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Spectacular Summer Events at The Turchin Center! Re-Opening Event Friday July 2

An Appalachian Summer Festival offers unique and enriching arts experiences to audiences across the Southeast, combining world-class performing and visual arts programming in a spectacular mountain location in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains. During an Appalachian Summer Festival, the Turchin Center hosts a variety of visual arts exhibitions and programs that dovetail with the performing arts. 

The community is invited to a Summer Exhibition Celebration on July 2 from 6–9 pm. During this debut re-opening event, the Turchin Center will celebrate seven exhibitions in grand style. This is a wonderful opportunity to meet the artists and gain an “insider’s view” of the featured exhibitions. This festive evening will include live music by The Mercury Dames and is free and open to the public.  The celebration is generously sponsored by Allen Wealth Management, and is dedicated to the memory of Tina Silverstein, a long-standing friend, leader and generous supporter of the Turchin Center’s exhibition, education and outreach programming. 

The Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition & Exhibition is celebrating its milestone 35th anniversary of showcasing contemporary American sculpture in outdoors settings. The competition has become firmly established as a cultural treasure and a significant point of pride for Appalachian State University and the entire region. On Saturday morning, July 10 at 10 am the Rosen Sculpture Walk with the Juror will include a tour, awards reception and Rosen anniversary highlights. 

The Lunch and Learn lectures are interactive and informative and provide an insider’s look at the festival programming from experts in the field. This year’s lectures will occur at noon on July 12, 19,22 and 26 and will be in virtual format. 

Admission to all these summer events is free; however, reservations are requested. Visitors with reservations will be given priority for entry, and walk-in visitors are welcome when capacity allows. For more information and to make reservations, visit tcva.org. or appsummer.org

Exhibitions 

ERRATIC: Hoss Haley

July 2– December 11: Hodges Gallery 

Sharing space with Hoss Haley’s monumental work transports the viewer to a place where a clear separation between human creation and organic influence is undefined, yet beautifully intertwined. Color and texture are suggested but are ultimately ruled by nature. Sculptor Hoss Haley has created a stunning oversized sculpture of richly patinaed, recycled metal panels shaped over a huge irregularly shaped frame to echo the erratic boulders left in the landscape as detritus following glacial action. 

Hoss Haley creates two and three dimensional works in steel, concrete and bronze. He favors industrial materials and fabrication methods, often building or adapting the machines and tools he uses to produce his work. Haley has completed public art projects for the Pack Square Conservancy (Asheville, NC), Charlotte Area Transit System and Mecklenburg County (NC) as well as several privately commissioned large-scale steel sculptures. Hoss’s work has been shown at several museums and galleries nationwide, and he has been a resident artist at Penland School of Crafts (NC) and at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (WI). His work is heavily influenced both conceptually and aesthetically by the western landscape of his youth.

Hoss Haley_Erratic Maquette

Every Olive Tree in the Garden of Gethsemane: 

Wendy Babcox

June 4 – August 7: Mayer Gallery

Every Olive Tree in the Garden of Gethsemane is a suite of photogravure images of each of the twenty-three olive trees in the garden. Situated at the foot of the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, the Garden of Gethsemane is known to many as the site where Jesus prayed the night before his crucifixion. The perseverance of the olive trees in Gethsemane traces a line through the centuries in concert with the history of persistent efforts by geopolitical powers to exert influence in the Middle East, particularly in Jerusalem. The oldest trees are a living and symbolic link to this distant past, while the younger saplings bridge the present moment with an unknowable future.

Wendy Babcox is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Tampa, Florida where she is an associate professor in the School of Art and Art History in Photographic Practices and related media at the University of South Florida.  

Her practice embraces a wide array of media and methodologies, and often draws on lens-based media and its many hybrid forms including photography, video, installation, performance, collaborative ventures, and sculptural interventions. A current and former member of several women’s art collectives, Babcox is interested in the power of the unruly woman to perform creative transgressions. 

Wendy Babcox_Every Olive Tree in the Garden of Gethsemane_16

Where are the birds? Retracing Audubon: Artwork by Krista Elrick

June 5 – November 6: Gallery B

Retracing Audubon: Eco-Conversations is an exhibition and book project reexamining John James Audubon’s epic life journey and the production of his beloved tome, The Birds of America. While the name of Audubon is familiar and the drawings he created are still wildly popular, his eloquent writings are less well known. Retracing Audubon: Eco-Conversations features contemporary photographs made by Krista Elrick of the American landscapes in which Audubon traveled 200 years ago. 

Photographer Krista Elrick is interested in the changes that have occurred in natural ecosystems over prolonged periods of time as a direct result of human intrusion into the landscape. Film-based, in-camera exposures, combined with silver gelatin prints, are the foundation of her creative work.  While her photographic process is rooted in the nineteenth century, it is today’s wetlands, forests, and watersheds that serve as her backdrop. In tandem, migratory birds and the ecosystems that sustain them are the focus of her current body of work. She sees these once harmonious relationships as disrupted. Because of this disruption, she photographs the land in fragments and then construct collages to create newly pieced dynamics.

