Art World News

Remembering Myriam Ullens, art collector, and philanthropist, who launched the first contemporary art museum in China

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Remembering Myriam Ullens, art collector, and philanthropist, who launched the first contemporary art museum in China

Myriam Ullens, a noted supporter and champion of Chinese contemporary art, began her career by building a pastry business and then, through her marriage to the Belgian billionaire Guy Ullens, became an art collector, fashion entrepreneur and philanthropist.

Her life came to a violent end when she was fatally shot by her stepson Nicolas Ullens at her family home in Ohain, a village in the province of Walloon Brabant in central Belgium. Guy Ullens, 88, was sitting beside his wife in their car when she was shot, and was also injured in the leg. Nicolas Ullens, a former Belgian intelligence officer, said he killed his stepmother because he feared she would fritter away the family fortune. He has been charged with murder.

Myriam Ullens supported her husband in a pioneering project to build the first contemporary art museum in China, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, which opened in Beijing in 2007. The couple also established a school and educational foundation in Nepal. After surviving breast cancer, Myriam—who went by the name Mimi—created the Mimi Foundation to offer support to cancer victims. In 2011, she created a fashion label for high-end travel and leisure wear, Maison Ullens, with shops in Paris, New York and Aspen. “They were a couple who each supported the other’s passions,” says Jérôme Neutres, the chief curator of the Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation.

She was born Myriam Lechien, in Cologne, the daughter of a Belgian army officer. She met Guy Ullens, her third husband, in the early 1990s, soon after he had sold his family’s sugar-refining business, Tiense Suikerraffinaderij, for about $1 billion.

A mother of two young children, she was seeking backers to expand the pastry business that she had started in her own kitchen and which was taking over her house. “There were cakes everywhere,” she said in a television interview. “Even on the stairs.” In need of new premises, she contacted Ullens as a potential backer. “It was love at first sight! For the first time in my life,” she said in a 2014 interview with Madame Figaro. “He is a visionary, he is always so far ahead of the others.”

After Guy divorced his first wife, they married in 1999. Myriam gave up her pastry business and Guy, whose company had acquired Weight Watchers for $735 million that year, retired from business in 2000 so that both of them could focus on their philanthropic projects. In the early years of their marriage, that involved frequent travel to China.

Guy Ullens began collecting art in the 1960s, choosing to concentrate on undiscovered areas. He turned to Chinese art in the 1990s, “when no one was paying attention” to it, Neutres says. “Artists had been released, but were working for the state which had emancipated them, and they found themselves with no clients,” Ullens said in an interview with the Asian Art Newspaper in 2018. “We were the ones who happened to support them and we started to amass paintings. We were driven by sheer enthusiasm!”

Ullens Center for Contemporary Art became the centre of the Chinese contemporary art world at its location in Beijing’s 798 Art Zone, a former military industrial complex. Nevertheless, setting it up was “very demanding,” Guy Ullens said. “At some point my wife, who temporarily had to carry on with the project by herself as I was recovering from surgery, told me she could not go on,” he said. Myriam was still receiving treatment for breast cancer at this stage. “She suggested we stop, but I begged her to reconsider. Ultimately, by 2007, we had succeeded in opening the museum.”

The couple sold UCCA in 2017, but remained on the council of the foundation. It has since thrived and expanded. Philip Tinari, its present director, says that one of its legacies was to inspire dozens more private museums, set up by Chinese collectors. While Guy was the driving force behind the art collecting, Myriam was “very precise in her taste and her standards,” Tinari said. “She was focused on making UCCA a welcoming place—hospitality, branding and marketing were her special areas.”

If Guy Ullens was the primary energy behind UCCA, it was Myriam who first became involved in caring for children in Nepal. She took over a orphanage there in the early 1990s and renamed it Happy Home, according to Som Paneru, who became the manager in 1996. About 100 children, many taken off the streets and from jails, grew up in Happy Home and were educated in private schools before it closed in 2014.

“She was very kind-hearted and she could not bear to see children suffering,” Paneru says. “Whenever Mimi came there was a festival – she would shower them with love, pamper them, and take them shopping at Benetton.”

After 2000, Guy accompanied her on visits to Nepal and together they set up the Ullens School—the first school in the country to offer an international baccalaureate programme. It was initially set up to educate the orphanage children, many of whom have gone on to become business professionals, civil servants or teachers, Paneru says. “It was life-transforming for them. Otherwise these kids had no future, no hope,” he says. Though it is now a well-established educational institution, a fifth of the pupils are from under-privileged backgrounds and have scholarships, according to Paneru.

