Book Presentation/Discussion--The Verdict: The Christina Boyer Case by Jan Banning @ 701 CCA

Book Presentation & Discussion:

JAN BANNING:

The Verdict: The Christina Boyer Case

Featuring Richland County Chief Public Defender Fielding Pringle

701 Center for Contemporary Art director Michaela Pilar Brown and

world-famous Dutch photographer Jan Banning

Monday, May 16, 2022

7:30 pm

Admission Free

Richland County Chief Public Defender Fielding Pringle and 701 Center for Contemporary Art director Michaela Pilar Brown will lead a conversation at 701 CCA with world-famous Dutch photographer Jan Banning during the first American presentation of his new book, The Verdict: The Christina Boyer Case. The conversation and book presentation will take place Monday, May 16, at 701 CCA.

Banning, a former 701 CCA artist in residence who has had two solo exhibitions at the center, makes the case for Boyer’s innocence in the death of her three-year-old daughter Amber in Carrollton, GA, in 1992. Boyer has been incarcerated for three decades after she accepted – under duress and after receiving poor legal representation – a prison sentence without pleading guilty to avoid a death penalty trial.

“For decades I have admired Jan Banning’s socially focused and engaging portrait projects on menial professions and human conditions otherwise ignored,” said Anne Wilkes Tucker, curator emerita of photography at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, one of many museums that has Banning’s work in its collection. “This moving book calls for what should be and could be done for Christina.”

Boyer’s “heartbreaking case infuriates me,” Tucker wrote, “but came as no surprise. Bullied and abused as a child, she is one of thousands of women without resources who weren’t believed, and had inadequate defense.”

The plight of especially poor defendants in the United States’ judicial system, in which 95 percent of cases never go to trial, will be part of the conversation with Banning. Public attorney Pringle has decades of experience representing indigent defendants.

Banning’s book presents a complex and multi-layered approach to the Boyer case. Two chapters, by Banning and Georgetown University law professor Marc M. Howard, discuss the case and the American judicial system. Photographed pages from the local newspaper provide media context and show the papers’ biased reporting on the case. “The Family Album” shows family photos of Boyer and her daughter, while another section shows hand-written pages from Boyer’s prison diaries. In “Imaginations,” Banning presents interpretive and conceptual photographs, mixing photojournalism and staged art photography, to illustrate aspects of the case, though not literally. “Christina’s Associations” presents Boyer’s written responses to Banning’s photos of the Southern environment, an environment that Boyer has not seen in person in decades.

Banning came across Boyer’s case when he was making portraits of inmates at Georgia’s Pulaski Women’s Prison for his 2016 book Law & Order: The World of Criminal Justice, which examines crime and punishment in five different countries through photos and text. Since then, Banning – by training a historian, with decades of experience as a photojournalist – has spent years researching the Boyer case, spending more than six months in the small town of Carrollton, Carroll County, and elsewhere in Georgia.

New York Emmy-winning production company Latchkey Films, contributors to the Netflix series The Innocence Files, is making a documentary about the Boyer case and Banning. Banning’s and Boyer’s exhibition about the case, The Verdict: Beyond A Reasonable Doubt?, opened in February at the Nederlands Fotomuseum, the national Dutch Photo Museum, in Rotterdam.

Banning was born in 1953, in Almelo, The Netherlands. His work has been exhibited in some 30 countries and is in the collections of many museum, including the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Atlanta’s High Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Banning has published more than a dozen books of photography. Among his books and exhibitions are Bureaucratics, about government officials in several countries, including the United States; Comfort Women, about Indonesian women forced into sexual slavery by Japan during World War II; Traces of War, about forced laborers who survived the Japanese Burma and Sumatra Railways building project during the same war; and Down and Out in the South, about homeless people in Columbia, SC, Atlanta and the Mississippi Delta. Both Bureaucratics and Down and Out were exhibited at 701 CCA, where a residency for Banning provided the impetus for and beginning of the Southern homeless project.

701 CCA is a non-profit visual arts center that promotes understanding, appreciation and enjoyment of contemporary art, the creative process and the role of art and artists in the community. The center also encourages interaction between visual and other art forms. 701 CCA is located at 701 Whaley Street, 2nd Floor, Columbia, SC 29201.

CALL for Site Specific Visual Art via Our Friends at CCA

701 CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART 

MILL DISTRICT PUBLIC ART TRAIL OPPORTUNITIES 

We were excited to hear about this unique opportunity for visual artists to break into site specific/public art offered by the good folks at 701 CCA that we wanted to help them spread the word.

Here’s what we know —

701 Center for Contemporary Art (CCA) is seeking artists to develop and execute site-specific works for five gate houses located on the grounds of the historic Granby and Olympia Mills as part of CCA’s Mill District Public Art Trail. The mills are twin Romanesque Revival style, four-story structures designed by W.B. Smith Whaley & Company - the leading mill architects of their time. Once considered two of the most architecturally significant textile mills in South Carolina, today the two massive buildings have been repurposed for residential mill living.  

The application deadline is Wednesday, March 9, 2022.

Budget 

The budget for each gate house is $3,000

Public Art Opportunities

Five gate houses located in front of the two mill buildings offer unique opportunities for site-specific works. The structures were built during WWII.  Designed to compliment the architectural elements of the mill buildings, the Olympia Mill gate houses feature arch-shaped windows and a frieze consisting of terracotta arches. The less decorated Granby Mill gate houses feature dentil brick molding and sash windows.  

The gate houses will function as changing exhibition spaces for temporary public art projects. The projects will be installed for a minimum of one year.  Each gate house is 10’x10’ with a modest interior and lighting. Access to the interior is through doors on the rear or side of each structure. The gate houses are not air-conditioned or heated. Artwork must be able to withstand extreme weather conditions. 

The exteriors of the gate houses are protected under the City of Columbia historic preservation ordinance. Attachments to the exterior are not allowed. 

Eligibility 

Artists working in media appropriate for non-conditioned environments and styles are eligible for consideration. Artists may submit individually or as a team. Artist teams must designate one artist as the lead contact. This opportunity is open to professional artists 18 and over. 

Selection Process

A panel of arts professionals will review artists qualifications and make a selection of artists who will be invited to submit a full proposal. Selections will be based on artistic merit, experience with public art commissions and/or installation art and the ability to complete and install the project by June 20, 2022.

RFQ Requirements

1. Images of up to five completed commissions/installations that demonstrate your qualifications for the project. Please include the title, medium, dimensions, year completed, location, and a short description. 

2. Artist resume demonstrating a minimum of five years of professional visual art experience. If submitting as a team, a current resume should be submitted for each team member.  Please compile resumes into one document.

3. Statement of interest in this particular Mill District opportunity

4. References that include the names and current contact information for three individuals with whom you have worked, collaborated, or who have commissioned your work in the past. References may be contacted for artists invited to develop a proposal for the commissions

   Timeline

Call for RFQ - February 9, 2022

Zoom Q&A - February 14

Zoom Q&A - February 28

Deadline for RFQ - March 12 

Panel Review & Selection - March 13

Notification to Artists - March 15

Deadline for Proposals - April 4

Finalist(s) Notification - April 8 

Finalist(s)  Interviews/Presentation of Proposals on Zoom - April 11

Notification to Finalists - April 13

Site Availability - April 14

Deadline for Installed Works - June 20

Please submit questions to Michaela Pilar Brown at director@701cca.org. Questions and answers will be posted on our website at www.701cca.org. 

PRINTWORTHY! Michaela Pilar Brown is in the Right Place at the Right Time

Reprinted from Jasper Magazine Fall 2021

by Cindi Boiter

Over the past decade, Jasper Magazine has written about Columbia-based multi-media artist Michaela Pilar Brown many times. This passage of time has witnessed Brown become a leader in our community, not only as a result of her myriad accomplishments but also by the now-international stature she commands across the most-sophisticated fine arts circles.

