Art-Full Barn Scholarship Show

The Art-Full Barn's Annual Art Supply Scholarship Show will be on display from May 9th through May 24. This show and competition is open to any high school senior who is enrolled to begin college this fall as an intended art major; seniors may come from any public, private or home school program. Entry is free and winners will be announced at a reception on May 24. Grand prize is a gift certificate for $500 of art supplies; winners may choose the art supplies they need for class supply lists or personal studios. This is the eighth year The Art-Full Barn has given this scholarship award and every year the display showcases phenomenal young artists. The public is invited to view the show any day. For more information, contact Gail Kimsey at 706-754-1247 or artfullbarn@yahoo.com.

Funky Prom at GHCA

6th Annual "Funky Prom" is Friday May 15th at the Georgia Heritage Center for the Arts Education Building at 157 Mary Street, Clarkesville. This is the prom you wished you had attended in high school. Every spring the dancers scour the thrift stores trying to find the tackiest outfit to come dancing in. The dance starts at 8 p.m. and the cost is $10.00 per person for this special event. The evening starts with ballroom and slowly introduces rock and roll music, line dancing and country western. For more information call 706-754-5989.

Photographers & quilter help author-fiddler benefit festival

Visitors to the mountains who attend the upcoming Wild & Woolly Wine Tasting & Author-Fiddler Festival can count on a heady mix of authors, fiddlers, poets, food, wine and a few native plants for sale, all for the benefit of Georgia ForestWatch, the well-known non-profit forest conservation organization.

And now add two talented photographers and an expert quilter to the mix.

Local artist Pat Calderone of Scaly, North Carolina, and photographer Peter McIntosh of Clayton, Georgia, are donating two beautiful prints to the cause, which will go home to the winners of a raffle that will be held that day. (Cost: $1 per ticket, six tickets for $5.00. Winners need not be present to win. Also to be raffled: Assorted gear from Patagonia and a rain barrel, courtesy of the Rain Barrel Co.)

Cara Busch, meanwhile, a noted quilter from Ellijay, Georgia, is donating a handsome quilt for the raffle, a cotton wall hanging, 16.75 X 35 inches in size, entitled “Wild Columbine.”
In addition, the noted environmentally minded, free-lance photographer, Kathryn Kolb, will be one of the presenters at the event, set for 10-5 p.m., Saturday, May 2, at Tiger Mountain Vineyards in Tiger, Georgia. (See www.gafw.org for directions to the site and a detailed schedule of presentations, as well as greater information on each of the six authors speaking that Saturday: Mildred Greear, Helen, Georgia; George Ella Lyon, Lexington, Kentucky; Thomas Rain Crowe, Cullowhee, North Carolina; John Lane, Spartanburg, South Carolina and Janie P. Taylor, Tiger, Georgia.)

Three talented local fiddlers will fiddle while visitors enjoy a taste of red and white from the award-winning farm winery and some mighty delectable local food fare: Scottish-style fiddler Marie Dunkle, Tiger, Georgia; old-timey fiddler Kelly Smith, Salem, South Carolina; and John Harper Duncan, maker of down-home Appalachian music, Asheville, North Carolina.

For the raffle photographers, see www.web.mac.com/patcalderone as well as www.mcintoshmountains.com. For Busch’s work, see: www.etsy.com

Georgia ForestWatch has strived to organize the event as an “affordable fundraiser,” and asks for a $20 entry fee per each adult, good for the plant sale or authors and fiddlers, or both, as well as the food and wine. Several of the authors’ autographed books also will be for sale.

Rabun Walk. Photo by Pat Calderone. Up the trail leading to Rabun Bald.

Betty’s Creek. Photo by Peter McIntosh. A wild waterway in Rabun County.

Wild Columbine. By Cara Busch. Machine piece, hand quilted with color washes.