work of sand sculptors Damian Hoffman and Ed Moore. The two sculptors have made sand creations at the inn every year for several years.This year’s sculpture depicts a Christmas tower with figures playing on a slide sloping down the tower.Events that celebrate art, community and Christmas time supplement the art on display at the inn. Later in the month, the inn will offer many performance art events including swing dance lessons, a tap dance show and a children’s orchestra concert. Other events include a gingerbread house competition and holiday-themed afternoon teas throughout the month.For the gingerbread competition, the inn accepts 30 entries: 15 from adults and 15 from children.Carolina Inn Marketing Manager Laurence Bézy said some of the past entries have been Chapel Hill landmarks such as fraternity houses and local stores. Winners will be announced Dec. 21.Bézy said these events and exhibits help bring people to the inn but emphasized that these events are for the community.“The Carolina Inn is a central part of Chapel Hill,” Bézy said. “This brings in people to celebrate this special time of the year.”Each year the inn also supports nonprofits in several of their events.The inn also sponsored a fundraising event for Our Children’s Place, an organization that helps children whose mothers are incarcerated, and the inn will be hosting an event, “The 12th Night Gala” to support the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.O’Neil spoke highly of the inn and said she was honored to be the commissioned artist for this year.“The Carolina Inn is such a beautiful gem on campus,” O’Neil said. “I think everybody is happy and proud to go there.”Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(11/19/09 5:38am)
(11/05/09 5:11am)
Nourish International will mix laughs with community service tonight with its second Comedy Night on Franklin Street.Nourish, a nonprofit organization and committee of the Campus Y, is hosting the event at Jack Sprat Cafe.The show will feature nine student comedians and give each person about three minutes to showcase their talent. Some of the comedians featured are members of the Chapel Hill Improv Players, a sketch comedy and improv group on campus.Comedy Night will feature some sketch comedy routines as well as some stand-up acts.“We have high-energy comedians, we have very, very low-energy comedians, but they’re all really funny — it’s going to be awesome,” said Sam Morgan, who is a liaison to comedians for Nourish and will also perform at the show.Comedy Night is one of Nourish’s business ventures. The organization partners with non profits around the world, creating and implementing sustainable development through summer projects.Profits from ventures such as the Comedy Night support these projects. “Last year we filled up to over Jack Sprat’s capacity in about 30 minutes,” said Zack Dawson, chairman of the ventures committee. Nourish raised close to $1,000 last year and had a packed house.“We don’t know what is best for any community, but these organizations that we work with are already very established in these communities and know the needs,” said Jonathan Tarleton, the co-chairman of the UNC chapter of Nourish International.“They have projects in mind and we aim to empower them with whatever sort of capital they need to implement the projects.”Between comedy routines, members of Nourish will present the audience with information about the organization and its projects.Tarleton said the group always wants to create events people want to attend because they are excited about the events, not just to support the cause.The comedy show emerged as a business venture when members of Nourish started talking to their friends, who were student comics.Student comedians said they do not have much opportunity to present their work to the community.“As far as stand-up goes, this is one of the fun ones,” Morgan said. “Last year it was incredibly fun — the show just went really well.”ATTEND THE COMEDY NIGHTTime: 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. todayLocation: Jack Sprat Cafe, 161 E. Franklin St.Info: nourishinternational.unc.edu
(11/02/09 5:48am)
Only 10 students decided to submit works in September for an exhibit in the highly trafficked Student Union gallery.Their 12 pieces are not enough to cover the long hallway, leaving large gaps along the gallery walls.“While many students complain about not having any place to showcase their work on campus, they still do not turn their work in, which makes the committee’s job harder,” said Shivani Chudasama, the art gallery coordinator of the Carolina Union Activities Board, who arranged this exhibit.Chudasama put out a call for student works in late September and installed the gallery the second week of October.“People underestimate the difficulty of what it takes to put up a really nice show. It’s not just pinning something up,” said Jeff Whetstone, an associate professor in the art department.Artwork in the Student Union cannot be insured because the gallery is more of a hallway than a closed gallery space.Student artists often need their work to be well protected and framed before put on display in the Union. Students risk having their work damaged while on display.“We had a photography show that was organized for a former student there, and a lot of his stuff got destroyed,” Whetstone said.He said some visitors had stuck objects in the art when it was on display. “It would have been one thing if it were to have been insured, but it wasn’t, so he just lost out on a lot of money.”Most of the works currently on display are not in protective coverings, but no incidents of damage have been reported.Though the current show is small, Chudasama said she has plans for the growth of the gallery in the future.