"[Michael] Wukela claimed he doesn’t look at his paychecks to see where the money’s coming from." -- Eva Moore, on conflicting answers to the question of who is paying the mayor's spokesman
You only have a few weeks left to submit applications for the South Carolina Arts Commission’s Individual Artist Fellowships Grants. The $5,000 grants are awarded in four categories for the 2012 cycle: visual art, craft, music performance and music composition.
South Carolina residents are free to apply through October 1 in any or all of the categories. Applications are judged by a panel of out of state experts. Winners are announced in July 2011. Visit http://www.southcarolinaarts.com/grants/artists/fellowships.shtml for submission guidelines.
Eager to get up close and personal with some South Carolina authors? The South Carolina Center for the Book and its Speaker at the Center series has released a lineup of regional history authors. Each month will feature one SC writer and their work beginning this Thursday at noon in room 309 of the Administration Building at the South Carolina State Library (1430 Senate St., Columbia).
Allen Stokes will discuss the book he co-edited with Margaret Belser Hollis “Twilight on the South Carolina Rice Fields: Letters of the Heyward Family 1862-1871”. The following months include Anne Sinkler Whaley LeClercq, “Elizabeth Sinkler Coxe's Tales from the Grand Tour, 1890-1910”; Tommy Charles, “Discovering South Carolina's Rock Art”; Edmund R. Taylor and Alexander Moore, “Selected Letters of Anna Heyward Taylor: South Carolina Artist and World Traveler”; and Jim Casada, “Carolina Christmas: Archibald Rutledge's Enduring Holiday Stories.”
Looking for a mid-week arts fix? Gotham Bagel, 1508 Main St., is hosting the Mind Gravy Poetry Venue Wednesday from 8-10 p.m. Paul Allen will be the featured poet. Allen is a retired College of Charleston professor with decades of experience in the craft of poetry. He also mixes his writings with music. So, he will have his guitar in tow.
You can learn more about Allen and his career at http://allenp.people.cofc.edu. The event is free and open to the public.
Nobody wants to go to a government office, so why would you want to spend time staring at international government offices? Because it’s way more interesting than you would think. True, Jan Banning’s photography exhibition “Bureaucratics,” which is on display at the 701 Center for Contemporary Art through Sept. 19, is just a lot of pictures of offices. But it’s so much more.
“Bureaucratics” features thought-provoking images of government offices in Russia, Yemen, Bolivia, India, Liberia, France, China and the United States – Texas to be specific. It is evident from the outset the vast differences in economics and cultural mores of the various societies. For example, a bureaucrat in Bolivia prominently displayed several posters of topless women in his office. That is a great contrast from the dilapidated folding table and chair of another official in Liberia.
It was even more interesting to read through the books at the exhibit that provided more in-depth descriptions of the worker’s lives and salaries. A government worker in Texas makes about $27,000 while a worker in Liberia might make $13 a week – and some haven’t been paid in a year.
Overall it’s a unique peek into other societies via the unusual vehicle of government offices.
Learn more about the exhibition and 701 at http://701cca.org/.
Best-selling writer Eric Jerome Dickey, author of “Resurrecting Midnight” and “Dying for Revenge,” will be in Columbia Sept. 2 to sign his new novel “Tempted by Trouble.” Scheduled to be released Aug. 17, “Tempted by Trouble” plays on Dickey’s trademark themes of seduction and suspense as it follows an out-of-work family man’s struggle to stay clear of organized crime.
The book signing will be at 7 p.m. at Books-A-Million, 164 Forum Dr.
Looking for an end-of-summer book to take to the pool or beach? Kensington Books will rerelease “The Ocean Inside” by Columbia author Janna McMahan. Its rerelease as a mass market paperback means more book stores across the country will be carrying the title.
Originally released in April 2009, “The Ocean Inside” is set in Pawley’s Island and chronicles the lives of parents Emmett and Lauren Sullivan whose teenage daughter is headed for bad decisions.
McMahan, who has won the South Carolina Fiction Project and the Piccolo Spoleto Fiction Open, will release a new novel and collection of short stories in 2011.
Columbia pianist Phillip Bush has decided after 15 seasons with the Milwaukee Present Music ensemble, it is time to retire. Bush will perform a 22-minute György Ligeti piano concerto for his farewell performance Sept. 18 in Milwaukee. Bush trained at the Peabody Institute and eventually landed a career playing some of the most cutting edge contemporary music of the time by composers like Steve Reich and Phillip Glass. You can read more about Bush and his career here http://www.free-times.com/index.php?cat=11001804073474158&ShowArticle_ID=11010312080797954.
He will share the same concert with Gabriel Prokofiev, a composer, deejay and producer from London and grandson of Sergei Prokofiev. For more information about Present Music visit www.presentmusic.org.
Arts Beat Blog Posts