Myriam Ullens held a gala dinner auction at Sotheby’s during Frieze Week, in London in 2013, which raised over £1.35 million for her medical foundation

Myriam Ullens underwent chemotherapy for breast cancer after an aggressive tumour was discovered in 2003. By 2008, she was declared clear of it: “I will always remember New Year’s Day that year,” she said in the interview with Madame Figaro. “I burned my medical file. My hair, my eyelashes, my eyebrows started to grow back and life slowly returned.”

Shocked at the lack of non-medical care for cancer patients, she set up the Mimi Foundation in 2004 to provide centres of well-being in hospitals, employing psychologists, masseuses, beauticians and hairdressers. “We give them back their dignity,” she said in a 2014 advertisement for the charity. “They need some sunshine in their lives.”

Myriam Ullens held a gala dinner auction at Sotheby’s during Frieze Week, in London in 2013, which raised over £1.35 million for her foundation. Among the prizes was two weeks on Guy Ullens’ yacht, The Red Dragon, and a portrait by Yan Pei-Ming of King Charles III – then Prince Charles. The winning bidders were invited to a private dinner at Windsor Castle with Prince Charles. “We really saw her take her art connections and the goodwill she had amassed and use it for a good cause,” says Tinari, who was present at the event.

The initiative for the fashion company Maison Ullens also came jointly, Myriam said in a French television interview. She arrived dressing in a tracksuit for a flight with Guy, who said “Frankly, you don’t look very sexy like that,” she said. “So I responded by saying – right, I am going to launch my own fashion brand.” The brand, which aspires to unite elegance with travel comfort, includes Melania Trump, Christine Lagarde and Catherine Deneuve among its customers.

Myriam frequently said that Bill and Melinda Gates were her role models. Those who knew her describe her as humble, down-to-earth and low-key despite the wealth she married into. “When you are rich, you have as many problems as when you are poor,” she said in the television interview. “The problems are just different.”

Myriam Ullens’s death was a shocking end to full and varied life. She even wrote a novel, Distant Starless Nights, which is described on Amazon as “a captivating tale about one woman’s search for love across decades and continents.” It is possible her writing never quite reached the level of her baking – which she continued after giving up her pastry company. “I had the chance to try some cakes once,” Neutres says. “She was a remarkable chef.”

Myriam Lechien, born Cologne 23 September 1952; married first Roger Lemaire (one son, one daughter; marriage dissolved), second Christian de Moffarts (marriage dissolved), 1999 Guy Ullens de Schooten Whettnal; died Ohain, Belgium, 29 March 2023.

A New Survey Erases Male Artists From the Western Canon

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A New Survey Erases Male Artists From the Western Canon

THE STORY OF ART WITHOUT MEN, by Katy Hessel

“Men put me down as the best woman painter,” Georgia O’Keeffe once said. “I think I’m one of the best painters.” That famous quote by the American modernist serves as an epigraph in Part 2 of the Guardian columnist Katy Hessel’s sweeping first book, “The Story of Art Without Men.” “Women artists are not a trend,” Hessel maintains; and yet the contested category persists, not as a meaningful distinction but rather as a repercussion of patriarchy, a category that the male-dominated art world consistently, in O’Keeffe’s terms, diminishes.

Part revisionist history, part coffee-table book, part collective portrait, part archival treasure hunt, Hessel’s treatise covers the 1500s to the present in an attempt to make good on its title. But despite her best efforts, men can’t help appearing throughout, as rich husbands, abusive boyfriends, artist fathers, needy sons, muse-hungry painters, institutions and even that supreme male gaze, God’s.

In this 500-page tome, Hessel, who cites her Instagram account @thegreatwomenartists as part of the book’s origin, efficiently introduces us to a mosaic of artists, from the well-known Artemisia Gentileschi, Frida Kahlo, Hilma af Klint, Tracey Emin and Kara Walker to the lesser-known Elisabetta Sirani, Marie Denise Villers and Lady Butler, and even gestures toward the multitude of names that we might never know.

