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Today’s Email Announcements

Public Policy Event: Political Redistricting for Fair Elections

What?

A very timely and important topic! This program will look at the way North Carolina could find an alternative to our current redistricting process. It is about the congressional redistricting simulation that Tom Ross, eight retired justices and judges developed along with the Sanford School at Duke. This program describes how and why they developed the redistricting, explaining why they chose a nonpartisan method and how they think it might benefit the state of North Carolina.

Speakers: NC House Representative Jonathan Jordan and Judge Ed Gregory.
Call the Blowing Rock Chamber of Commerce at 828.295.7851 to RSVP.
Where?

LaQuinta Inn & Suites165 Highway 105 ExtensionBoone, NC 28607

When?

Monday, February 27th, 2017 at 10AM

This program is expected to last no longer than 1.5 hours. Coffee will be served.

CALL TO MEETING:  Watauga County Republican Party County Convention

Saturday March 4, 2017
9AM Registration, 9:30AM Precinct Meetings, 10AM-12PM Convention Business
Guest Speaker:  The Honorable Rep. Virginia Foxx of NC 5th Dist.
*  ALL registered Republicans are encouraged to attend.

Review 50 Years of Preserving the Mountain Landscape
Thursday, Feb. 23

Western Office of the N.C. Dept. of Natural and Cultural Resources Debuts Series

Asheville, NC

In the first of its new Lunch and Learn series of programs, the Western Office of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources will examine stewardship of the western landscape at noon, Thursday, Feb. 23. The free program is open to the public.

Tamara Graham and Sybil Agrintar, authors of “Forest, Farm + Garden: The Campus Arboretum of Haywood Community College,” will speak.

In the decades after World War II, new highways, subdivisions and commercial strips were displacing the topography of western North Carolina’s pastoral landscape of farms, fields and forests. Influenced by the conservation ethic of its first forestry instructors, the new campus of Haywood Technical Institute (now Haywood Community College) would contrast dramatically with prevailing trends, adopting a more ecological planning, design and stewardship approach that was far ahead of its time.

Continued stewardship over the next several decades saw the forested heart of the campus become the core of the campus arboretum. Its collections – cultivated by local naturalists, master horticulturists, work-study students and community volunteers – expanded to include productive greenhouses, a dahlia garden, orchard, working vegetable gardens, rhododendron garden and a mill pond with an operable grist mill. The tapestry of landscapes captured the heritage of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and its people.

Please join the discussion of the first 50 years of stewardship. Just bring your lunch and the Western Regional Archives will provide the lecture and lemonade.

The Western Office of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is located at 176 Riceville Rd., Asheville. For additional information, please call (828) 296-7230, email heather.south@ncdcr.gov or visitwww.ncdcr.gov/about/history/western-office.

About the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources
The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources (NCDNCR) is the state agency with a vision to be the leader in using the state’s natural and cultural resources to build the social, cultural, educational and economic future of North Carolina. NCDNCR’s mission is to improve the quality of life in our state by creating opportunities to experience excellence in the arts, history, libraries and nature in North Carolina by stimulating learning, inspiring creativity, preserving the state’s history, conserving the state’s natural heritage, encouraging recreation and cultural tourism, and promoting economic development.
NCDNCR includes 27 historic sites, seven history museums, two art museums, two science museums, three aquariums and Jennette’s Pier, 39 state parks and recreation areas, the N.C. Zoo, the nation’s first state-supported Symphony Orchestra, the State Library, the State Archives, the N.C. Arts Council, State Preservation Office and the Office of State Archaeology, along with the Division of Land and Water Stewardship. For more information, please call (919) 807-7300 or visit www.ncdcr.gov.

The Wyeth Family at Jerald Melberg Gallery

Jerald Melberg Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of drawings, watercolors and paintings by America’s First Family of Art, the Wyeths. We will celebrate the great achievements of N.C., Andrew and Jamie Wyeth, who have collectively captured the spirit of 20th century America, depicting its people and landscapes. This exhibition coincides with the Mint Museum’s The Wyeths: Three Generations, Works from the Bank of America Collection, affording the Charlotte area an opportunity to see two major exhibitions at the same time. Jerald Melberg Gallery will be exhibiting paintings, drawings and watercolors by N.C. Wyeth (1882-1945), his son Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009) and his grandson Jamie Wyeth (b. 1946). All works will be available for acquisition.

About N.C. Wyeth

Newell Convers Wyeth (N.C.), often called the patriarch of America’s First Family of Art, established a career of depicting American landscape that has reverberated for generations. Nature was his deepest fascination, and he developed a masterful capacity to portray the subtleties of light and shadow, which became the subject of many of his still lifes, portraits, and landscapes. He began his art career illustrating covers for major magazines such as the Saturday Evening Post. Scribner’s commissioned him on several occasions to provide illustrations for such literary classics as Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson and The Boy’s King Arthur by Sidney Lanier. He began exhibiting work in galleries in 1939. Jerald Melberg Gallery will showcase five oil paintings by N.C. Wyeth. Public collections of N.C.’s work are on display at the Brandywine River Museum in Chadds Ford, and in Maine at the Portland Museum of Art and the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. The Brandywine River Museum offers tours of the N.C. Wyeth House and Studio, which were designated as National Historic Landmarks in 1997.

