SPRING 2023
Presented by
Arts Council of Moore County & Sandhills Community College
Sponsored by
Carolyn Brady, First Bank, The Foundation of FirstHealth, Susan Gaines,
LKC Engineering, Penick Village, Poyner Spruill LLP, John Presley
NATURE’S PARTNER
Frank Lloyd Wright’s
Vision for Architecture
Wed., February 15, 2023 at 5:30 PM
Lecturer: Molly Gwinn
Falling Water (Mill Run, PA) – Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright
The great American architect Frank Lloyd Wright had a gift for noticing the inherent characteristics of a building site and designing a residence in perfect harmony with its nature. His early Prairie Houses echoed the flat expansiveness of the Midwest with their long low roof lines and verandas that stretched into the landscape. In contrast, the houses and hotels in Arizona and California pushed out of the desert like the outcroppings of rock that surrounded them. Such designs were the basis for Wright’s concept of organic architecture, that is, structures that responded to the forces and processes of the nature around them. His house in Pennsylvania, Falling Water, is famous for taking advantage of the landscape; its site above a rocky ledge and waterfall makes it one of the most beautiful houses in the world.
LECTURER: Molly Gwinn now lives in Oak Park, IL, near the Frank Lloyd Wright Home & Studio, where she volunteers as an interpreter. She and her husband, Byrd, were Pinehurst residents for years, and she has led and presented in the Fine Arts Lecture Series since its inception in 2006.
BODIES IN ROME
William Wetmore Story, Harriet Hosmer,
& their Sculpture
Wed., March 8, 2023 at 5:30 PM
Lecturer: Pat Valenti
“Beatrice Cenci (1857) by Harriet Hosmer
During the 1850s, a group of American artists formed a community in Rome. They sought to hone their skills and produce art free of the constraints imposed in their native land. Among these expatriates were the sculptors William Wetmore Story and Harriet Hosmer. His “Cleopatra” and the “Libyan Sibyl” and her “Beatrice Cenci” epitomized art that drew from the past to tell stories of strong, sensuous, brooding, provocative figures.
LECTURER: Patricia Dunlavy Valenti is Professor Emerita in the Department of English & Foreign Lamguages at UNC Pembroke. She specializes in women’s studies, biography, and 19th century literature and is the author of five books. Her current project centers on American expatriates in Rome during the 1850s.
AN AMERICAN IN PARIS
The Life and Art of Mary Cassatt
Wed., March 29, 2023 at 5:30 PM
Lecturer: Ellen Burke
“Little Girl in Blue Armchair (1878) Oil by Mary Cassatt
Frustrated with the restrictions placed on women studying art in 1861 at the Philadelphia Academy of Art, Mary Cassatt left the U.S. to study art in France. It was in Paris that she met Edgar Degas who would have a lifelong influence on her work and life. At his invitation, she exhibited with the Impressionists, becoming the only American officially associated with the group. Cassatt’s paintings, pastels, and prints provide a glimpse of her world, ideals, and frustrations. An independent woman, a successful artist asserting herself in a male dominated world, and an unshakable suffragette, she was clearly a woman ahead of her time. Join us to explore her work, contemporaries, and influence on American art collecting as set against the stimulating dynamism of Paris.
LECTURER: Ellen Burke is an art educator with 37 years of experience as a studio instructor and fine and performing arts administrator. In addition to teaching in Massachusetts, she was an adjunct instructor in art education at the New Hampshire Art Institute. Since moving to Pinehurst, she has presented art lectures at local galleries and teaches small group art lessons to children and adults.
**This lecture compliments the film, CASSATT: Painting the Modern Woman, at the Sunrise Theater on Tue., April 4 at 10 AM & 7 PM. For tickets, call 910-692-3611 or visit SunriseTheater.com.**
MASTER OF LIGHT
The Art & Mystery
of Johannes Vermeer
Wed., April 26, 2023 at 5:30 PM
Lecturer: Ellen Burke
“The Geographer” (c. 1668-1669) Oil on Canvas by Johannes Vermeer
Inn keeper, art dealer, chemist & artist, Johannes Vermeer remains a bit of a mystery. There are no written sources that chronical his development as an artist, no notebooks or sketchbooks, no ledgers for the sale or provenance, and no indication of his mentors, students, or apprentices. Among the things that make Vermeer extraordinary is that 350 years after his active painting years, we are still discovering new information and a renewed appreciation for his work. Investigating his work, we can see his nod to tradition and his exploration of new ideas. A master of light, Vermeer creates a connection between the subject and the viewer that makes the later in a sense, a spellbound voyeur. He depicts the wholly commonplace, a woman reading a letter, a figure at a keyboard, and yet we are riveted.
LECTURER: Ellen Burke is an art educator with 37 years of experience as a studio instructor and fine and performing arts administrator. In addition to teaching in Massachusetts, she was an adjunct instructor in art education at the New Hampshire Art Institute. Since moving to Pinehurst, she has presented art lectures at local galleries and teaches small group art lessons to children and adults.
**This lecture compliments the film, VERMEER: The Greatest Exhibition, at the Sunrise Theater on Tue., May 2nd at 10 AM & 7 PM. For tickets, call 910-692-3611 or visit SunriseTheater.com.**
COST: $26 per person | Students are free with advance registration
All lectures presented in McPherson Theater at Sandhills Community College
(Across the breezeway from Owens Auditorium at 3395 Airport Rd. in Pinehurst)
Space is limited. Reserve your space now with full payment at the Arts Council Galleries
(Campbell House, 482 E. Connecticut Ave., So. Pines) or call 910-692–ARTS (2787)