Brown’s career has been punctuated by a steady continuum of shows, awards, residencies, and related experiences that have helped shape the 50-something artist into the fierce icon she is becoming. Taking home the 2018 Artfields Grand Prize for her mixed-media installation She’s Almost Ready is upmost among her accolades, as is being awarded the inaugural Volcanic Residency at the Whakatano Museum in New Zealand that same year.

Born in Bangor, Maine, and raised in Denver, Brown became an influential member of the Columbia arts scene soon after she moved here in 2013. Having spent many a childhood summer visiting the Fairfield County farm where her father lived, Brown had returned to SC a dozen or so years earlier to help care for her aging family patriarch. His land and its legacies were a part of who Brown was even when the she first left home to study at Howard University in the ‘80s and ‘90s.

“Howard felt like family. My professors let me continue my work even when I couldn’t afford tuition,” Brown says. “I spent a lot of time learning outside of academia.”

Critically influenced by such trailblazing American artists as Frank Smith and Jeff Donaldson, Brown identifies world-renowned sculptor Richard Hunt as impacting her work ethic the most.

Hunt, who may be the most highly accomplished contemporary Black American sculptor and creator of public art in the country, visited Howard to install a piece of his work during Brown’s time as a student. When a piece of his art was damaged, Brown was recruited to help with the repair. A burgeoning artist-protégé relationship led to an invitation to study with Hunt for a summer in Chicago.

“I was green and just so honored,” Brown says. “He worked fervently all the time and I worked all the time,” noting that she initially wanted to make public art herself. In fact, the young artist had interned at the International Sculpture Center, part of the Washington Project for the Arts, as well as the Smithsonian Institution.

The emphasis on family and the support systems it can naturally provide had followed Brown to Howard, where the faculty became supportive elders for the young artist. The intimacy and sacredness of her ancestral home not only informed Brown as an artist but also provided her with a profound understanding of the strengths and challenges of southern Black art writ large, as well as with the workings of the local arts community specifically.

After her father died in 2007, Brown’s mother soon also came to depend on her and her brothers for what ultimately would be end-of-life care. It was a crushing loss that further strengthened Brown’s resolve to take command of her platform like never before. The artist continued to bring the roots and wings she had embraced — on her home turf, in DC, and in Chicago — into an enduring relationship with Columbia-based theatre artist Darion McCloud and his daughter more than ten years ago.

“All these experiences changed the shape of the work I was doing and what I wanted to do,” Brown says. “My work became much more personal and honest. My focus came to include what it means to me to be Black in SC, but it also focuses a great deal on love and how we grieve.”

Among her major accomplishments over the last decade has been taking on the position of executive director of 701 CCA – Columbia’s Center for Contemporary Art. 701 CCA is located on the second floor of the historic 701 Whaley Street complex and featured on page XX of this magazine.

Arguably the perfect person for this position due to her local and international profile, Brown is the first Black woman to have this role, and she handles the responsibility with a resolute intensity. “701 [CCA] has historically been a place of inclusion,” Brown says. “I am engaged in protecting that and expanding it through exhibitions, programming, community dialogue, and programs outside our walls that engage the community directly in neighborhoods and through community partnerships. … We had a challenging moment recently, and I'm proud of who we are on the other side of it. I'm proud of the public statement we made and the manner in which we supported our artist.”

Brown is referencing the night of May 17, 2021. John Sims, an artist-in-residence at the gallery was living in an apartment assigned to him in the building at 701 Whaley Street when he was accosted, handcuffed, and held at gunpoint as a “suspicious person” by the Columbia Police Department. Brown released a statement in response to the attack, saying the incident was not the first time a resident at 701 had encountered the police. “It was the first time, however, such an encounter led to hostile confrontation, detention, cuffing, and a records check. On the contrary, such previous encounters have resulted in courteous apologies from officers. The difference? Race. Mr. Sims is a Black man; the other incidents involved a white man.”

“Like other community-based, nonprofit institutions,” Brown continues in her statement, “CCA has the responsibility to shine light on injustice it encounters and to be part of an active dialogue to make real and discernible change. We cannot ignore the relationship between white supremacy that permeates our culture and the racial profiling we believe infected John Sims’ treatment by CPD officers. … What we can and will do is support the efforts of John Sims as the CCA artist in residence to tell his story, to provide context for that story through his artistic expression, and to seize the opportunity to join with him and the greater Columbia community as we continue the struggle for racial justice.”

It is Brown’s intimate knowledge of the patrons of 701 CCA and the community it supports that informs this position so well. “I am optimistic about the Columbia art scene,” she says. “This is a community that wants change, that's ready to face the challenges of the moment with art leading the discussions. I am hopeful that our politicians recognize the value of art for the betterment of this community, for the comfort it brings, for the space it makes for challenging conversations, and for the expansive learning opportunities it offers young people. I also hope they support it with dollars, and not just the legacy institutions, but in an expansive, inclusive way.”

It's JAY Season - Vote Now! VOTE HERE!

A really good year.

Every artist has one now and again. A period of time when the universe smiles upon you, life just seems to click, and you have the energy to get done all the jobs you need to do.

It’s a brilliant feeling. And we like spreading that brilliance around. That’s why we asked our readers to nominate the artists in their lives who have had one of those really good years. Then, our panel of experts took a look at the list of nominees and winnowed it down to the top three artists in each discipline who seemed to have the very best years of all.

Below, you’ll read about these 12* artists and have the opportunity to register your vote for which artist in each field should be named 2016 Jasper Artist of the Year.

Winners will be announced at the 2016 Jasper Artist of the Year Gala & Columbia Christmas Carol Lip Sync Championship on December  2nd.

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VOTE HERE!

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Literary Arts

Carla Damron’s most important work for the year was the publication of her literary novel, The Stone Necklace, by Story River Books, a division of USC Press. The Stone Necklace was also chosen as the One Book, One Community selection for February 2016 which led to multiple events and appearances, which gave Damron the opportunity to explore the intersection of art and social awareness with hundreds of people (including a presentation at the SC National Alliance for Mental Illness conference). Damron has completed approximately 30 book club presentations thus far, with more scheduled. Damron’s other works include a submission to the Jasper Project’s Marked By Water collection, monthly blogs on the Writerswhokill website, a quarterly column in the SC Social Workers newsletter, and the completion of her fifth novel, which is now in her agent’s hands.

Len Lawson’s many poetry publications this year have included the following: “Briefcase of Little Tortures,” in Up the Staircase Quarterly, “Down South,” in Charleston Currents; “I Write My Body Eclectic” in [PANK] Magazine; “Feel the Vibration: Marky Mark & the Funky Bunch, A Retrospective” in Yellow Chair Review; “Church Fan,” “Niger (Or the Country Missing a Letter,” and “When a White Man in Camden Tells You to Act Like  You Got Some Sense,” in Drunk in a Midnight Choir;  “Google Search for Black Lives Matter” in Winter Tangerine Review; “ The Black Life Anthem: Unarmed Black People Killed by Police or Dying in Police Custody Since 2012*” in Free Times; “For the Dead Whose Caskets Flowed Out of Graves After the South Carolina Flood,” “12 Year Old Inside Me Seeks a Father Figure,” “Uneasy Dreams of a Presidential Hopeful,” and “The Body is a Cave” in Connotation Press; “  George Zimmerman as Jack in Titanic Painting Trayvon Martin as Rose” and “Krack” in Public Pool; and, “The Invitation” in Get Free Books.

