Educational Symposium for Tourism Professionals

19th Annual Winter Chautauqua
Sunday, March 1 - Monday, March 2

Sponsored by the Northwest Historic High Country and Northeast Georgia Mountains Travel Associations, the Winter Chautauqua's general session speaker will be Taylor Bruce from Southern Living Magazine.

Registration for the tourism conference is open – all details available at: www.WinterChautauqua.com. Pay online or print the registration to send in with your check. Please click here to download the event's brochure which includes a registration sheet. This is a large file and may take a few moments to fully load. Register by February 25th to avoid the late registration fee.

North Carolna Neighbors open new performing arts venue

Destined to become a premier venue for top-notch performances, the new Smoky Mountain Center for the Performing Arts in Franklin, NC plans to present the finest in performing arts in an atmosphere of stunning architecture, technical facilities and impeccable acoustics. The 1,500 seat state-of-the-art facility provices a creative environment for both performers and audiences. Look here for the schedule, and more to come!

The Center opens July 3 with the four-part harmonies and upbeat songs of the Oak Ridge Boys.

Celebrate Clayton 5K Run

Scheduled for Saturday April 25, the Celebrate Clayton 5K Run challenges runners of all levels on a fun course climbing through the rolling hills of Rabun County in the Northeast Georgia mountains. The race begins and ends on Ramey Boulevard in Clayton, Georgia.

You may register online , or contact Gary Jenkins, 678-795-0115. The run is sponsored by PEARLS JWC of Rabun County; please contact Laura Lane, 706,782-0906, for more information.

Call for Artists - 10th Annual Celebrate Clayton

Celebrate Clayton, Rabun County's Arts & Music Fest, invites artists to participate in the 1oth annual festival, scheduled for April 25-26 in Clayton, Ga. The event is open to all fine craft makers, artists and gardeners, 18 years of age or older.

Celebrate Clayton is an arts, music, crafts and gardening event, which also features a super kids' prorgram. It is held annually on the last weekend of April.

Applications are now online at www.celebrateclayton.com. Please cotact Jan Timms for exhibitor information, 706,212-9995.

Super Saturday at the Center

Events for the history buff, the arts lover, and the theatre patron are planned for Saturday, February 28, at the Sautee-Nacoochee Center.

Super Saturday begins at 8am with Simply Breakfast -- all-you-can-eat pancakes, sausage, and a beverage. Breakfast is $5 for adults, $3 for children ages 6-12, and free for children under 6. Reservations are not required.

After breakfast, you can participate in the Sautee Nacoochee Community Association's "Raise the Roof." The SNCA is restoring an 1850's slave cabin, and will be selling hand-split oak shakes to cover the roof of the cabin. Each shake is $10 and your name will be commemorated on a specially created work of art. There will be folk life demonstrators, folk musicians, and tours of the restoration site throughout the morning, as follows:

• 9am - Bob Slack demonstrates riving (splitting) shingles with traditional tools while local musicians keep time to the whack of the maul (wooden mallet) and crack of the froe (metal splitting wedge) with lively tunes
• 10am - Mike Craven demonstrates folk pottery techniques
• 11am - Dr. Tom Lumsden will lead a history walk of the Ceremonial Stone Circle on Alec Mountain. Meet at the Community Hall for an introduction.

On Saturday afternoon, you can view the new "Fiber Arts" exhibit in the Center Gallery, enjoy a fiber art demonstration, get in on the action at the Artists' Trading Card Swap, and meet the artists during the Gallery Reception. The "Fiber Arts" exhibit features the work of the local Fiber Soup Group artists Lynda Doll, Jane threlkeld, Beverly Mannes, Denise Hopkins, Lucia Scroggs, Betty Cooper and Suzy MacKay. Collages by Kathy Whitehead and Nancy Hicks will also be on display.