This is a photo of the book standing on a wood table. The coral-colored hardcover contains the words, “The Story of Art” in yellow font, “Without Men” in white outline and “Katy Hessel” in navy blue.
Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times

The book’s chronological and compendium-like structure allows for an abundance of “firsts”: Lavinia Fontana is “thought to be one of the first women in Western art to paint female nudes,” in 1595; Alma Thomas is “the first African American woman to achieve a solo exhibition at the Whitney,” in 1972; “A Lesbian Show” was “the first all-lesbian art show in the U.S.,” in New York City in 1978; the 20th-century Mexican artist Aurora Reyes Flores is considered “the first female Muralist”; and so on. The result is an engaging but necessarily clipped perspective. Through her narrative form and focus on representation, Hessel’s lineage of milestones obscures both the political history behind women’s exclusion from the canon and the possibility of struggle against it.

Hessel’s target audience is “anyone of any art-historical level interested in learning the stories of these mostly overshadowed artists.” It is unsurprising, then, that her survey — which includes roughly 300 images, a glossary of art-historical terminology and a six-page timeline of artists from the Dutch Golden Age to the Harlem Renaissance to today — favors the global over the local.

From the beginning Hessel warns that “this is not a definitive history — it would be an impossible task,” and acknowledges the challenges of her broad-stroked approach: the complications of fitting individuals into sanctioned aesthetic movements; the sensitivities around the vexed category of “woman artists,” which for Hessel is no longer a “derogatory” term but “an embodiment of power”; and the ever-evolving status of these distinctions in our present and future.

But although her index of names succeeds in providing some answer to the question posed in Linda Nochlin’s trailblazing 1971 essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?,” Hessel does less than Nochlin did, 50 years ago, to unsettle the terms of the question itself. Can inserting women into the art-historical canon interrupt the system of canonization itself? Why does Hessel rely on the same methods of archival organization — linear history, market-based tastes, distinct genre boundaries — that played a part in producing women’s very exclusion? How instead might the fact of women’s presence disrupt the presuppositions of art’s place in the world?

An especially moving chapter, “The Body in Sculpture,” initiates an answer. Here Hessel examines the midcentury sculpture of Eva Hesse, itself “difficult to describe,” and the performance art of Yoko Ono (“a genre defined by risk-taking”), and their engagements with the body’s virtues and grotesqueness, providing context for second-wave feminism’s focus on sexual violence and reproductive politics.

“How, through the power of art,” Hessel asks, “can you make people feel the visceral sensation of a body that has been hurt or scrutinized, idealized, or wrought with scars of barely comprehensible histories?”

Hessel also underscores how many of the artists in “The Story of Art Without Men” have been denied access to education, funding, gallery representation, media attention, attribution and even participation in public life. They have died poor, depressed, institutionalized or simply unknown. No book could repair those wrongs — but especially not one that remains concerned with indexing and inclusivity, rather than with a broader and more fervent social critique.

Tiana Reid is an assistant professor of English at York University. Her writing has appeared in The Times, Bookforum, Art in America and other publications.

THE STORY OF ART WITHOUT MEN | By Katy Hessel | Illustrated | 459 pp. | W.W. Norton & Company | $45

How two museums are resetting for a post-pandemic world

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How two museums are resetting for a post-pandemic world

On May 11, the COVID-19 public health emergency officially comes to an end. But recovery in the pandemic’s wake continues to challenge arts and cultural organizations. Since shuttering for months in 2020, museums of all sizes have struggled to regain their financial footing and their audiences. According to the American Alliance of Museums, attendance was down nearly 40% in 2021, and operating incomes continued to sink at institutions across the country.

Jump to 2023, and museum leaders are forging new models for survival, and rethinking their roles, in a much-changed world. Two of them — in two different Massachusetts cities — have been facing similar, yet different dilemmas.

Staying connected at the Whaling Museum

Since 1997, “Moby-Dick” fans have gathered at New Bedford’s largest cultural institution for an annual, 25-hour reading of Herman Melville’s iconic tome. But, when the in-person marathon returned to the Whaling Museum this past January for the first time since the pandemic hit, museum president and CEO Amanda McMullen said the beloved event felt — and sounded — different.

After award-winning “Orange Is the New Black” actress Taylor Schilling delivered that famous opening line, “Call me Ishmael,” the audience applauded. It was unusual, McMullen recalled. Then, the clapping continued to punctuate each reader’s stint at the podium. Those bursts baffled some marathon diehards, but for McMullen, the cheering seemed symbolic. “I think it was the energy — like we have made it,” she said, “and this feeling of calm seas. The ship’s come back into port.”

