The exhibit includes known painters April Street, Edie Maney, and Julia Martin, woodturner Brenda Stein, installation artists Adrienne Outlaw and Sher Fick, award winning watercolorist Anne Bagby, multi-media artist Denise Stewart Sanabria, sculptor Irene Ritter, and photographer Caroline Allison. Curator, Terri Jordan, says of the exhibit, “I wanted to focus this Women’s History Month on some of the talented women currently making their way in the art world, that have a connection to Tennessee.”

Belle Boys' Advantage by Julia Martin, part of Modern Girls exhibit

The two-story Crouch Gallery of the Customs House Museum is the perfect setting for works like Street’s 90-inch colorful canvases. Street, who originates from the Appalachian Mountains, creates vibrant abstractions reminiscent at once of nature and sci-fi, using layer upon layer of paint. Bagby also likes to layer color and texture in her art. Having been featured in several publications, this award winning artist describes her work as “a combination of printmaking and painting, playing with the boundaries between design and texture.” Installation artist Adrienne Outlaw states “I am concerned with the often contentious debate about science, culture, and religion and how a seemingly willful lack of understanding hinders our development as better human beings.” Outlaw’s work can be found in collections throughout the world, including the Tennessee State Museum and the U.S, Embassy in Nigeria.

Along with the artwork, the museum will feature events throughout the run Modern Girls. Planned activities include a cocktail reception, a lunchtime film, and family craft projects. The exhibit will run through April 18th, 2010.

About the Customs House Museum

From its inception, the Museum has been committed to serving this community. This commitment is reflected through services such as scheduled free admission days throughout the year; free tours to all Clarksville-Montgomery County public schools; and monthly family-oriented special events.

The Customs House Museum is located at the corner of Second and Commerce Streets. Regular museum hours are 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 pm on Sundays. Adult admission is $5, Sr. Citizens $4, College ID $2, Ages 6 to 18 $1, and under six is free. For more information on above events contact Terri Jordan, Curator of Exhibits, at 931-648-5780 or .

The exhibit includes known painters April Street, Edie Maney, and Julia Martin, woodturner Brenda Stein, installation artists Adrienne Outlaw and Sher Fick, award winning watercolorist Anne Bagby, multi-media artist Denise Stewart Sanabria, sculptor Irene Ritter, and photographer Caroline Allison. Curator, Terri Jordan, says of the exhibit, “I wanted to focus this Women’s History Month on some of the talented women currently making their way in the art world, that have a connection to Tennessee.”

The two-story Crouch Gallery of the Customs House Museum is the perfect setting for works like Street’s 90-inch colorful canvases. Street, who originates from the Appalachian Mountains, creates vibrant abstractions reminiscent at once of nature and sci-fi, using layer upon layer of paint. Bagby also likes to layer color and texture in her art. Having been featured in several publications, this award winning artist describes her work as “a combination of printmaking and painting, playing with the boundaries between design and texture.” Installation artist Adrienne Outlaw states “I am concerned with the often contentious debate about science, culture, and religion and how a seemingly willful lack of understanding hinders our development as better human beings.” Outlaw’s work can be found in collections throughout the world, including the Tennessee State Museum and the U.S, Embassy in Nigeria.

Along with the artwork, the museum will feature events throughout the run Modern Girls. Planned activities include a cocktail reception, a lunchtime film, and family craft projects. The exhibit will run through April 18th, 2010.

From its inception, the Museum has been committed to serving this community. This commitment is reflected through services such as scheduled free admission days throughout the year; free tours to all Clarksville-Montgomery County public schools; and monthly family-oriented special events.

About the Customs House Museum

The Customs House Museum is located at the corner of Second and Commerce Streets. Regular museum hours are 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 pm on Sundays. Adult admission is $5, Sr. Citizens $4, College ID $2, Ages 6 to 18 $1, and under six is free. For more information on above events contact Terri Jordan, Curator of Exhibits, at 931-648-5780 or .

Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, “Visual Acoustics” explores the monumental career of architectural photographer Julius Shulman who died on July 15, 2009, at the age of 99. Populating his photos with human models and striking landscapes, Shulman combined the organic with the synthetic, melding nature with revolutionary urban design. The resulting images helped to shape the careers of some of the greatest architects of the 20th Century, with Shulman documenting the work of Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, Pierre Koening, John Lautner, and many others.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Taking its aesthetic cues from Shulman’s own sensual and nuanced photography, the film’s narrative is built from a blend of Shulman’s own images as well as in-depth interviews with architect Frank Gehry, designer Tom Ford, artist Ed Ruscha, actress Kelly Lynch, writer Mitch Glazer, publisher Benedikt Taschen, Academy Award-nominated cinematographer Dante Spinotti and a host of others.

On Saturday, Bricker will be joined by Mike Fink, graphic artist and Southern California modernism expert, and Jimmy Mann, architect with Clark and Associates Architects, Inc., for a panel discussion with the audience regarding the film.

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of the Southern Arts Federation, a not-for-profit regional arts organization making a positive difference in the arts throughout the South since 1975. The Southern Arts Federation is supported by funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Special support for Southern Circuit is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For more information on the Southern Arts Federation and its programs visit www.southarts.org.

Last fall, the Southern Circuit Tour brought three independent filmmakers to Clarksville to present their movies. This spring semester, the series, sponsored by the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts and the Customs House Museum, will bring three independent films to Clarksville – “Visual Acoustics” on Feb. 6, “The Reckoning: The Battle for an International Criminal Court” on March 6 and “”Bleacher Boys” on April 3.

The Austin Peay State University Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts seeks to inspire an appreciation for the creative arts in APSU students and the citizens of the Montgomery County region through innovative programming, strategic partnerships and community outreach. For more information on the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, visit www.apsu.edu/creativearts.

The Customs House Museum is located in downtown historic Clarksville. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 p.m. on Sundays. Admission fees are $5 adults, $4 Senior citizens, $2 college ID, $1 ages 6 to 18. Children under 6 are free. The museum is free on Sundays.

Ross Jordan exhibits a variety of oil paintings created throughout his life.

Jordan was always interested in creating but did not start to focus on his art until he had been in the army and raised a family. The subjects are personal to Ross. Whether a landscape of the Nashville skyline or a father gently fixing his daughter’s hair, each painting reveals a part of Jordan’s life. The exhibit is displayed in the Orgain Gallery through February 28^th.

In conjunction with Ross’s exhibit, the museum is showcasing Ludie Amos’ polymer dolls in the Bruner Gallery. The series, entitled “The Artisans” include a sculptor, a potter, and a basket weaver, among others. Amos, a resident of Clarksville, spends several hours studying artists at craft fairs and demonstration prior to working with polymer and cloth. She creates the doll, accessories, and clothing herself, always paying attention to detail and scale. Ludie’s dolls will be on exhibit through April 3^rd.

On the historical side, the Customs House will feature Dr. Robert Burt, known for starting the Home Infirmary, the first hospital in Clarksville. Dr. Burt was a skilled surgeon, performing between 300 and 400 procedures a year during his time as a practicing physician. He was doing C- sections years before they were common practice, held tonsil clinics for needy children, and treated obstetric patients at Fort Campbell before there was a hospital on Post. Adjacent to the Dr. Burt exhibit, the museum hosts a small military display in the Treasure’s Vault.

The Customs House Museum is located at the corner of Second and Commerce Streets. Regular museum hours are 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 pm on Sundays. Adult admission is $5, Sr. Citizens $4, College ID $2, Ages 6 to 18 $1, and under six is free. For more information or images on above events, contact Terri Jordan, Community Relations Director, at 931-648-5780 or .

From 1950 to his death in 1970, ET Wickham created a bevy of statues which featured Indian chiefs, politicians, patriots, and religious figures. The record shows that during this period he built over 30 life-size concrete statues.  Wickham’s art is a well kept secret and a cultural treasure trove. Sadly over the last few years the statues have been repeatedly targeted by vandals. His work is featured at the Wickham Stone Park for more information visit their web site.

Christopher Burawa, the Director of the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts pointed out “The philosophy behind the series is that Art can happen any time, any place”. In our community the Center certainly fulfills that goal admirably.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Picasso - Karsh Yousuf

Yousuf Karsh was known as the master of studio lighting. He had a gift for capturing the essence of his subject. Throughout his career, Karsh used a 1940s 8 x 10 bellows Calumet camera. One of his trademark techniques was to light the subject’s hands separately.