Elrick’s first solo book, A Country No More: Rediscovering the Landscape of John James Audubon is a fascinating volume that provides a fresh and provocative perspective not only on the changing American landscape, but on Audubon himself, his times and his enduring legacy.

Krista Elrick_MissouriRiver at StandingRock

98.6 – A Creative Commonality

July 2 – February 5, 2022: Mezzanine Gallery

Humans and chimpanzees share 98.6% of the same DNA. Both species have forward-facing eyes, opposing thumbs that accompany grasping fingers, and the ability to walk upright. Far greater than just the physical similarities, both species have large brains capable of exhibiting great intelligence as well as an incredible emotional range. Chimpanzees form tight social bonds, especially between mothers and children, create tools to assist with eating and express joy by hugging and kissing one another. 

Over 1,000,000 chimpanzees roamed the tropical rain forests of Africa just a century ago. 

Now listed as endangered, less than 300,000 exist in the wild because of poaching, the illegal pet trade and habitat loss due to human encroachment. Often, chimpanzees are killed, leaving orphans that are traded and sold around the world. 

Thanks to accredited zoos and sanctuaries across the globe, strong conservation efforts and programs exist to protect and manage populations of many species of the animal kingdom, including the great apes – the chimpanzee, gorilla, orangutan and bonobo. Included in the daily programs for many species is what’s commonly known as “enrichment”––  an activity created and employed to stimulate and pose a challenge, such as hiding food and treats throughout an enclosure that requires a search for food, sometimes with a problem-solving component. 

This exhibition features works created by chimpanzees at Zoo Knoxville, an AZA-accredited institution in Knoxville, Tennessee that works closely with the SSP. Their eight chimpanzees, who happily roam in a very large enclosure, are offered a painting enrichment as often as their committed caretakers can provide. Also included in this exhibition are works created by chimpanzees from The Center for Great Apes, a secluded sanctuary in Wauchula, Florida that rescues chimpanzees and orangutans from the entertainment industry.

Rowhouse Workshop

March 5 – August 7: Mayer Gallery

Rowhouse Workshop is an interactive exhibition showcasing the unique personalities of rowhouse blocks in North, South and West Philadelphia. The exhibition leads visitors through a series of rowhouse block installations, sharing collectively curated songs, recipes, images, and videos. 

Three Philadelphia blocks are represented in the Turchin Center’s Mayer Gallery through interactive installations from the original exhibition. Residents of the Boone region are invited to explore these Philadelphia blocks, and record their own observations and ideas about how the physical organizations of their own communities might help to shape and connect their collective identities.

This exhibition was conceived and curated by Brian Phillips and his firm, ISA, based in Philadelphia. ISA is an architecture office engaged in design and research projects in cities across the US. The firm works closely with project stakeholders to produce buildings, master plans, installations, and conversations that provide innovative solutions for their clients while productively addressing changing climates, lifestyles, technologies, and urban environments. Original support for Rowhouse Workshop was provided by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.

Ruminations: Cheryl Prisco

March 5 – August 7: Community Gallery

Cheryl Prisco is an artist who works in wood and describes herself as having “a technical approach that is radically free-wielding by traditional woodworking standards. “I am addicted to color and pattern, drawn to irreverence and visual dissonance. In place of paint and brush I cut, color, and shape wood elements, creating abstract low relief assemblages. The process of my work, the shaping and fitting, the painting and placement of multiple pieces, is the physical manifestation of rumination. My feelings, attitudes and concerns are visually recorded in color and composition. Each assemblage is a rumination, a story, one in the making and one in the viewing.”

Cheryl Prisco is an abstract artist based in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. She was born in Connecticut but has lived most of her adult life in the South– sixteen years in Savannah, Georgia and eleven years in Boone, North Carolina. 

This exhibition has been generously supported, in part, by a gift from Adrienne Finkel.

Father, Grandfather, Artist: A Tribute to Warren Dennis

July 2 – December 4: Moskowitz Gallery

This exhibition commemorates the life and work of prominent Southeastern artist and retired longtime Appalachian State University professor Warren Dennis, who died April 13, 2021. This exhibition comprises painting from the personal collections of family members.

Dennis’ prime painting years corresponded to the heyday of American Abstract Expressionism and, while he pushed the boundaries of paint on canvas all his life, he was a consummate draftsman who never abandoned the human figure. In a signature style marked by dry wit, Dennis’ paintings capture the humanity and the humility of subjects ranging from simple moments of family life to the great themes of art history, classical music, and Southern literature. 

An active and prolific artist into his nineties, Dennis exhibited widely. With over 60 one-person exhibitions to his credit, his paintings can be found in numerous galleries, museums, and private collections, particularly in the southern United States.

