• It’s great that Asheville artists have the opportunity to hang work in restaurants and coffee shops around town, but it might be a good idea for them to ask a friend, or better yet an enemy, to help them curate their work. Self-curation is a dangerous thing, and an unbiased eye can make all the difference!
• Work by Western Carolina University professor Cathryn Griffin is seldom seen here, so it will be well worth a drive (even at these gas prices) to view her new photographs at the Green Hill Center for North Carolina Art (in Greensboro). Griffin’s extraordinary powers of observation allow her to capture irony most of us pass by without notice. The show is up till Aug. 31.
• Looks like standing-room-only audiences for the last two lectures by visiting faculty from WCU’s MFA program. George Hildrew, who will speak on Friday, July 21, manages to be a serious artist who doesn’t take himself too seriously. Coco Fusco speaks on Friday, July 28. She is an internationally known writer and interdisciplinary artist represented in the Whitney Biennial, the Kwangju Biennial, the Johannesburg Biennial, and the Sydney Biennial. Lectures are free, 7 p.m. at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center in Asheville, so come early (www.wcu.edu/pubinfo/news/2006/MFAfacultylectures.htm).
• Stealing Experience at BookWorks in West Asheville is a great example of the fun artists can have with the U.S. mail — remember, the rule is, if you can get it into the box, and it is properly stamped and addressed, your faithful mailperson will deliver it.
• How many artists in this day and age can boast a patron? We don’t have a Pope or a King in Asheville, but one lucky young artist has found a devoted art lover to help him on his way. Are there others out there who could do the same?
— by Connie Bostic
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