Hobey Ford is a puppeteer known for excellence in puppetry performance and craft. But what made his June visit to Siler City Elementary even more notable was the way he incorporated puppets and digital animation to teach literacy and science concepts, resulting in a compelling story of animal migration. The students watched with amazement as… Read More →
Artists-in-Schools: Diali Cissokho Brings West African Music to Chatham County Schools
The beat of an African drum is not something that every child is familiar with. But for West African musician Diali Cissokho (pronounced “Jelly”), the beat was an integral part of everyday life. “Before we had a phone, radio, or a TV in our village, we used the beat of the drum to let people… Read More →
Artists-in-Schools: EbzB Productions Helps Moncure School’s Fifth Graders Rewind to the 1700s
If you ever doubted that fifth graders could deliver a performance aimed to educate you on an historical time period – you would have been happily wrong this spring. In April, Moncure School’s fifth graders transported their audience of discerning school mates, parents, and faculty to the Revolutionary War in an original performance about Chatham… Read More →
Chatham Arts Council Announces I He(art) Art for Kids Campaign
There are 15,000 children in Chatham County – providing an incredible opportunity for 15,000 souls to be nurtured, creative minds to be sparked, and budding artists to be encouraged. As the school year comes to a close, the Chatham Arts Council is launching a local campaign, I He(art) Art for Kids, in an effort to… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Andrew Wilson is creating electrified wall and wearable art
In the deep woods of Chatham County, sparked by his keen sense of the natural world, Andrew Wilson is exploring multiple pathways to creating art, among them photography, painting, wood-working, woodland gardening and jewelry-making. Most recently, he has taken on one of nature’s boldest elements – electricity. “In 2012, I created a spiral earring for… Read More →
Go See This: David Sedaris Reads from “Calypso”
Written by guest blogger, Gilda McDaniel. McIntyre’s Books in Fearrington Village will host world-renowned author and Raleigh native David Sedaris when he makes a rare live appearance at the Fearrington Barn on Friday, June 1. Calypso is Sedaris’s first collection of essays in five years and features deeply personal, yet characteristically humorous, explorations of middle age… Read More →
Go See This: Pittsboro Youth Theater
Written by guest blogger, Selbe Bartlett. Did you know that Chatham County had a public theater? In downtown Pittsboro, the county’s seat, is a delightful space called the Sweet Bee Theater. The community theater group that calls it home has been performing shows since 2012. Pittsboro Youth Theater is celebrating its sixth anniversary thanks to the dedication,… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Mike Wiley—The Busiest Man in Show Business
This month’s “Meet This Artist” is written by guest blogger Elisabeth Lewis Corley. Multiple hyphenate Mike Wiley, an actor-playwright- director-arts educator, came to Pittsboro because he and his wife, Jodi Neely Wiley, were living in Apex and expecting a second child when their first was almost four and they needed more room. And Jodi Neely… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Gilda McDaniel – Genius Behind the Scenes
This month’s “Meet This Artist” is written by guest blogger Elisabeth Lewis Corley. Something about this sylph who is also a fierce arts community fixture begins to make sense when you learn that she was a Chapel Hill art history major who ended up in deep Chatham County in a home she built on land… Read More →
Meet This Artist: Antonio Lynn is Drumming to the Sound of Success
Antonio Lynn, it seems, was born with a drumbeat in his soul. He remembers playing drums at the early age of two. When he was three, his grandparents, Albert and Susan Alston, gave him a full junior-sized drum set for Christmas. By age five, he was playing in his church’s Junior Petite Choir. Now, as… Read More →