This year, along with R. Mac Jones, Ray McManus co-edited the anthology Found Anew: Writers Responding to Photographic Histories which was published by USC Press and nominated for the Lillian Smith Book Award. He published the following poems: “Caveman Survey,” “How Boys are Measured,” and “Manspread,” in The Good Men Project; “For the Hardest to Reach Places” in Prairie Schooner; “Dog Box,” “Disturbing Remains,” and “Staying in the Truck” in Hard Lines: Rough South Poetry from USC Press; “When a Dog Comes Back Rabid,” “We Were All Dead Once,” and “Natural Selection,” in Red Truck; “Ask Your Doctor,” “Origin of Species,” “In the Absence of Protection,” and “The Descent of Man” in The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature; and, “Ruts” in The State of the Heart Volume II, from USC Press. McManus participated in community projects that included the Tri-District Arts Consortium, The Carolina Master Scholars program, Serious Young Women Writers Workshop, Poetry Out Loud Region II Competition, High School and Middle School ABC Site Training, Word Fest Charlotte, and the Center for Oral Narrative and gave readings at Festival for the Book in Nashville; Pat Conroy Lit Fest in Beaufort: LILA Author Event in Charleston; Book Tavern in Augusta GA; Deckle Edge Literary Festival as well as Mind Gravy in Columbia; the Upcountry Lit Fest; Two Writers Walk into a Bar in Durham NC; and, the Scuppernong Book Store, Greensboro NC.

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VOTE HERE!

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Visual Arts

Kendall Jason's work this year has included quite a few multidisciplinary performance art pieces including the following at The 701 CCA South Carolina Biennial 2015 comprised of Speak to Me: "I've been mad for fucking years, absolutely years, been over the edge for yonks, been working me buns off for bands..." as well as, "I've always been mad, I know I've been mad, like the most of us...very hard to explain why you're mad, even if you're not mad" and Far away across the field, The tolling of the iron bell, Calls the faithful to their knees. To hear the softly spoken magic spells, both with reconstituted performance costumes; Lunatic on the Grass and

Breathe, a single channel video. Jason also created the "Goin Down the Road Feelin Bad" performance at Tapp’s Arts Center In conjunction with Michaela Pilar Brown, and The Transitioner Episode 1- "Who Do You Love"- 3 night performance at 701 CCA. For the Da Da Desque Exhibition 701 CCA, he created The Bags (50lbs Zombie Drawings), The Uniform (Custom Uniform for Work and Play), Episode I, Who Do You Love (Live video), and Ol' Man. He performed at Artista Vista as The Transitioner Episode 2, producing Corn hole Bags (50lbs Zombie Drawings), Extra Large Corn hole boards (Fear Vs. Fan Zombie Cheerleader drawings), and Zombie Drawings.

Among the programs that have occupied Michaela Pilar Brown’s time of late are Summer Arts Residencies in both Sedona Arts Center in Sedona, Arizona as well as one in Kunstlerwerkgemeinschaft Kaiserslautern, Germany. She also served as a visiting artist at Claflin University, Central Piedmont Community College, and at Tapp’s Arts Center, here in Columbia. She was featured in a film by Roni Nicole Henderson as well as one by Wade Sellers, and her work, Speak No’, 2011 was acquired by the Columbia Museum of Art. Her exhibitions included 15-Jahre-Künstlerwerkgemeinschaft volksbank Kaiserslautern; Artfields in Lake City; a solo exhibition and site specific performance, I’m a boss my house, at If Art Gallery; a two-woman show and site specific installation and performance called Making Time Marking Forever at Carrack Contemporary Art in Durham, NC; The Mother Wound site specific performance at Spelman College in Atlanta; Remix – Themes and Variations in African American Art at the Columbia Museum of Art; Wet Hot Southern Summer Group Exhibition at The Southern Gallery in Charleston; Where They Cut Her I Bleed – Site Specific Installation/ Solo Exhibition and Performance at Tapp’s Arts Center; The Space Between – Solo Exhibition and Performance at McMaster Gallery, University of South Carolina; Ruptured Silence Multimedia Performance and Collaboration with Wideman Davis Dance and Darion McCloud at Drayton Hall, University of South Carolina; Liquor and Watermelon Will Kill You – Solo Exhibition at Rebecca Randall Bryan Art Gallery in Conway; and Red Dirt and Doilies – Solo Exhibition at Sumter County Gallery of Art in Sumter.

Among Lauren Chapman’s accomplishments this year was winning second place in the 61st Annual USC Student Art exhibition for the painting Still, and her painting The Flood was featured at the ArtFields Festival 2016 in Lake City as well as being published in the 2016 ArtFields catalog. In May, Chapman had a joint exhibition at Tapp’s Art Center and in August she showcased 25 oil paintings in her first solo exhibition and artist talk, titled Repetitions at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, IA. Chapman was awarded the Yaghjian Studio arts scholarship at USC and received a fully funded art residency at the international center for the arts in Monte Castello, Italy which she attended in June. Finally, Chapman’s oil painting the white rabbit was selected for the "Figure Out" Planned Parenthood exhibition in August.

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VOTE HERE!

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Music Arts

If there’s a linchpin of Columbia’s jazz scene, it’s probably trumpet (and didgeridoo) player Mark Rapp. In addition to balancing a steady stream of gigs around the city with his constant national and international travel, Rapp has kept busy orchestrating a steady stream of recordings, including a long overdue set from jazz patriarch Skipp Pearson and two efforts under his The Song Project Series with guitarist Derek Bronston. And, as part of the Harbison Theatre Performance Incubator Series, Rapp teamed up with professional choreographer Stephanie Wilkins to create Woven, a unique collaboration that combines jazz and contemporary dance that stands as one of the most innovative original performance pieces created in Columbia in recent years.

Although he’s one of the most affable and easygoing artists in town, when Dylan Dickerson steps on stage with his band Dear Blanca and starts playing music that person seems to slip away. With his post-punk-meets-Hendrix approach to playing guitar and an unadorned bawl of a voice, Dickerson stands clearly out among his peers. His lyrics, pondering and painstaking, feel like anthems for twentysomethings who want to make it plain that their disaffection and distress should never be mistaken for apathy.

Dear Blanca started out slowly but over the past year seems poised to make the next step, releasing two EPs--one produced by Triangle veteran Scott Solter (Mountain Goats, St. Vincent, Spoon), the other by Charleston’s producer-of-the-moment Ryan “Wolfgang” Zimmerman of Brave Baby--that hold to Dickerson’s idiosyncratic vision of folkie Townes Van Zandt drinking at a bar with D. Boon of the Minuteman while proving that Dear Blanca is a band capable of making music every bit as captivating as their heroes.

As much as Columbia has begun to champion its hip-hop veterans like FatRat da Czar and Preach Jacobs, there’s no denying that much of the energy of the genre still lies with a powerful younger generation that is still forging its own identity. Of the newer crop of emcees in the Capital City, Justin Daniels, who raps under the moniker H3RO, is one of the best. His December release Between the Panels, despite its DIY sensibility, plays like a masterclass in how to embrace youthful swagger with a keen sense of history. His comic book motifs and love of pure bars harkens back to Wu Tang Clan; the joyful soul samples and backpack rap self-consciousness to Lauryn Hill and early-period Kanye West; and his charismatic exuberance not unlike current rapper-of-the-moment Chance the Rapper. Daniels is still hustling, but his past year suggests the sky is the limit.

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VOTE HERE!

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Theatre Arts

A perennial behind-the-scenes magic maker, Baxter Engle has served over the past year in the following productions: Marie Antoinette (Sound Design); Blithe Spirit (Scenic Design); Peter and the Star Catcher (Scenic and Props Design); American Idiot (Scenic and Video Design); and, Anatomy of a Hug (Scenic and Video Design.) In addition to handling the creative aspects of design, Engle is hands-on throughout the productions from conception to the birth of the show.