• 3 - 5 pm - Fiber art demonstration by Marilyn Wall and Martine House
• 4 - 6 pm - Artists' Trading Card Swap
• 5 - 8 pm - Gallery Reception
  

Finally, plan to stay for the Playwright's Showcase. The SNCA will present staged readings of the three winners from their One Act Play Contest, chosen by the Center's Theatre Committee as part of a national contest designed to nurture, support and encourage the development of playwrights. The winning plays are: Jon Dahlstrom's The Girl Who Walked with Music, Tim Quigley's 'Twas the Night Before a Christmas Carol, and Maia Akiva's Me. Both Mr. Dahlstrom and Mr. Quigley are from the Dahlonega area, and Ms. Akiva is originally from Israel and now resides in Los Angeles.

Attendees will have an opportunity to hear original work and to participate in audience feedback with the playwrights after the readings. Tickets are $5 each (+ tax) and are available online at www.snca.org or by calling the Center at 706-878-3300.

New Folk Pottery Exhibit

The earliest dated piece of North Georgia folk pottery is now on exhibit in the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia, located in Sautee-Nacoochee. The four-gallon jar is on loan from the collection of the High Museum of Art in Atlanta.

Winter Pottery Fest February 14 - 16

The Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia and "Ladies of the Lake" present their second annual Winter Pottery Fest to celebrate a craft that has thrived in region for more than 200 years.

The tour begins at the Folk Pottery Museum of Northeast Georgia, located on Hwy 255 just north of the junction with Hwy 17. Exhibits and videos show how early settlers shaped earth and water into vessels and the evolution of pottery through many generations. Several folk potters will be demonstrating at the museum.

Visitors can follow Hwy 255 north and turn on Hwy 197 toward Lake Burton and find more demonstrating artists at Hickory Flat Pottery, Cottage Cottage Furniture and Burton Gallery Emporium.

For more information www.snca.org

Southern Literary Trail features Lillian E. Smith Center In Clayton

The new Southern Literary Trail links the homes and hometowns of the South's finest classic authors in Georgia, Alabama and Mississipi. Organizers kick off the project this March with a month-long celebration of tours, plays, films, readings and other special events.

The Lillian E. Smith Center in Clayton is one of seven sites in Georgia on the Southern Literary Trail. Special events are planned for the weekend of March 14-15 to include:

March 14, 9 a.m. - Films & Lectures at the Rearden Theater, Rabun Gap-Nacoochee School
Two documentary films, "Miss Smith of Georgia" and "Miss Lil's Camp" will be shown, followed by presentations by two contemporary scholars and award-winning writers: Rose Gladney and Will Brantley
March 14, 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. - Guided tours of the Lillian E. Smith Center, including the writer's living space, library, cottages, a small house museum and her gravesite.
March 14, 3 p.m. - Documentary Films - Lillian E. Smith Center
March 15, 10 a.m. - Guided tours of the Lillian E. Smith Center
March 15, 11 a.m. - Documentary Films - Lillian E. Smith Center

The Rabun County Historical Society is featuring a new exhibit entitled "Lillian Smith: Miss Lil and her Rabun County Neighbors" through the month of March in honor of the Southern Literary Trail.

In addition to Lillian E. Smith, the Southern Literary trail in Georgia also features Margaret Mitchell, Joel Chandler Harris, Erskine Caldwell, Alice Walker, Flannery O’Connor and Carson McCullers.

CHEROKEE PRESENTATION AND NATIVE AMERICAN LECTURE

Interested in learning local legends about Sautee, Nacoochee, Yonah, and the way the Indians of the White County area lived? Demonstrations, talks and myths about local Native American heritage will be presented on February 17 at 12 noon in the chapel at Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, GA.

White County had one of the largest American Indian settlements in North Georgia prior to colonial settlement. Speakers include Gracie Schwartzman, Mary Geidel, and Jill Hazen from the Sautee-Nacoochee Center; Donna Redfeather, Tina Shelton of Women of Heart, Kerry Marsh, and Kelly Wells playing Native American Flute.

This Cherokee presentation is sponsored by the Sautee-Nacoochee American Indian Conservancy Trust, Yonah Art Guild and Truett-McConnell College Art Department. For more information, call 706-969-1446 or 706-896-1060.

A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains

A special feature on Appalachia, A Hidden America: Children of the Mountains will be broadcast on ABC-TV this coming Friday, February 13th, at 10:00 pm (EST).