Like a tsunami, pandemic shutdowns upended museums overnight. Then, without visitors for months, ticket revenue plunged. “That year was tough, 2020, navigating that,” McMullen recalled. “We had like 17,000 visitors for the whole year when we should be upwards way closer to 80, 90, 100,000.”

New Bedford Whaling Museum president and CEO Amanda McMullen. (Andrea Shea/WBUR)

Even with blows to the budget, and heaps of economic uncertainty, McMullen was determined to retain her staff of 47 employees. In return, she said they rallied to create a ton of online content, including digital learning tools for New Bedford teachers and students. Now hybrid offerings are here to stay. “The ‘Moby Dick’ marathon is a great example of that,” McMullen explained. “We get a couple thousand people through the doors, but we actually get over 10,000 people from around the world. And that has just picked up steam with live streaming.”

But to survive, museums need streams of people inside their galleries. Ticket sales generate about 30% of the Whaling Museum’s income. McMullen is relieved attendance is almost back to pre-pandemic levels. She believes steady marketing and giving away hundreds of memberships to New Bedford residents over the past few years have helped keep the public connected to the museum.

McMullen said this history, science and art institution was founded in 1903 with a mission to serve the local community. That responsibility felt more urgent in 2020. “There was the health crisis, an inevitable financial crisis, a racial reckoning,” she said. “You can’t come out of that year as an institution that should reflect the community without making some strategic decisions to dive deeper on that.”

One decision was to go full-throttle with an oral history project called “Common Ground.” Staff members have been fanning out with a mobile recording booth to capture stories from residents of New Bedford, a city known for its large Portuguese-American population. Now, their voices fill a gallery and a growing online archive. “Museums are often saying we’re the expert and we can tell you who you are,” McMullen said. “And this is really co-curated with the community.”

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is comprised of 10 contiguous, downtown buildings near the city's waterfront. (Courtesy New Bedford Whaling Museum)
The New Bedford Whaling Museum is comprised of 10 contiguous, downtown buildings near the city’s waterfront. (Courtesy New Bedford Whaling Museum)

Making the museum accessible to the community is a priority. Another is attracting audiences from beyond New Bedford. A report commissioned by the museum found the institution and its visitors, including tourists, contributed $10 million to the local economy in 2019.

During the pandemic, McMullen’s team raised more than $1 million to buy a building across the street. It’s a game-changer for the Whaling Museum’s longevity, she said, because it will enable the organization to host major exhibitions in a big, new space. “That is going to be not only something that we can be deeply proud of but will also be a driver for bringing more people into the community.”

After weathering the pandemic storm, McMullen likes to refer to her institution in New Bedford as “the little museum that could.” And she knows larger museums have faced bigger, more complex problems.

Resetting at the MFA

Visitors walking through a gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Visitors walking through a gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

“I do think smaller institutions are, by very nature, more agile and responsive,” Museum of Fine Arts director Matthew Teitelbaum said.

The MFA is a behemoth in terms of building, budget, staff, exhibitions and visitation. On a recent weekday, the museum’s corridors were bustling. “Our trajectory is going entirely in the right direction — more and more people,” Teitelbaum said while climbing the building’s grand staircase. “There’s nothing that a museum director likes more than having galleries filled with visitors.”

But in fiscal year 2022, while operating with reduced hours, the MFA’s attendance was 632,000. That’s about half of what it was before the pandemic. Now, the museum has surpassed that figure, with current attendance numbers 34% higher than this last year.

“I don’t think we’re alone,” Teitelbaum said. “We’re an institution that’s still, what I would call, resetting.”

Part of that involves reassessing possible barriers, like ticket prices and limited hours. To drive audience, Teitelbaum said the museum is investing in a few crucial areas, especially programming. The MFA’s “Late Nites” have returned, and enticing shows, including “Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence,” are on the walls.

Museum of Fine Arts Director Matthew Teitelbaum (Jesse Costa/WBUR)
Museum of Fine Arts Director Matthew Teitelbaum (Jesse Costa/WBUR)

As Teitelbaum walked through the newly renovated Greek and Roman galleries, he said more than 50% of the antiquities on display weren’t on view before the pandemic. These objects are helping to tell updated narratives that bridge ideas from the past to the world today. “I would say the museum is moving more and more towards connecting to issues of its time,” Teitelbaum added, “whether it’s through contemporary art or through historical art.”