About Andrew Wyeth

Often Acclaimed as America’s Painter, Andrew Wyeth is one of the most well-known and influential painters in the history of American art. He is revered for his watercolor and tempera paintings of the people and places in and around his homes in Chadds Ford and Cushing, Maine. Jerald Melberg Gallery will exhibit a total of thirteen watercolors and drawings on paper, which will include landscapes and images of Helga, his Chadds Ford neighbor who modeled secretly for him for fifteen years. Andrew Wyeth has been honored innumerable times during his career, most notably in 1963, when President John F. Kennedy named Wyeth the first artist to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian award. In 1988 he was awarded a Congressional Gold Medal and in 2007 he received the Presidential Medal of Arts from George W. Bush. Additionally, he was the first living American artist to have a retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1976-1977) and also at the Royal Academy of Arts in London (1980). Other major retrospectives of Wyeth’s work were held at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (2006), the Whitney Museum of Art (1998), the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia (1998-1999) and twice at the National Gallery of Art (1987, 2014). Andrew Wyeth became the youngest elected member of both the American Watercolor Society and the National Institute of Arts and Letters in 1940 and 1950, respectively. He was elected membership to the Institut de France Académie des Beaux Arts, Paris (1977) and the Soviet Academy of the Arts, Leningrad (1978), and also was inducted as an Honorary Member into the Royal Society of Painters and Watercolorists, London (1986). This year, the United States Postal Service will issue a pane of stamps depicting twelve different Andrew Wyeth paintings, with the official dedication ceremony taking place at the Brandywine River Museum of Art on July 12, 2017, the 100th anniversary of his birth.

About Jamie Wyeth

Acclaimed realist painter James Browning Wyeth (Jamie) is the third generation of highly praised American artists. Committing himself to an artistic career by the age of 12, Jamie chose to be tutored at home in traditional lessons and spent the afternoons under the tutelage of his Aunt Carolyn, also an artist. Like his father and grandfather before him, his work mirrors his surroundings, with early paintings depicting his hometown Chadds Ford and later work portraying urban life in New York City and Washington, D.C. Wyeth’s work can be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, the National Portrait Gallery, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, the Brandywine River Museum and the Farnsworth Art Museum. A traveling career retrospective took place from 2014-2015 with four showings at national museums including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. From March-June 2016, Jamie and Andrew were the subjects of a two-person exhibition at the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, Spain. Wyeth is a member of the American Watercolor Society and the National Academy of Design and holds honorary degrees from seven colleges and universities.

For more information about the exhibition, please contact Gaybe Johnson at gaybe@jeraldmelberg.com or 704.365.3000.

Jerald Melberg Gallery is located at 625 South Sharon Amity Road near the intersection with Providence Road. Gallery hours are Monday through Friday 10am to 6 pm and Saturday from 10am to 4pm. For more information about the exhibition, please contact the gallery at 704.365.3000. To view selected paintings from the exhibition online, visit the gallery’s web site at www.jeraldmelberg.com.

Grandfather Mountain to Host Open House, Campout for Former Employees

Since 1952, Grandfather Mountain has shared its natural wonders with guests the world over.

Although the Linville, N.C.-based nature preserve and travel attraction is known for its scenic views, fascinating wildlife and the world-famous Mile High Swinging Bridge, the mountain is also celebrated for its customer service.

As a way of saying thanks to all those who’ve served the mountain throughout the decades, the Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation, the nonprofit organization that oversees the park, will host an open house and campout for former employees on Friday, May 19.

“Grandfather Mountain isn’t just a park — it’s a family,” said Frank Ruggiero, director of marketing and communications. “This is our way of saying ‘thank you’ to those who’ve helped the mountain reach new heights throughout the decades.”

The event is open to all former Grandfather Mountain employees and their families. Those attending will receive free admission to the park for the entire day and can enjoy special programs at 3 p.m., including behind-the-scenes tours of the environmental wildlife habitats, to be followed by dinner.

Camping will also be allowed in the mountain’s Woods Walk & Picnic Area on a first-come, first-served basis.

Registration is required, and those planning to attend may RSVP by contacting Shelly Johnston at shelly@grandfather.com or (828) 733-2013. Additional information will be available at www.grandfather.com as the event draws near.

The not-for-profit Grandfather Mountain Stewardship Foundation strives to inspire conservation of the natural world by helping guests explore, understand and value the wonders of Grandfather Mountain. For more information, call (800) 468-7325, or visit www.grandfather.com to plan a trip.