The consummate theatre man, Robert Harrelson is the executive director and owner of his own company, and all the hard work and minutiae that implies, with On Stage Productions, a non-profit theatre company in West Columbia. This year, Harrelson directed Little Shop of Horrors, Twisted Carol, Miracle in Memphis, Crimes of the Heart, and Oz: Dorothy’s Return, which he also wrote. He also teaches ongoing acting classes.

In January 2016 Hunter Boyle performed in a staged reading of Composure, a screenplay by Jason Stokes at Trustus’ Side Door Theatre, playing “Pitchfork” Ben Tillman and several other characters. Next, he performed at Trustus Theatre, where he is a Company member, in Peter and the Star Catcher, playing the roles of Mrs. Bumbrake and the mermaid called Teacher. Following that, Boyle performed with the South Carolina Shakespeare Company, where he is also a company member, playing Sir John Falstaff in The Merry Wives of Windsor. Boyle taught several Master Classes in Musical Theatre (how to tell a story through song) and Acting (how to develop/train your voice effectively for stage work) for the Trustus’ Apprentice Company, as well as a total of five classes (three classes in the fall and two classes in the spring) of Introduction to the Theatre at USC Aiken. Boyle is currently a member in good standing of the Actor’s Equity Association-the union of professional actors in the US, as well as the Screen Actor’s Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in the US. As of the nomination cut-off date, Boyle is currently rehearsing the role of Dr. Scott in The Rocky Horror Picture Show at Trustus Theatre, being directed by Scott Blanks.

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VOTE HERE!

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(*The 2016 JAY in Dance will not be awarded this year.)

5 Questions w/ Kara Gunter About Artista Vista

Jasper Visual Arts Editor Kara Gunter is one of the artists showing her work at tonight's Artista Vista. We asked her to give us a little preview of what she has in the works.

JASPER:  What are we going to be seeing from you at Artista Vista this year and where and when will we be seeing it?

KARA GUNTER: I have installed a work in the Lady St. tunnel in the Vista of six hanging, cocoon-like figures.  All are a deep blue, human in form, with a light in each head that will glow brighter as the sun sets.  The pieces are cast from a live model, and layered over with paper and adhesive.  I call them Head Lamps.  Artista Vista opens Thursday the 21^st, and continues through the weekend.

JASPER:  How does this fit into your ongoing body of work?

KARA:  My work is always about Self, but specifically, I have been thinking a lot about the corporeality of the human body.  I have dealt with a lot of nebulous health problems throughout my life –nothing life-threatening, but disruptive, and at times, scary-- I come out on the other end having learned something about myself, and who I want to be in this world.  I always try to transform these times of suffering into some sort of evolution or integration of bigger feelings and ideas.  The cocoon is a recurring symbol for me and obviously speaks of rebirth, of change, and personal and spiritual growth.  I chose the tunnel to install in, as it is literally a passage from darkness into light.  Great things happen in the dark—sleep, dreaming, healing, gestation, change, but it can also be a lonely and frustrating experience, and one in which waiting is the only course of action.

I’m also turning 40 this year, and having had the experience these past months of helping my father through a cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment, I feel as though I’ve “leveled up” as an adult, albeit, reluctantly.  So, that evolution has also been on my mind—what awaits my post-40 self?  I’m thinking it’s an intellectual shift that’s occurring, and that’s referenced in the glowing heads.  Even though my body may not be as hearty as I wish, I feel as though I’m operating with the clearest, strongest, most creative mind I’ve ever had, and there’s something very rewarding about that.  There’s also a bit of an inquiry posed to the viewer—will you come with me?  In an era when emotions are ruling us (as seen in our social-political stances), I wonder if it’s not time to leave those childish things behind and let our intellect guide us from darkness.  Time to grow up, in some respects!

JASPER:  Is there a relationship between your Artista Vista work and the work you're showing at Artfields next week, and can you talk briefly about the similarities or differences?

KARA:  There is definitely a similarity between the work I’m showing at Artfields and Artista Vista.  Stylistically, they are a bit different, but they both utilize the human figure, and both speak to the fragility of the human body.  Rising In Falling, the installation at Artfields is more pointedly about death and dying.  Those figures are in a freefall, but can also appear to be floating gently by paper parasols, so perhaps they are floating instead of plummeting.  I leave the interpretation up to the viewer, and the viewers’ own associations with the process of living or dying.  I wanted to depict the inevitability of the cycle of death and rebirth, and the dependency of life on death itself.  The bottom figure in the installation is holding a skull, and out of it pours flowers and fruits.

JASPER:  What are the challenges of installing art in a tunnel?

KARA:  Working out a way to hang the figures in the tunnel was a bit of a challenge, and I had to revamp my original vision several times.  There are large niches in the wall where it seems as if the mortar has crumbled away from the bricks over time, and because I didn’t want to put bolt holes in the stone or mortar, it became apparent this was the only way to hang the forms.  The overall installation was dictated by these niches, and I really had no idea what the layout was going to be until installation.

The wind blows pretty swiftly through the tunnel, and I was worried about this until I saw the figures swaying in the wind.  I really like this unexpected development as it brings life to the figures, and at the same time, a loneliness and eeriness.

I’m always a bit nervous about public installations.  There is something about art being outside of the gallery setting, that the viewer feels more inclined to interact with the work. That’s not always a bad thing, and I suppose it can be a bit confusing because some works are meant to be interacted with.  Because my work is often made of more fragile things (like paper), I sometimes find it all a bit nerve-wracking!

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JASPER:  Finally, what else are you excited about seeing at Artista vista this year?

KARA:  Michaela Pilar Brown has curated this year’s installations, and I’m very excited to see what the other artists she’s chosen will be doing.  I’ve been so busy with my work, I have no idea what to expect from everyone else, and I really look forward to the surprise!

New Work from Michaela Pilar Brown by Alivia Seely

Michaela Pilar Brown brings her installment piece titled “Where They Cut Her I Bleed” to the Tapp’s Art Center, with an opening reception on Thursday, January 7.

This installment is a part of a three part body of work titled “Mother Wound.” Each installment explores Brown’s residential research project of generational trauma and violence against black women. “I take the exploration of violence and the empathy, or lack thereof, of the greater population and study the current movements in social justice, including black lives matter,” says Brown.

The exhibition will be presented in two dimensional, three dimensional and performance art. The piece will feature many materials like paper, fabric, cast plaster, sound objects and much more.

With a degree in sculpture and art history from Howard University, Brown is able to take her studies and her passion of narratives and fuse the past and present of “age, race, gender, sexuality and history. ... All of my work over the last ten years has had to do with issues of black women. I take frames of the vision of the black female body in the current culture,” says Brown.

Brown has always immersed herself in arts culture and objects, having “cut [her] teeth in the halls of the museum where [her] mother worked.” Her exhibitions have been shown in Washington D.C. and throughout the state of South Carolina. Brown has also done non-profit work and work in arts education. Now she resides in Columbia, South Carolina.

Brown is also an Artist in Residence at Tapp’s Art Center. “Tapp’s has provided me to work in an area outside my own house. It provides me a bit of isolation and to think without the pressure of producing a final object, and it gives me the opportunity to explore and experiment,” says Brown.

Following this exhibition opening, Brown will also perform Mother Wound live January 21 at McMaster Gallery. The live performance will feature sounds, video projection and body markings. It may also contain nudity and provocative subject matter.

Brown encourages her audience to consider their personal experiences in order to fully immerse themselves in the piece and to have conversations with one another.

