| For more information about this article or gallery, please call the gallery phone number listed in the last line of the article, "For more info..." |
December Issue 2004
Columbia
Museum of Art in Columbia, SC, to Show the Art of Jonathan Green
Dance, music and fine
art come together when the Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia,
SC, hosts the exhibition, Rhythms of Life: The Art of Jonathan
Green in celebration of the world premiere of the ballet,
Off the Wall and Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan
Green. The exhibit, organized by the Gibbes Museum of Art
in Charleston, SC, opens at the Columbia Museum of Art on Dec.
9 and runs through Feb. 13, 2005.
"We are delighted to welcome Jonathan Green to the Columbia
Museum of Art for his first-ever exhibition here," said museum
executive director Karen Brosius. "By collaborating with
two leading South Carolina arts institutions - the Columbia City
Ballet and the Gibbes Art Museum in Charleston - we are bringing
the best of South Carolina art and artists to Columbia."
Among the most popular artists in the Southeast, Green's vibrant
use of color and composition often depicts rural scenes and people
of the Gullah culture of the Sea Islands of the Carolinas and
Georgia.
The exhibition, Rhythms
of Life features over 35 paintings drawn from both public
and private collections. Green's work is recognized for its well-established
sense of place and the emphasis on the importance of community.
William Starrett's Off the Wall and Onto the Stage translates
these brilliantly colored and exuberant images to the contemporary
stage in a visionary return to classical ballet's blending of
dance, music and fine art. The world premiere takes place at the
Koger Center for the Arts in Columbia on Feb. 4, 2005.
Steve A. Matthews, managing partner of Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd,
P.A. says, "As a long-time supporter of the arts in South
Carolina, Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd is pleased to sponsor the Jonathan
Green exhibition in Columbia. Among the many accomplished artists
hailing from South Carolina, Green is one of the most widely acclaimed.
We are proud to help bring this important show of his work to
the Columbia Museum of Art." Merrill Lynch and Haynsworth
Sinkler Boyd, P.A. sponsor the Columbia presentation.
The Museum has planned several events in conjunction with the
exhibition including:
On Dec. 9, 2004, at 12:30pm - Gallery Talk with Jonathan Green.
Meet the artist and hear him talk about his art in the galleries.
Free with museum admission or membership.
On Dec. 11, 2004, from noon - 3pm -Hallelujah Singers Holiday
Concert. Hear the world-renowned vocal group from Beaufort, SC,
seen in the movie Forest Gump. The group preserves the
Gullah language and heritage through their music, and the singers
perform traditional plantation songs dating back to the 1600s.
Their style combines singing and storytelling to tell the unique
history of the Gullah culture and the influence it has on today's
culture. $8 or $5 for museum members. Call 803/799-2810 to reserve
your tickets.
On Dec. 11, 2004, at 2pm - Film: Family Across the Sea.
This film demonstrates how African Americans kept ties with their
homeland over centuries of oppression through their speech, songs
and customs. In the 1930s a pioneering black linguist, Lorenzo
Turner, discovered over 3,000 words of African origin in the Gullah
dialect. The film's conclusion, the moving return of a Gullah
delegation to Sierra Leone and the African "family"
they didn't realize they had, becomes a homecoming for all African
Americans. Free with museum admission or membership.
On Dec. 18, 2004, at 2pm - Film: The Language You Cry In.
An amazing scholarly detective story reaching across hundreds
of years and thousands of miles from 18th-century Sierra Leone
to the Gullah people of present day Georgia, recounts the remarkable
saga of how African Americans have retained links with their African
past through the horrors of the middle passage, slavery and segregation.
The film demonstrates the contribution of contemporary scholarship
to restoring what narrator Vertamae Grosvenor calls the "non-history"
imposed on African Americans. "This is a story of memory,
how the memory of a family was pieced together through a song
with legendary powers to connect those who sang it with their
roots." Free with museum admission or membership.
On Jan. 9, 2005, at 2pm - The Evolution of Off the Wall and
Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green. William
Starrett, Columbia Ballet's artistic director and choreographer
presents a program discussing the evolution of Off the Wall
and Onto the Stage: Dancing the Art of Jonathan Green. Dancers
from the company provide a short preview performance of one of
the ballet's vignettes. Free with museum admission or membership.
On Jan. 12, 2005, at 6pm - A Contemporary Evening. Wine and cheese
reception and private tour of the exhibition Rhythms of Life:
The Art of Jonathan Green. $5 or Contemporaries members free.
For more information check our SC Institutional Gallery listings,
call the Museum at 803/799-2810, or at (www.columbiamuseum.org).
Carolina Arts is published monthly by Shoestring Publishing Company, a subsidiary of PSMG, Inc. Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc., which published Charleston Arts from July 1987 - Dec. 1994 and South Carolina Arts from Jan. 1995 - Dec. 1996. It also publishes Carolina Arts Online, Copyright© 2004 by PSMG, Inc. All rights reserved by PSMG, Inc. or by the authors of articles. Reproduction or use without written permission is strictly prohibited. Carolina Arts is available throughout North & South Carolina.