Warren Dennis_Boy with Sparkler

Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Walk

July 10, 10 a.m. (Location: Tent next to the Schaefer Center for the Performing Arts)

The Rosen Outdoor Sculpture Competition and Exhibition is a national, juried competition presented annually by the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts on the campus of Appalachian State University. Celebrating its milestone 35th anniversary of showcasing contemporary American sculpture in outdoor settings, the competition has become firmly established as a cultural treasure and a significant point of pride for Appalachian State University and the entire region. Join competition juror Rachel Stevens, on an educational outdoor tour of the selected pieces from this year’s competition. The tour concludes at the Schaefer Center with the announcement of this year’s winners and will also include a reception. This is a free event, however, reservations are requested. 

Sculptures in this year’s competition include: Teeter Tower by Matt Amante, Winterville, NC; Hoodoos by Joan Benefiel, Brooklyn, NY; Unfurling Rising by David Boyajian, New Fairfield, CT; Light Pulse by Hanna Jubran, Grimesland, NC; Blue Nautilus by Gretchen Lotz, Orlando, FL; Steampunk Babylon by Charles Pilkey, Mint Hill, NC; Phoenix by Rudy Rudisill, Gastonia, NC; Scheme by Tom Scicluna, Miami, FL and Remembering Giotto by Glenn Zweygardt, Alfred Station, NY. 

This program is made possible by the generous support of the Martin & Doris Rosen Giving Fund / Debbie Rosen Davidson and David Rosen and the Charles & Nancy Rosenblatt Foundation.

For more information about exhibitions, visit tcva.org/art. Exhibition pages include gallery walk-through videos, ARTtalk recordings and Connections learning guides. 

Lunch and Learn Lecture Series 

July 12, 19, 22 and 26, noon. 

This year, these events are presented in a digital format via zoom and YouTube Premier. Registration is required so that log in information can be provided.

July 12: Where are the birds? Retracing Audubon: Panel discussion – Krista Elrick, Mary Anne Redding and Gregory Nobles

This event is in association with Krista Elrick’s exhibition at the TCVA and is described in the exhibitions section above.

July 19: July 12 – Dulatown: Documentary film screening and panel discussion

Panelists: Beth Davison, filmmaker, Leslie Dula McKesson and Kelly Ervin. 

Dulatown, located in Lenoir, NC, is a community settled in 1855 and populated mostly by African Americans who share a kinship and the last name of Dula. The two branches of the family started in 1846 when a woman named Harriet Harshaw was sold to “Squire” Alfred Dula, who fathered eight of her 12 children. Alfred Dula provided for Harriet and her children through the gifting of land before his death and in his will thus establishing Dulatown. Dulatown embraces its history at a bi-annual reunion where in recent years both Black and white Dula relatives come together around their shared history and genealogy to publicly acknowledge they share more than just a surname. Filmmaker Beth Davison explores this story in this documentary, Dulatown.

July 22 – Testimony – Indonesian Lullaby: Surviving the Shoah in the Netherland: Dr. Alfred Münzer, Holocaust Child

Dr. Al Münzer, who was born to a Jewish family in the Netherlands during World War II, will give testimony about his survival during the German occupation. When his father was ordered to report to a German labor camp in 1942, the entire family went into hiding, sending the children to various neighbors and rescuers. A Dutch-Indonesian family hid Al(fed) in The Hague. His sisters stayed elsewhere, until they were betrayed and deported to Auschwitz where they were murdered. Al came to the United States in 1958 with his mother, who had survived several camps and death marches.

This presentation is part of the 2021 Martin & Doris Rosen Summer Symposium on “Children in the Holocaust” by Appalachian State University’s Center for Judaic, Holocaust, and Peace Studies.

July 26 –Cheryl Prisco, Ruminations: From the Studio to the Gallery

This video features artist Cheryl Prisco, currently exhibiting at the Turchin Center, as she explores her process and practice — from the studio to the gallery. 

For more information about the lunch and learn series, visit: https://tcva.org/lunch-learn/

Turchin Center programming is generously supported by Appalachian Home Care, Bickers Consulting Group, Art Cellar, Allen Wealth Management and Cheap Joe’s Art Stuff.

About the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts

The Turchin Center for the Visual Arts, named for university benefactors Robert and Lillian Turchin, fulfills Appalachian State University’s long-held mission of providing a home for world-class visual arts programming.  The largest facility of its kind in the region, the center presents exhibition, education and collection programs that support the university’s role as a key educational, cultural and service resource. The center presents multi-dimensional exhibits and programs and is a dynamic presence in the community, creating opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to experience the power and excitement of the visual arts. Its seven galleries host changing exhibitions featuring local, regional, national and international artists.  

The Turchin Center is located at 423 West King St., in Boone. Regular hours are 10 a.m. – 6 p.m., Tues. – Thurs. and Saturday, and Noon – 8 p.m., Friday and will resume on July 2. The Center is closed Sunday and Monday, and observes all university holidays. Check the website for schedule changes. Admission is always free, although donations are gratefully accepted.For general inquiries, to be added to the mailing or e-news list, to obtain donor program details or to schedule a tour, call 828-262-3017, e-mail turchincenter@appstate.edu or visit tcva.org. The Turchin Center can also be followed on Facebook and Twitter @TurchinCenter.