The reception starts at 6 p.m. at Tapp’s Art Center. For more information about Brown or to see pictures of her previous work, visit her website michaelapilarbrown.blogspot.com.

Third Annual Figure Out: A Figurative Nude Art Show brought to you by Planned Parenthood and Tapp's Arts Center

 

Tapp's Arts Center (1644 Main St.) will continue its partnership with Planned Parenthood South Atlantic by joining with local artists to celebrate the human figure. A fundraiser in its third year, Figure Out will include painting, drawing, sculpture, mixed media, film and photography.

The exhibition will include a special wall of art by Leslie Pierce. Pierce, who passed away earlier this year, was a volunteer and director of adult programming and partnerships at Columbia Museum of Art. She was a beloved supporter of the arts in Columbia who became involved in Figure Out in 2013, as an exhibiting artist and as a committee member.

In addition to special events surrounding the show, Figure Out will be on exhibit throughout the month of September at Tapp’s. This show is curated by Molly Harrell and Billy Guess. Proceeds from art sales support the work of Planned Parenthood South Atlantic.

Figure Out Special Events

•       Wednesday, Sept. 2, 5:30-7 p.m.: Sponsor/ artist reception

•       Thursday, Sept. 3, 6-10 p.m. (during First Thursday on Main): Figure Out opening night.

•       Wednesday, Sept. 16, 12 – 1:30 p.m.: Panel discussion and lunch on Art & Sexuality. A light lunch will be provided for attendees who register in advance by contactingwill.bigger@ppsat.org.

More than 40 artists will participate and have pieces on display as part of Figure Out, including Michaela Pilar Brown, Sarah Madison Brown, Billy Guess, Ron Hagell, Molly Harrell, Whitney LeJeune, Dre. Lopez, Gwynn Pevonka, Kirkland Smith and Dalvin “Mustafa” Spann.

For more information about Tapp’s Arts Center, visit www.tappsartscenter.com or call (803) 988-0013.

About Tapp’s Arts Center Tapp’s Arts Center is the premier contemporary art center in downtown historic Columbia. Tapp’s is a gathering place for creative exploration and is dedicated to bridging connections in creativity by offering workshops, classes, affordable studio rentals, exhibition space and cultural events to help artists and art enthusiast create, learn and grow.

About Planned Parenthood South Atlantic Each year Planned Parenthood South Atlantic serves thousands of women, men, and teens. Planned Parenthood South Atlantic provides high-quality, nonjudgmental, reproductive healthcare and medically accurate, age-appropriate sexuality education. Our services include vital life-saving cancer screenings, STD/STI prevention, testing and treatment and access to safe, legal and ethical abortion services.

Columbia Museum of Art has a Busy September Planned

 

From Marilyn to Mao: Andy Warhol's Famous Faces

On View in the Lipscomb Family Galleries through Sunday, September 13

The CMA presentsFrom Marilyn to Mao: Andy Warhol's Famous Faces, a thematically focused look at the artist's influential silkscreens and his interest in portraits.Andy Warhol (1928-1987) is central to the pop art movement and one of the best-known 20th-century American artists. From Marilyn to Mao uses 55 of Warhol's acclaimed portraits to explore pop art's tenet of the cult of celebrity, the idea that pop culture adores the famous simply because they are famous. Warhol exploited society's collective obsession with fame like no artist before or after him. The exhibition celebrates the Mao suite, an anonymous gift to the CMA of the complete set of 10 silkscreens Warhol created in 1972 of Mao Zedong, chairman of the Communist Party of China from 1949 to 1976.

Warhol first gained success as a commercial illustrator before becoming a world-renowned artist. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, celebrity culture, and advertisement that flourished by the 1960s-concepts he continued to examine throughout his career. His art forms a mirror of the rise of commercialism and the cult of personality. He was not a judge of his subjects as much as a talented impresario who brought thousands of people into the pantheon of fame, if only for fifteen minutes. Some, such as Marilyn Monroe, got a few more minutes.

In addition to Marilyn Monroe and Mao Zedong, the exhibition includes the faces of Judy Garland, Muhammad Ali, Sigmund Freud, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Albert Einstein, Annie Oakley, Theodore Roosevelt, Giorgio Armani, and Superman, as well as two self-portraits by Warhol, to name a few. The majority of the works outside of the CMA's Mao suite are loaned by the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Penn. The CMA has also secured a partnership loan with Bank of America to borrow seven pieces from their collection. The run of the exhibition is filled with an array of related evening and daytime programs for adults and families.

Identity

On View in the Community Gallery through Sunday, September 27, 2015

Warhol interrogated the concept of identity, which remains at the core of the American experience. From Marilyn to Mao: Andy Warhol's Famous Faces provides the broader community the opportunity to both appreciate the enduring qualities of his art and to question the nature of fame and identity. How do we understand fame and identity in relation to others or to our own sense of self? Can we, like certain celebrities, politicians, or artists, remake ourselves? How are these concepts a part of the 21st-century experience? The Identity exhibition, a community gallery show whose opening coincides with Arts & Draughts on August 14, attempts to address and perhaps offer answers to these broad questions. The CMA has invited four established Columbia artists - Michaela Pilar Brown, Ed Madden, Betsy Newman, and Alejandro García-Lemos, who have each chosen one or more artists to mentor. Together each group creates a work or installation that responds to the questions of identity raised in the Warhol exhibition.

The Art of Joseph Norman

On View in Gallery 15 through Sunday, January 10, 2016

African-American artist Joseph Norman is a Chicago native whose lithographs mesmerize the viewer with an exploration of dark human emotion and raw commentary on black life in America. The Art of Joseph Norman introduces two complete print portfolios: Out at Home: The Negro Baseball League, Volume I, and Patti's Little White Lies. While Norman's work is said to be concerned with social injustice, inequality, and conflict, it is equally about love, transformation, and self-reflection. T

Gallery Tour: From Marilyn to Mao: Andy Warhol's Famous Faces

Saturday, September 5 & 12 | 1:00 p.m.

A guided tour provides an overview of the Gladdddthematically focused exhibition, From Marilyn to Mao: Andy Warhol's Famous Faces, featuring 55 of Warhol's famous portraits to explore pop art's tenet of the cult of celebrity, the idea that pop culture adores the famous simply because they are famous. Free with membership or admission.

Gallery Tour: Highlights of the CMA Collection

Every Sunday | 2:00 p.m.

Free

A guided tour provides an overview of European and American art in the CMA collection. This family-friendly tour features masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance, Baroque, and Rococo from the Samuel H. Kress Collection and the American galleries.

Gladys' Gang: Join us for this popular series! Gladys' Gang is a free, early childhood arts and literacy program for ages 2-5 that focuses on preparing children for kindergarten. Using art as a guide, children and their adult caregivers enjoy story time and a visit to the galleries followed by a hands-on art project in the CMA studios. The program is held the first Wednesday of each month from 10:00 until 11:00 a.m.  Spaces are limited. Reserve your free spot in Gladys' Gang at columbiamusuem.org

I'm a Little Teapot or Coffee Pot

Wednesday, September 2 | 10:00 - 11:00 a.m.

Join us for some stories and songs and visit to the galleries to find some tea and coffee pots followed by art time in the studios where we will work together to decorate a tea pot.

Baker and Baker presents: Beethoven Cello Sonatas with A.W. Duo

Friday, September 4, and Saturday, September 5

Doors at 6:00 p.m. | Concert at 7:00 p.m.