His portrait of Winston Churchill catapulted Karsh to fame when it was sold to Life magazine. This portrait is included in the museum’s exhibit. Also included are Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Muhammad Ali, and others. At first glance, the images staring back you appear more as charcoal renderings than photographs.

Yousuf Karsh went on to win numerous awards and publish fifteen books of his work. His photographs can be found in such collections as the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the International Museum of Photography. In 2000, Karsh was named as one of the 100 most notable people of the century by the International Who’s Who. He was not only the only photographer named, but had himself, photographed more than half the others named.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the museum will offer programming through December and January, including an evening showing of Picasso: Magic, Sex, Death on December 15th and an opportunity to enjoy your lunch while screening a short art film on January 12th. The lunchtime screening is free, while the evening performance has a three dollar admission fee unless you are a museum member.

The exhibit will run through January 17, 2010. The Customs House Museum is located at the corner of Second and Commerce Streets. Regular museum hours are 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 pm on Sundays. Adult admission is $5, Sr. Citizens $4, College ID $2, Ages 6 to 18 $1, and under six is free. For more information on above events, or interest in purchasing all or part of the collection, contact Terri Jordan, Community Relations Director, at 931-648-5780 or .

The December First Thursday Art Walk is bigger than ever this month with exhibits from over 40 artists in 9 different venues, including the Customs House Museum, and the brand new Austin Peay Downtown Art Gallery.

Come spend an delightful evening with many of the best artists in Clarksville-Montgomery County.

Kendall Welsh from ARTIfacts was kind enough to send us this information about December’s artistic extravaganza.

Clarksville/Montgomery County Arts and Heritage Development Council

The Clarksville/Montgomery County Arts and Heritage Development Council invites you to join us for a reception to celebrate the opening of this year’s second high school art performance and exhibit.

December 3, 2009 – 4:00p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Dramatic performance at 4:45 p.m.

• Student Art Gallery, Customs House Museum, 200 S. Second St.
• Art by Kenwood High School students
• Dramatic cutting by Rossview High School students

After the reception, you are invited to continue celebrating the arts in Clarksville on Franklin Street and Strawberry Alley for December’s First Thursday Art Walk.

Downtown Artists Co-Op

The Downtown Artists Co-Op is having their annual Holiday Bazaar.  These are usually smaller works such as 4×6 oil paintings on canvas to 11×14 framed photographs that are provided by the DAC members.  These hand-crafted pieces of art are priced to make them attractive as thoughtful gifts.  The reception will be from 5 until 8 p.m. with The Red River Breeze musical group providing live entertainment with a blend of Celtic and contemporary music. Red River Breeze plays a mixture of traditional folk music, primarily Celtic, Renaissance and Old Time American. The music is all instrumental and is played strictly acoustic which allows the group’s sound to be easy to listen to and very melodic.

• Amy Slater – ceramics
• Cliff Whittaker – photography
• Richard Hogan – painting
• Gail Myers – painting
• Liz Forney – jewelry
• Connie Livingston-Dunne – Fractals
• Susan Bryant – photography
• Dorothy Thomason – painting
• Cyndi McGrail – painting
• Nada Fuqua – painting
• Heidi Hopkins – photography

Peg Harvill Gallery in the Roxy Regional theatre

The Peg Harvill Gallery in the Roxy Regional Theatre will present the work of Claire Coyle Taylor, Nathaniel Taylor and Bobby Conroy Taylor now through December 19. The show will open Thursday at 5pm to coincide with the Roxy’s annual Toy Drive. Thursday night only, you may bring a toy in exchange for a ticket for a sneak preview of the holiday classic HANSEL AND GRETEL. Curtain is a 7pm and the show is rated K for kid-appropriate!

The FrameMaker

The FrameMaker located on 705 North Second Street, will be featuring photographer, Greg Sand.  Greg Sand is an artist and photographer who explores the issues of existence, time, and death. He works primarily with digital photography to produce work that addresses the nature of photography and its role in defining reality. Sand received his BFA in Photography from Austin Peay State University in 2008. The photograph exhibit is “Morphology” -

Morphology is a series about beauty and death. It is an observation of the visual marvels of creatures that were once full of life, but now lie motionless beneath a loupe. This series is a reminder of the ephemeral yet beautiful nature of life.