The ways exhibitions are conceived and executed are also changing at the MFA. In the before times, curators relied more heavily on expensive loans from other institutions. Now, Teitelbaum said, they’re crafting an increased number of stories through the museum’s collection of nearly 500,000 objects. “The reason for that is, partly, because the costs of international travel insurance, air, airfreight, all of that stuff has gone up in ways that are hard to control,” he explained.

There’s also a new focus on generating income through exhibitions developed in-house that can travel to other institutions. “So it’s something we’ve done for many many years, and I would say that we have redoubled our efforts,” Teitelbaum said. “And we hope we can use the brand of Boston and the MFA to increase the revenue.”

Dramatic revenue losses forced the MFA to lay off 57 of its 626 employees in 2020. Another 56 took early retirement. Later that year, museum staff voted to unionize, and after 18 months of negotiations, the MFA Union ratified its first contract in June 2022. Now Teitelbaum said rebuilding staff, along with fostering inclusivity and a welcoming environment, are critical for realizing new initiatives.

The MFA did move forward on a rebranding campaign last year with the tagline, “Here all belong.” Teitelbaum acknowledged the museum continues to reckon with a 2019 incident involving a group of students who allege they were racially profiled by other visitors and security guards. “I think that we are, for sure, a more aware institution,” he said. “Our processes to engage with audiences, particularly with school groups, has tightened and has changed.”

What hasn’t changed is Teitelbaum’s optimism about the future of museums. He believes they play a vital role in society, and evolving in a post-pandemic world will take time for museums — no matter the size.

Correction: An earlier version of this story did not accurately describe the students’ allegations in 2019 incident at the MFA. The post has been updated. We regret the error.

Mastering the art of customer experience: The four key pillars to success

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Mastering the art of customer experience: The four key pillars to success
imageRepresentative image”>
Representative image

By Amit Butani

In today’s competitive marketplace, providing an exceptional customer experience is the key to building brand loyalty, awareness, and driving up a company’s profitability. However, with so many factors at play, it can be challenging to know where to focus your efforts. That’s where the four pillars of the customer experience come in: authenticity, convenience, uniqueness, and price.

Being authentic and true to your word:
Customers today are more discerning than ever before. They want to know that the brands they support share their values and beliefs. Authenticity is all about being transparent and honest with your customers. It’s about building trust by communicating openly about your brand’s values, ethics, and mission. By doing so, you can establish a deeper connection with your customers, which leads to long-lasting relationships.

Consumer Convenience:
In today’s fast-paced world, the convenience that a product or service may provide makes it the top choice for every potential buyer. Customers want products and services that are easy to access and use. Convenience is all about making the customer journey as frictionless and hassle-free as possible. It’s about designing your products and services with the customer in mind, so they are easy to find, purchase, and use. By doing so, you can create a seamless customer experience that delights and satisfies your customers. A good example of convenience would be introducing a website or an app that easily allows customers to pre-order or order the product from anywhere.Personalisation And Uniqueness:
Personalisation refers to tailoring the customer experience to each customer’s unique needs and preferences.This includes using customer data, such as their purchase history, demographics, and browsing behaviour, to provide personalised recommendations, offers, and content. Uniqueness, on the other hand, refers to creating a customer experience that stands out from the competition. This can involve creating a distinct brand identity, offering unique products or services, or providing exceptional customer service that goes above and beyond what customers expect. Personalisation and uniqueness work together to help businesses create a customer experience that is tailored to individual needs and preferences while also distinguishing themselves from the competition.This can lead to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and, ultimately, business success.Getting The Price Right:

Finally, the price pillar is all about offering value to your customers. While it’s true that customers will pay a premium for quality products and services, they still want to feel like they are getting a good deal. The price pillar is about striking the right balance between quality and affordability. It’s about offering competitive pricing that is fair and transparent.

In conclusion, the four pillars of customer experience are essential for building brand loyalty and attracting new customers. You can create a customer experience that delights and satisfies your customers by focusing on authenticity, convenience, travel exclusivity, and price.It’s about creating a deep connection with your customers, designing products and services with their needs in mind, offering unique and exclusive experiences, and providing competitive pricing.

By doing so, you can create a brand that customers will love and keep coming back to time and time again. A good pricing strategy would be to research your market competition and introduce your products at a competitive price, so you can serve every customer a brand that is value for money.

The author is the Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships, Mumbai Duty Free. Views expressed are personal.

