Raleigh’s intricate mosaic
by James White When I walk down the streets of Raleigh, it is as if I can hear Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities running through my mind. “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,…
Category: Arts & Culture
Easter eggs and bunnies
“It’s totally a labor of love,” says paper artist Sara Joyce. The thousands of holiday decorations she makes in her North Raleigh home every year out of fine paper – Easter eggs, Easter bunnies, Christmas trees, and stars – are…
Spotlight: Read all about it
by Jessie Ammons There’s a new kid on the block downtown: Read With Me, a children’s bookstore and art shop, is set to open early next month. The store is the brainchild of owner Christine Brenner, who says her “aha” moment…
Spotlight: Preservation Minded, the Dixie Deer Classic
by Jessie Ammons It’s hard to miss the Dixie Deer Classic: One of the State Fairgrounds’ largest annual events brings more than 20,000 folks to town the first weekend of March. This year’s show March 3 – 5 marks the 50th…
Necessary discourse in the age of discord
by Christopher Edmonston photograph by Robert Willett Here in Raleigh, the statue of Zebulon Vance on the old State Capitol grounds sounds a timely admonition from the 19th century: “The subjection of every passion and prejudice to the cooler sway of judgment…
Spotlight: Up and Away, a historic house makes a move
by Liza Roberts This month, Matt Tomasulo and his wife Nicole Alvarez have big plans for the historic house they bought downtown. After cleaving it off its foundation and moving it down Lenoir Street, up Wilmington, right on Davie, right on…
Spotlight: Art in Bloom, flower power
by Jessie Ammons The third annual Art in Bloom festival of art and flowers returns late this month. Mark your calendar for March 30 – April 2, when the museum’s West Building bursts to life with floral arrangements inspired by pieces…
Spotlight: Ackland updates
by Jessie Ammons The Ackland Art Museum at UNC-Chapel Hill recently received its largest gift ever. Alumnus Sheldon Peck and his wife, Leena, donated a gift estimated at $25 million to the university-owned museum in January: 134 masterworks, most from 17th…
Spotlight: Tift Merritt on Raleigh
“On a perfectly straightforward level, I write a lot about North Carolina because it’s my home. Any time I’m writing about relationships with home and grounding, I’m writing about North Carolina. I grew up in Raleigh, near downtown – I…
Spotlight: Raleigh Fine Arts North Carolina Artists Exhibition
by Jesma Reynolds Numbers and art may make an unlikely pairing. But in this case, the numbers bear repeating. Beginning March 12, the largest juried art exhibition in the state featuring 72 pieces from 61 North Carolina artists will be exhibited at…
Hoop-la! Basketball-Related Events
March Madness is coming, and it extends beyond the NCAA men’s college basketball finals this month. No matter what your level of basketball fandom, there’s a faceoff or two you’ll want to mark on your calendar. Here’s the game plan: March…
“A Gift of Good Land”
This hillside, just over an hour west of Raleigh, will soon belong to the winner of an essay contest. Bluebird Hill Farm owner and operator Norma Burns says she’s ready to retire to an urban Raleigh lifestyle, and when she…
Spotlight: Venetian Views
by Liza Roberts When N.C. Museum of Art curator of European art David Steel and his colleague Lyle Humphrey began work on the extraordinary Glory of Venice: Renaissance Paintings 1470–1520 exhibit secured by NCMA director Larry Wheeler, they knew the art…
Looking at death, seeing life
by Ippy Patterson At 63, having been preoccupied with death as long as I could remember, squeamish, and having never taught anything in my life, I was asked whether I could help run a drawing group in the Duke University anatomy…