Gallery Gossip

• Have you been to the Hambidge Center? It’s a great residency program for artists, located just across the Georgia state line. There are little houses snuggled in 600 acres of woods, and head gardener Cindy Martin cooks dinner for you. Gerald Lowrey is the new director. Applications for residency are due April 15.

• A big congratulations goes to Hazel McDaniel, mother of Asheville sculptor Harry McDaniel. The North Carolina Museums Council named Hazel volunteer of the year for her years of work as a docent at the Asheville Art Museum. “I remember so well,” she says, “the wonderful training and insight from Diane Dufilho. She made the experience so much fun.” Dufilho is now director of the Meadows Museum in Shreveport.

• Derek Guthrie, co-founder of the legendary New Art Examiner, will speak on Monday, April 9, in Ball Hall on the main campus at Eastern Tennessee State University. The talk will begin at 4:30 p.m. Guthrie is one of the country’s foremost critics.

• Designer Susan Rhew does it again! The N.C. Museums Council award for Best Exhibition Catalogue in Black and White went to Hazel Larsen Archer, Black Mountain College Photographer. The design work is terrific, and the essay by Merce Cunningham archivist David Vaughan offers an insightful look into the photographer’s era.

• The Asheville Area Arts Council Front Gallery continues its mission to exhibit artists who live and work in and around Asheville with one of its most interesting shows to date at its Biltmore Avenue space. Photographs by Jillian Elizabeth O’Connor and sculptures by Sahar Fakhoury are exceptional. There are colorful paintings in the Boardroom Gallery by Calvin Edney, and photos taken by children at the LEAF festival in the Back Gallery.