News

LOCAL BRIEFS: Art winners, Christmas parade, grant writing, Saluda play

“Sunburst Falls,” oil painting by Tina Duncan, Best of Show.

By Bill Moss, Published: November 17, 2019

The Art League of Henderson County announced the winning artists for its 2019 Annual Fall Member Show at an opening reception on Nov. 5 at the Henderson County Public Library.

The show was judged by nationally known local artist Susan Webb Tregay, signature member of both the American Watercolor Society and the National Watercolor Society.

Best of Show was awarded to Tina Duncan for her oil painting, “Sunburst Falls.” “Design of the painting carries at a distance and intrigues up close,” the judge said. “Water is difficult to paint and this is done very well.”

John Anderson won First Place in the Professional category for his watercolor painting, “My Father’s Legacy.” Second Place in Professional went to Al Junek for his watercolor, “Gone Ashore.” Other winners were Third Place-“Shadow and Light,” an oil painting by Elizabeth Kelly, and Fourth Place-“Savonarola,” an oil painting by Clair Delong Taylor.

Mary Vernick won First Place in Non-Professional for her oil painting, “Mountain Sunset.” Second Place was awarded to Josephine Zaron for her acrylic painting “Vase Full of Flowers.” Third Place went to Nila Trautman for her oil “Bedtime at the Barn” and Fourth Place to Gladys Shelton for her acrylic “Guitar Man.”

In addition to the category awards, special prizes were given to the best paintings in watercolor, pastel, and oil/acrylic. Pat Morgans’s “Alabama Cowgirl” received the Richard Kaiser Memorial Award for Best Watercolor. Gloria Elasky’s acrylic painting “Garden Figure” won the Alice Johanssen Memorial Award for Best Oil/Acrylic. The Mary Robinson Memorial Award for Best Pastel went to Alec Hall for his painting “Jesse.”

A Viewer’s Choice Award will be presented at the end of the exhibit which is on display through Nov. 21, in the Kaplan Auditorium of the library, 301 N. Washington St. The public is invited to view the artwork and cast their vote for Viewer’s Choice during regular library hours.

Cash prizes for the show winners were provided by sponsors The Starving Artist, Woodlands Gallery, ArtMOB Studios and Marketplace, Gallery at Flat Rock, the estates of Mary Robinson and Alice Johanssen, and by John Anderson for the Richard Kaiser Memorial Award.

Saluda troupe presents  Christmas performance

The Saluda Historic Depot Theater Troupe will present “Abenezer Scrooge: A Ghostly Mountain Christmas Carol” at 7 p.m. Saturday Nov. 30, 2019 at the Party Place in Saluda. An adaptation of Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” by Saluda writer Corinne Gerwe, the play conjures up visions of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come that will not only give Scrooge a renewed joyful Christmas Spirit but will help yours too.
Tickets at the door are $10 for everyone 12 years and older. Children under 12 will be admitted free. The Party Place & Event Center is at 221 Friendship Church Road, Saluda.
“The Young Actors Krew (YAK) of the Theater Troupe brings together citizens of the community who are keen to be involved in the performing arts,” Gerwe said. “The local troupe provides a forum for students to learn and perform locally rather than have to travel to be in a production. In an effort to make YAK an ongoing effort we are fortunate that our first Patron of the Arts, Hilda Pace has donated the Mountain Page Community Center that is located on her land.”
Volunteers began work this summer to remodel the building through donations from local citizens and businesses. Net proceeds from the play will go toward play expenses and toward improvements in the new playhouse. For more information, contact Judy Ward at 828-674-5958 or judyward@charter.net or Corinne Gerwe at cgerwe@rsnet.org or 828-749-4803.

Applications available for Christmas parade

The Hendersonville Merchants and Business Association will host the annual Christmas Parade at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, downtown. This year’s theme for the parade is “Home for the Holidays.” Everyone is invited to attend this special event and see Santa and beautiful floats, fire trucks and more from the community. Applications can be found on the Hendersonville Merchants and Business Association’s website wwwnchmba.com or by calling (828) 692-4179. Entry deadline for applications is Monday, Nov. 25. The Heritage Museum will serve cookies after the parade and host an antique toy exhibit.
Bounty of Bethlehem seeks volunteer leaders
The Bounty of Bethlehem is seeking new leadership to assist in organizing this year’s celebration. There are a variety of areas needing assistance with leadership, to include decorations, breakout room organization, kitchen and dining room volunteer organization, dessert coordination, marketing, and toy collection. It takes the work of hundreds of volunteers about six days to organize this successful event, and the leadership helps organize and coordinate all the planning leading up to the day.
The Bounty of Bethlehem Community Christmas Dinner happens on Christmas Day for the 37th year in a row. A special Christmas meal is provided for anyone and everyone who comes through the door. It provides folks a place to gather for fellowship and a warm meal — no matter who they are, how they worship, their income, or from where they come. The mission is that “no one be alone on Christmas Day.”
Hosted at Immaculata Catholic School, the dinner is served and supported by and for the community at large with 100% of the funding coming directly from our community through fundraising efforts.
Donations can be made online at www.TheBountyofBethlehem.org or by mail to PO Box 883 Hendersonville, NC 28793. Anyone interested in learning more about working with the leadership team may email Annamarie Jakubielski at Annamarie@Jakubielski.com or call Joanne Mummert at 828-702-1467.

