Art Around Athens (and farther...)

There is a ton of stuff going on this weekend, y'all, so you may have to pick and choose.



Today (Friday, Oct. 2), from 5 to 9 p.m., is a free open house in the Railroad Arts District of Athens, which has started a First Friday thing. Art and wares will be on display at the D.O.C. Building on Barber and the Chase Street Warehouses, around the corner from there, including works by Lou Kregel (the coordinator of all this), fused-glass jewelry by Annette Paskiewicz (see above), a hoop dance class at Canopy, and much more, including an art sale on the sidewalk in front of Mercury A.I.R. Click the link for a full list.



Just a little bit later (from 6 to 8 p.m.) and right nearby is an art opening at White Tiger for Casa de la Cultura, a pottery group for Latino women. The facebook page for the event says:

A brief history: Casa de la Cultura (House of Culture) was created in 2004 by a partnership of Casa de Amistad (a local non-profit that serves Latino families) and the Lyndon House to provide a creative outlet and an opportunity for support and friendship for Latino women. Since then, Casa de la Cultura has been offering free weekly clay workshops every Friday morning at the Lyndon House. Casa de la Cultura is an open group whose members are typically mothers of small children or women who work the late shift at the local poultry plants. Other members are our children, who join us while they are pre-schoolers and during the Summer months when they are out of school. We have also been lucky enough to have volunteer potters and non-potters offer all kinds of assistance: teaching workshops, providing technical help, giving rides to people, or just coming to make art with us. Our pots are sold in art sales around town. Artists are able to generate a small income by keeping 80% of the sale of their pieces. The other 20% goes to buy clay and glazes.

The exhibition closes with a Dia de los Muertos celebration Nov. 6.



From 6 to 9 p.m., a little farther away, is an opening reception at OCAF for two exhibitions: Profess, featuring work created by the art faculty from both the Oakwood and Oconee campuses at Gainesville State College, and Table’ de Art: Place Matters, an exhibition of placemats made in a variety of textile and fiber media produced by the Athens Fibercraft Guild. Mary Jessica Hammes had a great article in the Athens Banner-Herald about the latter yesterday. Both exhibitions run through Oct. 31.

Events start early on Saturday, with a Turning and Burning Day at Crocker Pottery in Lula, Ga., from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Click on the link for a map. This year will feature memorial exhibitions of works by Reggie and Anita Meaders, as well as a great selection of old and new pottery made by the Crocker family, many Meaders family pieces (from the ordinary to the very rare), unusual pieces by Bobby Ferguson and other Ferguson family members, and wares by Clint Alderman, Wayne Hewell, Roger Corn and other local potters. Michael Crocker, who sent out the email and has spoken at the museum's Henry D. Green Symposium of the Decorative Arts, notes, "Many potters in the Gillsville/Lula area will be out displaying and selling their pottery on this day. Be sure to pick up a Folk Potters Trail Map while here so you can easily find them."



It's also time for the R. Wood Studio fall sale, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., which you can find out more about here.

And, that evening, in Macon, Ken Burns will be in town for the opening of an exhibition of the works of William Segal, which the Georgia Museum of Art hopes to have at some point. The Macon Museum of Arts and Sciences doesn't have a lot of detail about the opening or the exhibition on its Web site, but here is a link to Segal's obituary, which explains some of what his work is about.