Visions Metaphysical Boutique

Visions Metaphysical Boutique will have artist Amanda Harrison, acrylics (modern/abstract), & Afton Chandler, acrylics (modern/impressionist).  Visions also would like to encourage everyone to come see all the street art before it is auctioned on Saturday.

Ingredients

Ingredients will feature jewelry designer Melanie Hazen, a high school librarian who has been creating jewelry for the past eight plus years in Cumberland City, Tennessee.  Melanie creates beautiful handmade mixed metal and lampwork glass jewelry.

Ingredients will also be featuring fitness instructor Ludgerio “Nino” Mora.  Nino has been a personal trainer for 9 years, he owns and operates Total Fitness Personal Training located at 110 Franklin Street, Suite 200. Nino will be conducting BMI testing, blood pressure reading, diet plans, and samples of protein bars and drinks.

Austin Peay Downtown Gallery

The Austin Peay Downtown Gallery first opened in early November with “Whatever,” an exhibit of work by APSU Art alumni. Gregg Schlanger, art department chair, said this new show will feature pieces created by full-time and adjunct faculty.   Faculty members participating in the show include Greg Schlanger, Kell Black, Susan Bryant, Mark DeYoung, Jim Diehr, Connie Livingston Dunn, Barry Jones, Rachel Kirk, Suta Lee, Cindy Marsh, Robert Neitzke, Brad Reagan, Billy Renkl, Ken Shipley, Jesse Shaw, Jennifer Snyder and Bruce Childs.

ARTIfacts Emporium

ARTIfacts Emporium will feature the art of Lee Ireland and Peggy Bonnington.

Lee Ireland has been a multi-media artist for over twenty years. She began her career in pastels and pen & ink but ultimately found her niche working with the brilliance of glass in all in various forms.  She started with stained glass windows of all sizes and displayed with the local art group ARTZ. She quickly branched out into mosaics turning shards of glass, broken plates and mirrors into decorative works of art.

Peggy Bonnington has studied and made art from childhood, having worked with many well-known painters, potters, book and ceramic artists over time.  She has experimented with a variety of media including paint; ink, pencil and printing on paper; paper and bookmaking; ceramic mosaic and pottery; and other materials and techniques.  Collage and experimental mixed media particularly draw her.

Most recent work includes fanciful drawing, images and assemblages incorporating a variety of found objects, collected relics, collaged print or texture to create experimental mixed media works intended to be fun for artist and viewer alike.

Hodgepodge

Paige King’s Hodgepodge is featuring the art of Jennifer Ford.  Jennifer is a ceramics artist who lives and works in Clarksville Tennessee with her husband and three children. She received a BFA in ceramics from the University of South Carolina and has also studied at the Penland School of Crafts in North Carolina. Having three small children has made it difficult to find time to spend hours in the ceramics studio, so one day she picked up her iPhone and began taking pictures with it as a creative outlet.

Al and Emily Cantrell

Contra dance refers to several partnered folk dance styles, in which couples dance in two facing lines. A caller guides new and experienced dancers through a variety of dances. A dancer and his or her partner dance a series of figures, or moves, with each other and with another couple for a short period of time. They then repeat the same figures with the next couple. In the late 17th century, English country dances were introduced to French court dancing. The merging of the two styles resulted in contra dance. Eventually, it was westernized in the United States, giving way to the popular square dance.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The Cantrells in the Robert Redford film "A River Runs Through It"

The Cantrells have been touring their original folk and bluegrass music in concerts and festivals since 1985. They have recorded CD’s with Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas and Mark Schatz of Nickel Creek. Emily and Al were hand-picked by Robert Redford for his film A River Runs Through It. Previously, the Cantrells instructed a workshop at the Customs House on the history of Tennessee music.

Susan Kevra began calling and teaching traditional dances in 1991. She has worked throughout America and across the Atlantic. She is a member of the English Country Dance Band and author of “Trip to Phan Reel” and “The Country of Marriage.” Susan resides in Nashville, where she teaches at Vanderbilt University.