  • Published On May 2, 2023 at 08:15 AM IST

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Show Low Farmers’ Market and Art Walk

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Show Low Farmers’ Market and Art Walk
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Join us on Saturday, May 13 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. for the kickoff of the Show Low Farmers’ Market and Art Walk.

The festivities will feature more than 85 vendors offering art, jewelry, fresh produce, baked goods, honey, custom knives, homemade fabrics, soaps, candles, home décor, jams, breads and much more.

The Town Music and Art Festival Sell Record Breaking 350k Tickets In Three Hours As Live Nation Continues Building Momentum In Brazil

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The Town Music and Art Festival Sell Record Breaking 350k Tickets In Three Hours As Live Nation Continues Building Momentum In Brazil

The inaugural edition of The Town Music and Art Festival, a partnership between Live Nation Entertainment and Rock World, the promoter behind the iconic Rock in Rio, broke records by selling 350k tickets in less than three hours which sold out three days of the festival. The highly anticipated five-day festival, with total capacity of 500k, is still rapidly selling for the remaining two days – having already sold 420K tickets total and on track to break more records. 

The Town tapped Ticketmaster as its official ticketing partner, which helped power this success. Ticketmaster launched in Brazil just under six months ago, bringing industry leading ticketing and marketing capabilities to the region, as well as a dedicated local team. Partnering closely with The Town’s promoters, Ticketmaster has helped the festival tap into local demand at record speed, especially for a festival in its first year.

“The overwhelming success of The Town’s ticket sales is a testament to the growing demand for unique live experiences in Brazil and Latin America and proves that Sao Paulo is indeed one of the top global music destinations, and Paulistas are some of the most passionate fans,” said Rafael Lazarini, SVP and Head of Business Development for Latin America, Live Nation. “The festival promises to be a memorable experience for fans, and we are thrilled by the record-breaking excitement, as it highlights the city’s vibrant culture, diverse music scene, and Live Nation’s commitment to bringing unique and unforgettable live experiences to fans across the region.” 

Live Nation Entertainment’s broader expansion strategy in the market also includes the development of a 20k seat arena at Anhembi District in partnership with OVG and GL Events. Furthermore, the company is responsible for bringing some of the biggest global tours to the country. 

Rock World’s The Town Music and Art Festival is set for September 2,3,7, 9, and 10. To get the latest information on the São Paulo festival, please visit thetown.com.br.

ABOUT LIVE NATION
Live Nation Entertainment (NYSE: LYV) is the world’s leading live entertainment company comprised of global market leaders: Ticketmaster, Live Nation Concerts, and Live Nation Sponsorship. For additional information, visit www.livenationentertainment.com.

You can catch some hometown talent at the Art Center of Coastal Carolina’s spring musical

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You can catch some hometown talent at the Art Center of Coastal Carolina’s spring musical
image

Singing, dancing and a whole lot of laughs.In this week’s Lowcountry Living, we’re giving you a sneak peek of a one-of-a-kind show you can only see on Hilton Head.Company, the musical, is now playing at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, and you can catch one of the performances for a limited time.“This is not a touring production. These are shows we actually produce here from casting in New York City to curtain. We build the set backstage. We create the costumes. We have lighting design. So everything you see here is uniquely for this point in time, and once it ends on May 28, it is done. It doesn’t go anywhere else. It was just for here and now,” said Andrea Gannon, Vice President of Marketing for the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina.This musical is extra special for the theatre as it is showcasing some hometown talent.Hilton Head native Meredith Inglesby plays the role of reluctant bride, Amy.“She’s having a really good time still having the opportunity to preform locally here for this audience, for her friends and family, and the people that know her,” said Russell Garrett, director/choreographer.Garrett says the island is so much more than just beaches, golf and tennis, and that the Arts Center is one of its hidden gems. “When people think about what is sometimes considered a resort community, or you know, a vacation destination, they don’t always think about — that there could be arts available to them — that there’s actually live theatre available to them,” said Garrett.And with each ticket purchase, you’re supporting a nonprofit.“We have education year round. We have camps for children during the summer. We have workshops. We go into the schools. We take field trips,” said Gannon. Company is recommended for ages 11 and up.If you’d like to purchase tickets, click here.

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, S.C. —

Singing, dancing and a whole lot of laughs.

In this week’s Lowcountry Living, we’re giving you a sneak peek of a one-of-a-kind show you can only see on Hilton Head.