2015 is the year of Beethoven for the A.W. Duo-Alyona Aksyonova on piano and James Waldo on cello. During their two-night stint at the CMA, the duo plays the complete cello sonatas. In the spring of 2014, the duo went on its second regional tour of the southeast, during which their performance at Church of the Good Shepherd in Columbia, SC was recorded by SCETV South Carolina Public Radio. This past summer, the duo had its debut at Alice Tully Hall with the ICN International Music Festival and made its first appearance with the Highland-Cashiers Chamber Music Festival in North Carolina. Cash bar. Both nights: $25 / $20 for members / $5 per night for students. Single night: $15 / $12 for members.

About Face Drawing Sessions

Mondays, September 7 & 21: Topics vary | 10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.

Tuesdays, September 8 & 22:

Portrait Drawing | 6:00 - 8:00 p.m.

Figure Drawing | 7:15 - 9:15 p.m.

Looking for a supportive and friendly environment to hone your artistic skills? About Face Drawing Sessions are for you! There's no instructor, but there is a group of inspired artists, representing a wide range of abilities, who love to draw from the live model. Must be 18 or older to participate. Mondays: $12 / $10 for members / $5 for students. Tuesdays: $10 / $8 for members / $5 for students. Includes both sessions.

Passport to Art: Set the Table

Sunday, September 13 | Noon - 3:00 p.m.

Create a still life collage using a variety of different materials during this free drop-in open studio for families. Enjoy a self-guided tour or join the family-themed tour at 1:00 p.m. Free.

Dinner in White

Sunday, September 13

Cocktails at 6:00 p.m. | Dinner at 7:00 p.m.

Based on the incredible Diner en Blanc events that have popped up in cities around the globe, Chef Ryan Whittaker and 116 Espresso and Wine Bar are excited to present their own Dinner in White here at the CMA. The museum transforms into Warhol's factory for a totally unique dining experience. Come dressed in all white and bring an item for Warhol-inspired table decoration; the table with the centerpiece that pops the most will win a prize basket. Enjoy cocktail hour in our mod '60's lounge, then indulge in a multiple-course dinner inspired by the works in the Warhol exhibition. All proceeds go toward supporting the CMA educational mission. $120 / $100 for members. See the CMA website for details on discounted pricing for groups of 4 or 8.

Contemporaries' Oktoberfest

Thursday, September 17 | 5:30 - 8:30 p.m.

Come and enjoy a fun-filled evening of music, brats, and beer. $20/$5 for Contemporaries members.

CMA Jazz on Main: Trumpeter & Vocalist Joe Gransden: Songs of Sinatra and Friends

Friday, September 18 | Doors 7:00 p.m. | Concert 7:30 p.m.

Clint Eastwood referred to Joe Gransden as "a young man with an old soul and a classic voice."  On September 18, Joe brings that classic voice (as well as some smoking trumpet playing) to the CMA as he kicks off the third season of the Jazz on Main concert series. A native of New York, Joe Gransden has become one of the premier performers in the Southeast.  On the heels of a new release entitled "Joe Gransden: Songs of Sinatra and Friends," Joe joins the Noel Freidline Trio for an evening of music from "ol' blue eyes" himself, as well as other Rat Pack era greats such as Dean Martin and Tony Bennett. Individual Tickets: $35 / $28 members / $5 students. Season Tickets: $140 / $100 members. Premier Table Seating: $300 for 6 guests & 2 bottles of wine, $200 for 4 guests and 1 bottle of wine. Purchase tickets at columbiamuseum.org or (803) 799-2810. Presented by Family Medicine Centers of South Carolina.

ArtBreak

Tuesday, September 22 | Café 10:30 a.m. | Lecture 11:00 a.m.- Noon

ArtBreak is a program that looks at art through a different lens. Each session features a speaker who gives insight into their worldview by sharing their interpretation of works of art at the CMA. This month, begin the morning at the museum with pastries and coffee sold at the pop-up café by Drip followed by a talk from Pam Bowers, USC professor of Studio Art, who discusses nature in art. Free with membership or admission.

En Plein Air Oil Painting Workshop

Saturday, September 26 | 8:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m.

Join The CMA, Congaree Land Trust, and artist David Phillips at Goodwill Plantation for a unique art and history experience. $45 bring your own art supplies/$75 includes art supplies. Box lunch included. Information and registration: congareelt.org or 803-988-0000

Warhol Community Gallery Salon

Sunday, September 27 | Noon

Free

The community gallery show, Identity, features artwork that responds to the questions of celebrity and identity raised in the Warhol exhibition.  The CMA welcomes two of the four Columbia artists, Michaela Pilar Brown and Ed Madden, along with the young artists they've chosen to mentor and collaborate with, to discuss their work.

Happy Birthday to Arts & Draughts AND The Whig!

 

The Columbia Museum of Art hosts the 21st installment of its Arts & Draughts series onFriday, August 14, from 7:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. The CMA's quarterly night of beer, music, and art activities is also celebrating The Whig's 10^th anniversary with tons of things to do. "Having a program still thriving and growing after five years says so much about how Columbia has responded to this idea, and we're excited to celebrate this milestone with the strongest installment to date," says Phil Blair, owner of The Whig. "We've got an incredible exhibit, paired with the most genuinely talented musicians and wonderful human beings we know in this all local lineup, and a beer we made ourselves with the first brewery to ever participate in Arts & Draughts. Without a doubt this is the way we want to recognize our long standing relationship with the CMA and our 10 years of being in business on Main Street."

• Taste local food and drinks by The Wurst Wagen, Bone-In Artisan Barbecue on Wheels, Island Noodles, and Sweet Cream Co. The Whig's 10th Anniversary Ale brewed by Redhook debuts and a beer tasting of Kona Brewing Company's Big Wave Golden Ale is also featured.
• Live music is provided by Jade Janay Blocker, Bologna Eyes, Mustache Brothers, and Say Brother.

The CMA is also going all out with DIY and creative activities inspired by the exhibition From Marilyn to Mao: Andy Warhol's Famous Faces. "There's a lot of art in this Arts & Draughts. We really wanted to celebrate Warhol - both his ideas and his aesthetic," says Adult Programs Manager Glenna Barlow. "At our DIY station you'll be able to make your own Warhol-style piece with a simplified printing process and contemporary celebrity faces. We want to explore the question 'Who would Warhol be depicting if he were still around today?' Beyond that you can make your own digital selfie with a screen printing app and take a picture in our photo booth inspired by Warhol's famous factory." Guests can also get their own "15 minutes of fame" as Multimedia Production Coordinator Drew Baron records candid personal responses to the exhibition.

The night also marks the opening of Identity in the Community Gallery. Identity, featuring works by Michaela Pilar-Brown, Ed Madden, Betsy Newman, Alejandro Garcia-Lemos, and each artist's chosen protégé. Artist groups are:

Betsy Newman

Alice Wyrd

O.K. Keyes

Michaela Pilar Brown

Ariel Flowers

Roni Nicole Henderson

Ed Madden

Alexis Stratton

Alejandro García-Lemos

Mary Robinson

Anna Velicky

Kyle Alston

Kaitlyn Shealy

Identity is a collection of collaborative works or installations that seek to answer the enduring questions posed by Warhol's themes of fame, celebrity, and the public persona.

Admission is $9; $5 for CMA members, or become a member that night and get in for free!

For more information, visit columbiamuseum.org

Art from the Ashes Book Launch and Gallery Opening on February 1st at Tapp’s - A JASPER Project

 

Over the course of four evenings in the summer of 2014, more than two dozen literary, visual, and musical artists gathered in the Jasper Magazine office with experts on the February 17^th, 1865 burning of Columbia. The artists immersed themselves in the events that took place the night of the burning as well as the days and nights leading to and immediately following it. Six months later, their inspirations have come to fruition in a multi-disciplinary series of arts events – Art from the Ashes.