The Customs House Museum’s Harvest dance is funded in part from a Tennessee Arts Commission grant. Ticket prices are $25 for couples and $15 for individuals. Tickets for the event can be purchased at the door on the night of the dance. The Customs House Museum is located at 200 South Second Street in historic downtown Clarksville. Museum hours are 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday and 1 pm to 5 pm on Sundays. Admissions for entry are $5 adults, $4 Senior citizens, $2 college students, $1 ages 6 – 18, and free under age 6.

Yousuf Karsh was known as the master of studio lighting. He had a gift for capturing the essence of his subject. Throughout his career, Karsh used a 1940’s 8 x 10 bellows Calumet camera. One of his trademark techniques was to light the subject’s hands separately.

Picasso - Karsh Yousuf

His portrait of Winston Churchill catapulted Karsh to fame when it was sold to Life magazine. This portrait is included in the museum’s exhibit. Also included are Albert Einstein, Pablo Picasso, Muhammad Ali, and others. At first glance, the images staring back you appear more as charcoal renderings than photographs. Yousuf Karsh went on to win numerous awards and publish fifteen books of his work. His photographs can be found in such collections as the Art Institute of Chicago, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the International Museum of Photography. In 2000, Karsh was named as one of the 100 most notable people of the century by the International Who’s Who.

In conjunction with the exhibit, the museum will offer programming through November and December, including two opportunities to enjoy your lunch while screening the films Picasso: Magic, Sex, Death and Masters of Photography: Andre Kertesz. The adjacent Bruner gallery hosts an interactive portrait exhibit during the run of the Karsh collection.

The exhibit will run through January 4, 2010.

About the Customs House Museum

The Customs House Museum is the second largest general museum in the state of Tennessee, located at the corner of Second and Commerce Streets. Regular museum hours are 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 pm on Sundays. Adult admission is $5, Sr. Citizens $4, College ID $2, Ages 6 to 18 $1, and under six is free. For more information on above events, or interest in purchasing all or part of the collection, contact Terri Jordan, Community Relations Director, at 931-648-5780 or .

“Milking the Rhino” tells a nuanced tale of human-wildlife coexistence in post-colonial Africa. The Maasai tribe of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba—two of Earth’s oldest cattle cultures—are in the midst of upheaval. Emerging from a century of “white man conservation,” which turned their lands into game reserves and fueled resentment towards wildlife, Himba and Maasai communities are now vying for a piece of the wildlife-tourism pie. Community-based conservation, which tries to balance the needs of wildlife and people, has been touted by environmentalists as “win-win.” The reality, however, is more complex. “A rhino means nothing to me! I can’t kill it for meat like a cow.” And when drought decimates the grass shared by livestock and wildlife, the community’s commitment to conservation is sorely tested.

Click here to view the embedded video.

David E Simpson reviewing footage

David E. Simpson has crafted award-winning films for 25 years. As a producer, director and editor he plies his trade in the belief that a well-told story can move viewers’ hearts and minds regarding crucial, human issues. David co-produced and directed “When Billy Broke His Head,” a documentary about disability culture that won the Sundance Film Festival’s Freedom of Expression Award. David directed “Refrigerator Mothers,” about a generation of mothers who raised autistic children under the shadow of professionally-promoted mother-blame. The film won top honors at the Florida, Indiana, and Sedona film festivals and aired on the PBS series P.O.V. David also produced and directed “Halsted Street, USA,” a multi-award-winning snapshot of America through the prism of one multicultural street. His experimental narrative, “Dante’s Dream,” a re-working of Dante’s cosmology, earned five 1st place festival awards.

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of the Southern Arts Federation, a not-for-profit regional arts organization making a positive difference in the arts throughout the South since 1975. Southern Arts Federation is supported by funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Special support for Southern Circuit is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For more information on the Southern Arts Federation and its programs visit www.southarts.org.