Authors visit art center on Saturday, Dec. 7

Authors Meagan Lucas and Evan Williams will visit the Center for Art and Entertainment, 125 S. Main Street, on Saturday, Dec. 7, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to help shoppers kick off the season by signing and personalizing their novels. Festivities will include free homemade baking and door prizes. The Center is offering free gift wrapping with a purchase.

Meagan Lucas is the author is Songbirds and Stray Dogs a new Southern Noir novel about small town secrets and escaping expectations. Meagan has published more than a dozen short stories, has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and won the 2017 Scythe Prize for Fiction. She lives in Hendersonville with her husband and their children. She teaches English at AB Tech and is the fiction editor at Barren Magazine.

Evan Williams’ newest novel, Ripples, which was nominated for the Sir Walter Raleigh Award, draws heavily on his family’s multi-generational apple-growing business. His first book, a memoir entitled One Apple at a Time, received the Willie Parker Peace Award for state history, given by the North Carolina Historical Society. Evan lives on the family compound in Henderson County along with a smattering of his adult, married children, several rescue pets and a growing number of grandchildren.

Tryon Rotary Club gives $1,000 to Project Dignity

The Rotary Club of Tryon Foundation has awarded $1,000 to Project Dignity of Western North Carolina. Project Dignity founder Barb Morgan said the grant will be used to provide feminine products though the schools and local service agencies to women and girls in Transylvania, Buncombe, Rutherford, Polk and Henderson counties who may be homeless, low-income or domestic abuse victims.
“Our organization is happy to know that girls in middle and high school can now focus on their education rather than worrying about how they might obtain feminine products,” Morgan said. “This grant from the Rotary Club of Tryon Foundation will give us additional resources that guarantee enough products to keep the girls and women adequately supplied and expand our outreach,” stated Morgan. Project Dignity recently started working closely with Thermal Belt Outreach to ensure their clients have the feminine hygiene products they need to be healthy. Project Dignity has expanded into all of the schools in Polk County to ensure every girl has the products they need.”
Project Dignity of Western North Carolina Inc., a non-profit founded in 2017, has served hundreds of women monthly in Henderson, Buncombe, Transylvania, Polk and Rutherford counties.

Dogwood Health Trust offers grant writing help

Dogwood Health Trust announced that it is launching a Leverage Fund to help Western North Carolina nonprofits, government agencies or collaborations apply for and receive state or national funding from outside the region to support the work of improving health and wellness within the region.
Through the Leverage Fund, Dogwood Health Trust underwrites the services of professional, experienced grant writers to help individual organizations or collaboratives pursue funding from public and private sources at national and state levels. The Leverage Fund helps match nonprofits with the right grant writer, and supports other costs associated with preparing a grant application, such as travel stipends or meeting costs.
Assistance from the Leverage Fund is available to 501(c)(3) nonprofits, local or regional government agencies, and collaborations between or among these organizations. The Leverage Fund supports efforts to apply for $100,000 or more that will ultimately improve health outcomes for residents of the region.
“There are billions of dollars available from federal and state funds, as well as from large national foundations,” said Antony Chiang, chief executive officer of Dogwood Health Trust. “However, Western North Carolina has often been overlooked or underrepresented when it comes to attracting those funds to our region. We believe WNC is home to a host of creative, innovative problem-solvers whose daily demands make it difficult to pay attention to national funding opportunities. Further, securing national grants can be a complex and cumbersome process. The Leverage Fund will provide organizations and collaborations in our region with the capacity and technical assistance to overcome those barriers.”
To provide more information on the Leverage Fund, Dogwood Health Trust is cosponsoring informational community meetings across the region and hosting a webinar on Nov. 20. As more meetings are scheduled, dates and times will be shared via website updates and email announcements. The WNC Webinar, is at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 20, hosted by Dogwood Health Trust. For details and to RSVP email leveragefund@dht.org.
Dogwood Health Trust encourages individual nonprofits, government agencies and collaboratives to work with the Leverage Fund. There is no application or deadline to receive support. Interested organizations are encouraged to attend one of the upcoming community meetings, watch a live webinar scheduled for Nov. 20 and reach out via email with questions or interest to leveragefund@dht.org.

League hosts look at civics education

The League of Women Voters Henderson County will hold a program on civics education in Henderson County Public Schools at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 21, at the Hendersonville Community Co-op, 60 S. Charleston Lane. Assistant Schools Superintendent Jan King and Henderson County School Board member Rick Wood will update community and League members on what Henderson County Public Schools are doing to prepare K-12 students for citizenship. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit www.lwvhcnc.org.