Art from the Ashes: Columbia Residents Respond to the Burning of Their City is a collection of poetry, prose, and even a screenplay by some of Columbia, SC’s most dynamic writers, including Ed Madden, Tara Powell, Ray McManus, Susan Levi Wallach, Tom Poland, Al Black, Jonathan Butler, Rachel Haynie, Debra Daniel, Will Garland, Betsy Breen, and Don McCallister. Edited by Jasper Magazine’s Cynthia Boiter, it is a publication of Muddy Ford Press and the first in the press’s new series, Muddy Ford Monographs.

In concert with the book launch, Art from the Ashes: The Gallery will open on the same evening, also at Tapp’s, and will run throughout the month of February. Participating visual artists include Susan Lenz, Kirkland Smith, Christian Thee, Michael Krajewski, Jarid Lyfe Brown, Whitney LeJeune, Mary Bentz Gilkerson, Cedric Umoja, Michaela Pilar Brown, Alejandro Garcia-Lemos, and Kara Gunter.

Join us as we celebrate the book launch and gallery opening from 5 – 7 pm. Visual artists will be on hand to answer questions about their work and literary artists will be signing and reading from their writings. Musician Jack McGregor, who created a three movement musical composition in response to the burning, will premiere his work as well.

Additional events include a Visual Artists Panel Presentation on Thursday, February 5^th at 7 pm and a Reading and Book Signing on February 17^th at 7 pm, followed by a concert by Columbia-based musical artist, the Dubber.

All events take place at Tapp’s Arts Center on Main Street and are free and open to the public

bittersalt bittersweet -- Michaela Pilar Brown's new performance art opens this Thursday at 701 CCA

 

Michaela Pilar Brown's 

bittersalt bittersweet

Thursday, December 19, 2013, 7;00 p.m. 

701 Center for Contemporary Art -701 Whaley Street, 2^nd Floor

Admission Free

Performance: “the most immediate art form… for it means getting down to the bare bones of aesthetic communication—art/ self-confronting audience/ society.”—Lucy Lippard

Performance art is a generic term that encompasses such styles as conceptual art, body art, and feminism, as well as very specific art movements like Fluxus and Viennese Actionism. The style gained popularity in the 1960s when visual artists began abandoning the object for a more direct mode of expression. Subverting linear theatrical narratives for spontaneous and honest interaction with audiences in response to social and political concerns connect the artworks placed within this classification.

Parallels can be drawn between Michaela Pilar Brown’s performance, Bittersalt Bittersweet, and a myriad of influential performance pieces including Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece (1964) and Marina Abramović’s The Artist Is Present (2010). Her piece also follows in the tradition of African-American artist Adrian Piper’s conceptual work that first brought race and gender into the conversation, as well as the Kara Walker and Lorna Simpson’s deconstruction of stereotypes. The strength of this performance is that it combines elements of all of the aforementioned sources. Here, Brown forces participants to engage on an intimate level with her, while having to make difficult decisions about her, which have the potential to elicit unexpected responses in both the sitter and audience. Challenging inappropriate modes of representation of marginalized people, Brown stages the performance within a tent, clearly referencing P.T. Barnum’s commodification and exploitation of Joice Heth. The setting also works in concert with sideshow exhibits featuring “exotic” peoples from other countries. The Dahomey Village, one of the Midway attractions at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition nicknamed “The White City,” comes to mind and reinforces the Baudelairian voyeurism made prominent by Barnum. Looking from past to present, Brown’s work is analogous with Coco Fusco and Guillermo Gómez-Peña whose performance, Two Undiscovered Amerindians Visit the West (1992), blurred the lines between fiction and reality. The stereotypes personified were sometimes believed to be historically accurate, sometimes feared for the anxiety-inducing unknown of what the performers might do, and sometimes irritating because of the overt commentary on racism and oppression. Bittersalt Bittersweet continues the debate about race in America, but it is more focused on the treatment of women. On an even deeper level, this performance is a personal exploration into the psyche of the artist as she rejects societal definitions ascribed to African-American women for the preferred titles of daughter, sibling, partner, lover, caregiver, and role model.

By Lana A. Burgess, Ph.D.

Faculty Curator, McKissick Museum

University of South Carolina

Announcing the Jasper 2013 Artists of the Year Finalists in Dance, Music, Literary Arts, Theatre, and Visual Arts

With a total of 55 nominations, 20 adjudicators, and over 10 hours of deliberation behind us, Jasper Magazine is pleased to announce our top three finalists for the honor of

Jasper 2013 Artists of the Year

in

Dance, Music, Literary Arts, Theatre, and Visual Arts.