“For our first show, we decided to stick just to student artwork, but in the future we hope to bring local artists and more student shows that represent our diverse student body,” Chudasama said. “Our overall goal is to make the gallery a space where students can enjoy the space and socially engage in the artwork.”Events such as an opening ceremony and gallery talks bring more attention to the pieces in the Union and allow them to be more than simply pictures on the wall.Whetstone said that the gallery should be more than just a decorative space.“It is the oldest form of cultural recording in our species,” he said of art. “But it’s also a great way to socialize over something that is fairly deep and meaningful.“I think that’s why it is important to have events around pictures.”Kerry Kelso, whose piece is in the exhibit, said submitting work was a worthwhile endeavor.Kelso said this was a good opportunity to add to her resume.“Exhibitions are a great way” to build a resume, she said. “What’s fortunate is that we have the Union gallery to do that.”Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(10/20/09 2:57am)
A new UNC exhibit works to capture the struggles and triumphs of Southern black history. The display includes such diverse items as a pair of 19th century slave shackles and a journal from the first black female student at UNC.The exhibit, “We Shall Not Be Moved: African Americans in the South, 18th Century to the Present” is on display in Wilson Library and runs through Feb. 5.Performance groups, including the Ebony Readers/Onyx Theatre will perform at a reception today to commemorate the exhibit.Biff Hollingsworth, the collecting and public programming archivist of the exhibit, said he is excited about the opening reception and activities for the exhibit.“We’ll have some spoken word pieces, and we’ll be talking about the exhibit and letting people enjoy it,” he said.The exhibit was created in part because of the relevance of black history to the University community.“The African American community, particularly on a local level, was so key to the founding and the building of the University, but a lot of people don’t know that history,” said Holly Smith, the Overholser archival fellow who helped organize the exhibit.The display materials come from the Southern Historical Collection of the library, a collection that contains about 24 million items.To raise awareness of the exhibit, the collection is hosting a series of programs including a lecture, film screening and a tour of campus highlighting black historical landmarks on campus.The archivists said they hope that visitors will connect to the exhibit.“For everyone who comes to the exhibit, each item will hopefully start a conversation with someone they’re viewing it with,” Hollingsworth said.It took nine months for the collection staff to create and organize this exhibit.“Collecting the materials was a challenge, but it was a welcome challenge because we had so much compelling material,” Smith said.She said that the entire community, not just scholars, can benefit from the exhibit.“We hope this creates some good connections and bonds with people who might not have traditionally come to archives,” Smith said.Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(09/30/09 4:06am)
Music and math met Tuesday night for “Jazz by the Numbers,” a performance by the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra.“Music is arithmetic for the soul,” said David Hartman, narrator of the show and previous host of “Good Morning America.”Every song in the show featured a number either in the title or the theme of the song.The concert was strong overall, although some performances did not convey the music’s underlying emotion.The greatest strength of the repertory orchestra was the abundance of accomplished musicians who play within the orchestra.The wind section, which had a perfect balance between the trumpets and saxophones, was the standout of the performance.The rhythm section played well but did not compare.The energy of the concert picked up with tenor saxophonists Gregg Gelb and Chad Eby. The duo made the audience want to get up and dance with “Jumpin’ at the Woodside.”The two saxophonists burst forth with an incredible blast of sound as they performed this 1930s big band piece.Vocalist Kathy Gelb lit up the stage with her beautiful voice and engaging facial expressions. From an energized improvisation in “One Note Samba” to a slow and seductive croon in “Round Midnight,” she showed a large range of talent in the concert.James Ketch, director of the orchestra and jazz studies at UNC, beautifully accompanied Gelb’s slow vocals in “Round Midnight” with his trumpet. He also moved the audience with a solo in “The Jitterbug Waltz.”Trombonist Ryan Robinson also stole the show with his solo during the Cuban-styled “23°N/82°W.”After intermission, the song “Four Brothers” beautifully showcased the talent in the jazz section. All of the saxophonists turned red in the face as they played their hearts out.Not every piece was such a rousing success. “88 Basie Street” fell flat, with the stoic pianist Ed Paolantonio leading the piece.The concert ended with strong applause following a marathon jazz solo by Chad Eby in “Diminuendo an Crescendo in Blue.”Contact the Arts Editor at artsdesk@unc.edu.
(09/22/09 1:29pm)
As a teenager he played saxophone amongst famous musicians such as Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk in Harlem. Now, Sonny Rollins is one of the last living musicians of the golden age in American jazz.