Dance Instructor Jan Woodward is coordinating the sixth Greenville Upstate Dance Festival, to be held at the Fine Arts Center and Wade Hampton High School on Oct. 6. The full-day event is open to dancers in grade four through adult and is only offered every other year.
The Greenville Dance Festival is a special opportunity that the dance teachers in Greenville County Schools organize for their dance students as well as for dancers in the Upstate. They bring in guest artists to teach a variety of dance styles in an effort to broaden the breadth of understanding in their dancers and in the community. The aim is to offer the traditional techniques of classical ballet and modern/contemporary dance as well as dance from other cultures. Japanese, African, Scottish Country and Classical Indian dance classes will be included in this year's event.
Metals Instructor Katy Cassell just completed a weeklong artist residency with the South Carolina State Parks at Table Rock in August. She spent her time hiking, wading, sketching and investigating all manner of insects, mollusks, amphibians and fungi, which will inspire her new series of jewelry. She will donate one piece to the S.C. State Parks in thanks for her stay. Ms. Cassell will also spend three days on Bainbridge Island near Seattle, Wash., to work with enamelist David Berfield in his large-scale enameling studio, called the Porcelain Company.
Photography Instructor Rod Fincannon has an exhibit of photographs at the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts Gallery. The show is titled "Boy Scouts and Indians" and is from a recent body of work documenting the appropriation of Native American culture by the Boy Scouts of America. The images consist of portraits and scenes for camps depicting boy scouts dressed and acting like Native Americans. Mr. Fincannon will be giving an artist lecture to the visual arts students of the South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts on Oct. 4.
Digital Filmmaking Instructor Eric Rogers completed his first triathlon in August and is now moving toward his next challenge. He will be hiking 28.3 miles in one day to raise awareness and money for children with cancer. Children's cancer is the number one cause of death by disease in children. The hike will take place in October along the Foothills Trail. It is being organized by a non-profit organization called Cure Search. If you wish to assist in these efforts, please visit this site.
Fine Arts Center Visual Arts Faculty Exhibition at Anderson University
The visual arts faculty was invited to have an exhibition of current work at Anderson University's Vandiver Gallery. The work will be on display from Aug. 13 to Sept. 28. On Sept. 3 the gallery held an opening and gallery talk, during which the exhibiting faculty members spoke about their work to the students of Anderson University, including a few FAC alumni.
The artists who participated in the exhibition were Katy Cassell (metals), Glenda Guion (clay), Rod Fincannon (photography), Greg Flint (digital collage), Ryan Roth (painting) Donna Shank-Major (book arts) and Rebecca Stockham (photography).