About the Customs House Museum

The Customs House Museum is located in downtown historic Clarksville. Hours are 10 am to 5 pm Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5pm on Sundays. Admission fees are $5 adults, $4 Senior citizens, $2 college ID, $1 ages 6 to 18. Children under 6 are free. The museum is free on Sundays

]]> http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2009/11/02/%e2%80%9cmilking-the-rhino%e2%80%9d-chronicles-the-struggles-of-wildlife-conservation-in-africa/feed/ 0 http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2009/09/25/%e2%80%9cpants-on-fire%e2%80%9d-shares-the-humorous-misadventures-of-struggling-actor-in-l-a/ http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/2009/09/25/%e2%80%9cpants-on-fire%e2%80%9d-shares-the-humorous-misadventures-of-struggling-actor-in-l-a/#comments Fri, 25 Sep 2009 22:55:06 +0000 News Staff http://www.clarksvilleonline.com/?p=25977 The Customs House Museum and Austin Peay State University present “Pants on Fire” with Producer/Director Colin Campbell as part of the Southern Arts Federation’s Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers in the museum’s theater on October third at 2 pm. Admission to the screening is free. Following a screening of his feature film, “Pants on Fire,” Campbell will engage the audience in a discussion about the film and his work as a filmmaker,

“Pants on Fire” tells the story of Brad Spoofer, a pathological liar on a quest for glory. Brad quit the Feed Barn Etc. back in Nebraska and moved to L.A. to become a movie star. His Hollywood career, however, has been a dismal failure. He’s the guy on the street corner dressed like a pirate and hawking mattresses. To save face, he’s been telling his naïve friends back home that he’s a movie star whose blockbusters are all about to be released in theaters. When his buddies decide to surprise him with a road trip to L.A., he has to scramble to prop up the illusion. Luckily, he scores a house-sitting gig for a wealthy couple in Bel Air and is able to keep the lie going, until he foolishly claims to be friends with the guy who played Pedro in “Napoleon Dynamite.” His awed buddies clamor to meet their idol. In the meantime, Brad has fallen for Lucy, a cute painter who decorates trash cans for a living and who mistakenly assumes Brad is a rich actor living in the hills. As his lies multiply and his checks bounce, he has to dodge the thug who took his headshots and never got paid, woo the girl, keep his job and, somehow, deliver Pedro.

A scene from Pants on Fire

Colin Campbell

Colin Campbell is a writer and director for theater and film. He was nominated for an Academy Award for his short film, “Seraglio,” which he wrote, directed and produced with his wife, Gail Lerner. “Seraglio” also won Deauville’s Grand Prix and First Place Audience Award at Algarve International Film Festival and the New Haven Film Festival, and ran for two years on HBO. His screenplay, “Harrow Lake,” was chosen for Film Independent’s 2005 Screenwriters Lab and was recently optioned by Paranormal Media. Colin regularly writes and directs for Instant Films, where he’s won Best Writer, Best Director and numerous Best Film Awards. “Pants on Fire” is his feature directing debut.

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of the Southern Arts Federation, a not-for-profit regional arts organization making a positive difference in the arts throughout the South since 1975. Southern Arts Federation is supported by funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Special support for Southern Circuit is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For more information on the Southern Arts Federation and its programs visit www.southarts.org.

The Customs House Museum is located in historic downtown Clarksville. Museum hours are 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Saturday, and 1 to 5 pm on Sundays. Admission fees are adults $5, Sr. citizens $4, college ID $2, 6 to 18 years $1, and free for those under 6 years.

Alan LeQuire's Dream Forest (Photo by: Amy Anderson)

The Fall Equinox Writers Hour is in conjunction with artist Alan LeQuire’s installation Dream Forest. LeQuire is an international artist whose work is highly sought after. LeQuire is best known for creating Athena, one of the largest indoor sculptures in the western world, located in Nashville’s Parthenon. Alan’s work includes Tennessee’s Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial and a large bronze relief for the Tennessee State Capitol. Included in his many awards and commendations are a Tennessee Governor’s Citation in 1987 and the American Institute of Architects Design Award for Athena Parthenos.

With this exhibit, Alan LeQuire has merged environmental beauty with the human form, something he believes all viewers respond to as far as subject matter in art. The large textured forms of “Dream Forest” morph gracefully into classical Italian torsos reminiscent of the works LeQuire apprenticed under in his early years. The sculptures flow into the forest floor with poetic narration. The vision completes with eight-foot woodcut prints and a suspended forest ceiling.

“Dream Forest” has made its debut in the transformed Crouch Gallery of the museum.