Advertisement

Company, the musical, is now playing at the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina, and you can catch one of the performances for a limited time.

“This is not a touring production. These are shows we actually produce here from casting in New York City to curtain. We build the set backstage. We create the costumes. We have lighting design. So everything you see here is uniquely for this point in time, and once it ends on May 28, it is done. It doesn’t go anywhere else. It was just for here and now,” said Andrea Gannon, Vice President of Marketing for the Arts Center of Coastal Carolina.

This musical is extra special for the theatre as it is showcasing some hometown talent.

Hilton Head native Meredith Inglesby plays the role of reluctant bride, Amy.

“She’s having a really good time still having the opportunity to preform locally here for this audience, for her friends and family, and the people that know her,” said Russell Garrett, director/choreographer.

Garrett says the island is so much more than just beaches, golf and tennis, and that the Arts Center is one of its hidden gems.

“When people think about what is sometimes considered a resort community, or you know, a vacation destination, they don’t always think about — that there could be arts available to them — that there’s actually live theatre available to them,” said Garrett.

And with each ticket purchase, you’re supporting a nonprofit.

“We have education year round. We have camps for children during the summer. We have workshops. We go into the schools. We take field trips,” said Gannon.

Company is recommended for ages 11 and up.

If you’d like to purchase tickets, click here.

Local nonprofit unveils two new murals in SLO County

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Local nonprofit unveils two new murals in SLO County

Two new murals have been unveiled in San Luis Obispo County by a nonprofit tourism marketing organization based in SLO County.

The artwork, commissioned by Visit SLO CAL for California Tourism Month, consists of two separate murals in SLO County cities — unveiled as part of a larger countywide art tour.

One mural, titled “Eternal Blossom,” can be found in San Luis Obispo on the Scout Coffee building downtown. The other, called “Fly to Her,” is in Cambria on the side of Bob & Jan’s Bottle Shop. Exact addresses with more information can be found in the Visit SLO CAL news release.

Eternal Blossom Mural Visit SLO CAL.jpeg

“Eternal Blossom” mural in San Luis Obispo.

The murals commemorate the journey of the monarch butterflies to Pismo Beach, Visit SLO Cal’s website says. Buddy Norton and Shelby Lower of Canned Pineapple Co. are the mural artists.

The larger network of murals, officially launched today, is called the “SLO CAL Mural Trail.” The trail is a self-guided tour featuring roughly 30 of some of the region’s diverse public artworks, according to Visit SLO CAL’s website. Murals can be found across SLO County.

“Art is a crucial component of the community and the SLO CAL Mural Trail is an opportunity to encourage visitors to experience all we have to offer,” Visit SLO CAL’s Chief Marketing Officer Cathy Cartier said in a release announcing the unveilings. “Visit SLO CAL celebrates the annual migration of the Monarch Butterflies and the communities that make up our unique region.”

A map of the mural locations can be found on the Visit SLO CAL Mural Trail webpage.

California Tourism Month is an official state observance meant to spotlight the economic power of tourism across California communities.

Quincy Art Center seeks summer high school workers

By in Art World News

Quincy Art Center seeks summer high school workers

QUINCY (WGEM) – Students have the opportunity to build their resume and learn how a non-profit art studio works locally.

The Quincy Art Center is looking for three high school students or 2023 graduates to apply for student employee positions.

Quincy Art Center Director of Enhancement and Marketing Kelsey Deters said this is a paid resume-builder if you’re a student in the area interested in pursuing arts, marketing or education after graduation.

“To really understand what an arts non-profit does, I think a lot of students might have experience or have come to a class, but the inner workings of a non-profit go beyond what you see on the surface level, so I think it’s a really cool opportunity for them to see that as well and have that unique experience at such a young age,” Deters said.

The employment program is open to students throughout the Tri-States.

Compensation will be $13 per hour

You can apply here until through May 18.

Related: Quincy Art Center accepting pieces from all for anniversary exhibit

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KDA Creative Corps awards $3.4M in arts grants for Central Valley

By in Art World News

KDA Creative Corps awards $3.4M in arts grants for Central Valley

This is already a banner week for the arts in the Central Valley.

On Monday, the KDA Creative Corps announced the 20 grant recipients for its inaugural program, which has awarded nearly $3.4 million for arts-based jobs and community service programs in the Central Valley and Eastern Sierra region including 11 serving Kern County.

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