 ~

~Dance~

Wayland Anderson

Erin Bolshakov

Terrance Henderson

~Music~

Phillip Bush

FatRat da Czar

The Restoration

~Literary Arts~

James Barilla

Janna McMahan

Aida Rogers

~Theatre~

Bobby Bloom

Terrance Henderson

Vicky Saye Henderson

~Visual Arts~

Michaela Pilar Brown

Thomas Crouch

Philip Mullen

~~~

The above 15 artists were among 55 artists nominated by their peers and fans. Based on the information submitted with the nominations, a panel of judges selected the top three artists in each category to compete for the title

Jasper 2013 Artist of the Year.

Now the fun begins!

You’re invited to vote for your choice for Jasper 2013 Artist of the Year in each of the five categories by visiting Jasper's website

starting on Wednesday, September 25th.

There, you’ll find summaries of each artist’s accomplishments for the period of

September 15, 2012 – September 14, 2013.

The winners of Jasper 2013 Artist of the Year in Dance, Literary Arts, Music, Theatre, and Visual Arts will be announced on November 21, 2013 at the release of Jasper Magazine V. 003, N. 003 during Vista Lights. All 15 artists will be featured in the same issue of Jasper Magazine.

Go to www.JasperColumbia.com

and vote for your choice of Jasper 2013 Artist of the Year starting on Wednesday, September 25th

Voting ends on midnight, October 20th, 2013.

Stand a Little Taller: Photography from the Portraits of Promise - guest blog by Jacqueline Adams

Stand a Little Taller: Photography from the Portraits of Promise summer arts program with Girls Incorporated of Greater Columbia and Columbia College – guest blog by Jacqueline Adams

How do community-based arts collaborations and partnerships get started? I can tell you, it’s not always by a formal process of invitation.  Often times, it’s more of a casual affair, one that takes place in the ease of a restaurant, a cozy dinner gathering, or a friendly meeting amongst those integral players of pursuit. In my arts administration graduate program this practice known as “friendship with a purpose,” is most often the origin for such dynamic arts endeavors.

In 2011 I embarked on a three-year arts partnership between Columbia College and Girls Incorporated of Greater Columbia that started over a warm brunch at one of Columbia’s favorite local dining establishments, The Original Pancake House.  Vivian Gore, Executive Director of a local Girls Inc. that serves girls ages 6-18 from the Greater Columbia area, invited me to dine and talk about the possibility of creating an arts program between Columbia College and GIGC.

The Girls Inc. mission, to inspire all girls to be Strong, Smart, and Bold, is a thriving national organization where the Honorary Board Chair is First Lady, Michelle Obama.  Not too shabby.  Additionally, national Girls Inc. programming is research-based and covers areas such as economic and media literacy to leadership and community action, among others. The more I learned about Girls Inc. the more appealing it was to create a partnership.

Back to brunch. Devouring my favorite OPH crepe, Gore, early in the meal, became very purposeful and direct as she spoke passionately about her vision to bring GIGC and CC together through the arts.  Based on my previous volunteer work with GIGC and as coordinator of the college‘s Goodall Gallery, Gore identified me as the person she entrusted to build this partnership. Throughout our meal, I appreciated the depth and potential of Gore’s proposal, and accepted the request to design and develop an arts partnership program.

One year later, over the summer of 2012, the two-week arts program we developed, Portraits of Promise (POP!), had taken place and culminated with a glowing performance and show of works.  The program taught classes in photography and dance by three professional artist-educators: Michaela Pilar Brown (photography), LaQuannia Lewis (dance), and Monessa Salley (dance) to 15 girls, ages 10-16.  The program also included a mentoring experience where each girl’s potential career paths were matched with a local, professional women working in fields that spanned broadcasting and the arts, to medicine and law.

The overall mission of the POP! arts program was to explore and create original dance and photography works that identified and valued the power of promise existing within a girl and the shared relationships within her community.

The exhibit entitled, Stand a Little Taller, features the photography works from the 15 girls who participated in POP! along with a series of mentor photography by Michaela Pilar Brown, who encouraged the girls to take ownership over the show by naming the exhibit themselves.  The show’s title, Stand a Little Taller, is a line from the Kelly Clarkson song, “Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)”. I later listened to the song and its lyrics and can understand why the students were inspired by Clarkson’s music; it is a positive force of encouragement to be strong, smart, and bold.

Michaela Pilar Brown, the program’s photography instructor, is a powerful contemporary female artist in her own right.  Brown’s own professional work, which includes a repertoire of photography, sculpture, mixed media, and installation, delves into ideas and concepts around identity, especially for females and their relationships to the self, community and society.  Brown’s goal in the program was to “teach students to see, to take in their environments in a comprehensive way and to process the information…that allowed them to communicate visually, to become storytellers.  We hope students learned to value their own voice and to find agency in one’s own ability to communicate their needs, dreams...their stories.”

On the evening of Friday, February 22, the gallery hosted a reception for the 15 students, inviting them back for a formal showing of their work. Seeing these young ladies back together was like a reunion, and had solidified the outcome of a successful community-based arts partnership. The girls had grown much more comfortable in themselves and in the learning they had gained during POP! The shy and reserved nature I had witnessed last summer was replaced by glowing smiles, growing confidence and genuine conversations about their promising futures under the warm spotlight of having their creative selves on display.

“Stand a Little Taller: Photography from the Portraits of Promise summer arts program with Girls Incorporated of Greater Columbia and Columbia College” opens February 20 with works on view through Sunday, March 24. The exhibition and reception are free and open to the public.  The Columbia College Goodall Galley is located inside the Spears Center for the Arts at 1301 Columbia College Drive in downtown Columbia off of North Main Street. Gallery Hours are Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 p.m. For further information about exhibits please visit www.columbiasc.edu or call (803) 786-3899. For more information about Girls Incorporated of Greater Columbia please visit GIGC on Facebook.

The Making and Celebrating of Jasper #3 - What to Expect

When we started planning Jasper #3 we looked at the date the magazine was due and thought -- really? Would anyone really be interested in a new issue of an arts magazine so early in the year -- so close to Christmas? Having increased the size of Jasper #2 by 8 pages we thought that maybe we should ease back for #3 and go back to our original 48 pages. We also thought it would be a good idea to make the issue somewhat literary heavy, given that so many folks would still be in that holiday state of mind in the middle of January, and not much would be going on in the performing or visual arts. So we thought.

It didn't take long for us to realize that there was way too much going on to reduce the pages of the magazine -- in fact, we increased them even more. Jasper #3 will be 16 pages longer than Jasper #1. But the fascinating thing about putting together a magazine that is reflective of the arts community it represents is how organic the whole process is. For example, our choices of cover artist and centerfold artist easily gave way to our choice of venue for the celebration of the release. Our Jasper Reads story led us to our choice for Guest Editorial. An essay written by an esteemed visual artist on how social service can act as a muse for creation directed us to another story on a local theatre troupe that we quickly made room for and wrote. Our story on Columbia's choral arts scene suggested an obvious choice for entertainment at our release event. Things like that.

The other thing that surprised us was just how much would be going on in the performing and visual arts community this early in the calendar year.

This week has been packed already with an abundance of diverse and stimulating art. Tuesday night we had the opportunity to visit Tom Law's Conundrum concert hall and sit in on Jack Beasley's The Weekly Monitor, which hosted Elonzo, Magnetic Flowers, and Henry Thomas's Can't Kids.

Magnetic Flowers blew us away, by the way, and we've listened to their new CD 4 times in the last 24 hours. For more on Magnetic Flowers, read Kyle Petersen's story in Jasper #3. We were also pretty charmed by the raw almost 80s sounding tunes of the Can't Kids. I look forward to hearing what Kyle has to say once he gets a chance to listen to their new CD.

Wednesday night saw us attending the opening reception for Thomas Crouch's new show in the Hallway Gallery at 701 Whaley. We're pretty big Crouch fans already, and it was great to see some of his new work and to meet his mom, duly proud of her boy. Kudos to Lee Ann Kornegay and Tom Chinn for making blank wall space meaningful. We  hope to see more and more businesses do the same. There is no shortage of art to hang on Columbia's walls.

Which brings us to Thursday night -- the celebration of the release of Jasper #3 as well as Night #1 in Columbia Alternacirque's 3-Night Festival of Doom. We hate missing this first night of the only kind of circus we're ever interested in seeing, but we're reassured that there are two more nights of awesomeness we can avail ourselves of AND Ms. Natalie Brown -- the mother of the tribe -- will be visiting us down at the Arcade as soon as she's off the boards at CMFA Thursday night. For more on Natalie Brown, read Cindi's article on her in Jasper #3.

Much like this issue of the magazine our release event scheduled for Thursday night has grown far beyond our initial intentions. Rather than being a quiet evening of acoustic music and intellectual conversation, as we thought it might be, it has turned into a multi-disciplinary arts event.

Here's what to expect:

• 7 - 7:15 -- a performance from the balcony of the Arcade Building by the Sandlapper Singers (Read Evelyn Morales's piece on them and the rest of the choral arts scene in Jasper #3)
• 7:15 - 7:30 -- Kershaw County Fine Arts Center will perform three of your favorite songs from the musical Chicago
• 7:30 - 7:45 -- the NiA Theatre Troupe will perform
• 7:45 - 8 and throughout the evening, a young acoustic guitarist named David Finney will play classical guitar
• then, starting about 8 pm rock 'n' roll time, Tom Hall has arranged for the nationally known and esteemed Blue Mountain band featuring Cary Hudson to perform
• Chris Powell's The Fishing Journal will follow them up (See Jasper #2 for a little ditty on the Fishing Journal)
• and then, the Mercy Shot, with Thomas Crouch from Jasper #2, will play.
• In the meantime, Michaela Pilar Brown will be displaying her most recent work in the Arcade lobby, and
• street artist Cedric Umoja will be demonstrating his work (Read more about Michaela in Jasper #3 as well as Alex Smith's article on Cedric), and
• all the galleries of the Arcade Mall will be open -- including those of our Cover artist and Centerfold!
• Throughout the evening we'll have the return of our famous EconoBar with cheap beer, decent wine, and big spender craft brew at $2, $2, and $4 respectively, and
• a nice little cheese spread courtesy of our friend Kristian Niemi and Rosso, as well as
• a sampling of delicious roasted coffees from SC's own Cashua Coffee, and
• the Krewe de Columbia-ya-ya will be on hand to school us all on the importance of parades, beads, beer, and dogs.
• And, of course, there will be the release of Jasper #3.

Not a bad night for free, huh?

Please join us in the historic Arcade building on Main and Washington Streets, Thursday night, January 12th from 7 until 11 pm as we celebrate the art that makes us all get up in the mornings. The afterparty is at the Whig. We hope to see you both places.

Thank you for your support, Columbia.

-- Your Friends at Jasper