LeQuire has designed his newest works specific to this space. He says of the show “My goal is to take my usual concrete concerns such as form, texture and spatial relationships, and to place them in a setting that conveys a dreamlike state of consciousness, where ideas are born and all is in a state of flux. I want to explore how this environment changes and affects solid form. I want the viewer to experience something more than sculpture as object. These sculptures will convey a living presence within a space that is deeply significant.”

The exhibit will run through September 27, 2009. The Customs House Museum is the second largest general museum in the state of Tennessee, located at the corner of Second and Commerce Streets. For more information on above event, or if you are interested in reading your works, contact Terri Jordan, Community Relations Director, at 931-648-5780 or .

On June 18, 1964 a white hotel owner in St. Augustine, Florida, poured acid in a swimming pool filled with black and white youth conducting a civil rights demonstration. Photographs of this horrific incident were on the front page of every major newspaper around the world and broke the filibuster in the Senate allowing President Johnson to sign the Civil Rights Act into law. With rarely seen news footage and revealing interviews, “Dare Not Walk Alone” uncovers the untold story of the St. Augustine movement that led to this historic legislation. But far from a history lesson, the film also looks at the aftermath of desegregation and the grim realities of life today on streets where those campaigns were fought, in a place that symbolizes what Barack Obama has called “the gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of our time.” This film has been called the “Civil Rights film for the modern age” and in the end we see signs of hope and reconciliation as well as a challenge to take the next step forward.

Click here to view the embedded video.

An award-winning film, “Dare Not Walk Alone” has screened at numerous festivals, including the Atlanta Film Festival, Cinequest Film Festival, Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, Florida Film Festival, Jacksonville Film Festival, Sarasota International Film Festival, Connecticut Film Festival, San Francisco Black Film Festival, and the Western New York Black Film Festival. The film received the Audience Award from Deep Focus Film Festival in Columbus, Ohio.

The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of the Southern Arts Federation, a not-for-profit regional arts organization making a positive difference in the arts throughout the South since 1975.  Southern Arts Federation is supported by funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. Special support for Southern Circuit is provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. For more information on the Southern Arts Federation and its programs visit www.southarts.org.

The film is the first in the series. Addition films will be shown at the museum in October and November. The spring tour will take place at Austin Peay University. While all films are free, donations will be accepted for this and other film programming. Vanderbilt University is also participating in the Southern Circuit Tour. Their first screening is September 17th at 7 pm with the film “Let Them Know: The Story of Youth Brigade and B.Y.O. Records.”

The Customs House Museum is located at 200 South Second Street in Historic downtown Clarksville. Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 am to 5 pm. Admission to the museum is $5 adults, $4 senior citizens, $2 college students, $1 ages 6 to 18, and under 6 free. Information on exhibits and events can be found at www.customshousemuseum.org.

The evening’s activities will include a silent auction and following the dinner, a live auction with items that include art by Suta Lee and Olen Bryant, a Titans “Weekend for Two,” and a Big Green Egg grill. The signature piece for this year’s auction was created by David Redmond, who is a retired dentist living in the Memphis area with ties to Clarksville. Redmond recently exhibited his watercolors at the Customs House Museum.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Dinner will be provided by Passport Catering of Nashville, with music by Floyd the Barber.

Tickets are $100 for museum members; $150 for non-members. Further information, contact: Linda Maki, 648-5780.

The Lewis publication is the third exhibit catalog produced by BLF Marketing and Customs House Museum to win top TAM honors. The catalog Olen Bryant: A Retrospective Reelfoot Lake: Tradition, Mystery & Lore won the top award in 2006.

TAM awards are intended to recognize, encourage, and promote excellence within the Tennessee museum community. The Lewis catalog won in the category of publications produced by medium-sized museums. Factors considered by TAM included content, design, writing, art/photos, appeal, quality, concept, originality and successfulness, as measured in published reviews or other documentation.

Lewis’ woodcarvings and stone sculptures have made him one of Kentucky’s most celebrated folk artists. The Folk Art Society of America named Lewis their Artist of the Year in 2007.

The Customs House Museum is located in Clarksville’s historic downtown district, and is the second largest general museum in Tennessee.

About BLF Marketing

BLF Marketing focuses its strategic, analytical and creative expertise in the industries of banking, business-to-business, home building, healthcare, economic development and tourism. Founded in 1978, this 20-person firm orchestrates successful marketing endeavors for clients in six states.