Finding 10 folks who had listened to at least 10 albums released within the past year, much less liked 10 and were willing to write down their opinions about each was a needle in a haystack sort of search. Nevertheless, the results from our contributors — which included the likes of singer/songwriter Malcolm Holcombe, Grammy-winning banjo player Marc Pruett, Americana whiz Marshall Ballew, star-producer Rogers Masson, storyteller/Grammy-winner/jack of all musical trades David Holt and WNCW program director Kim Clark — covered the gamut of musical genres, and always generated great discussion and debate.

This year, we’ve sought to open the forum to the entire arts community, surveying 10 local artists, musicians, writers, theater performers and educators about their best and worst arts experiences in 2005 from a personal and professional perspective. The responses garnered shed light on the Western North Carolina arts community’s strengths and weaknesses, and may even serve to shape that community’s future.

1. What do you feel is your greatest arts contribution or accomplishment of 2005 and why? What made you proudest or gave you the most satisfaction and why was it important to you?

“The artistic accomplishment I was most proud of in 2005 was the discovery of a new creative vocation. I learned how to use autoCAD software to design homes. This craft has allowed me to successfully merge my 20 years of construction experience with my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Creative problem solving is an inspiring part of this work, as well as visual coordination and spatial sense. I am proud to draw house plans for builders and homeowners throughout the region.”

— Andy Bailey, 39, self-employed artist, handyman and designer for the past 10 years, resident of Haywood County

“My greatest contribution, if you can call it that, has been trying to live up to the high standards Fred Chappell set for the N.C. Poet Laureate, and in trying to do that, I’d say that setting up our Poets of the Week and Books of the Month sites on the North Carolina Arts Council Web site (www.ncarts.org) has given me the most satisfaction. We hope to expand these features in ‘06 to include more visual and audio offerings, as well as video of poets reading their work. We also hope to make our site more helpful to teachers in the public schools.”

— Kathryn Stripling Byer, 61, newly selected N.C. Poet Laureate, resident of Jackson County

“In our arts council’s effort to expand our services to youth and young families, in June 2005 we launched ‘Art-in-the-Park,’ a one-Saturday-a-month outdoor arts event for children and their families, with a variety of ‘everyone can do it’ make-and-take projects relating to the event theme. (June’s theme was ‘Something Fishy.’ January’s will be ‘Frosty’s Friends.’) These ARTSaturdays are open to everyone, at no charge. We had such an enthusiastic response that we’ve moved the monthly events indoors for the winter months. Robin Swaby is our project director.”

— Bobbie Contino, 59, Executive Director of the Macon County Arts Council for 20 years; member of the Macon County Community Funding Pool Task Force, Friends of the Greenway volunteer and former Board member, volunteer at Cullasaja Elementary School and volunteer with Macon Citizens for the Handicapped

“Without a doubt, the highlight of my musical activities for 2005 was ‘An Evening with Hitchcock and Herrmann’ held Oct. 27 as part of the opening ceremonies of the new Fine and Performing Arts Center on the Western Carolina University campus. I served as the artistic director and conductor for the concert, leading an 80-piece orchestra composed of many members of the Asheville Symphony performing music composed by Bernard Herrmann to films of famed motion picture director Alfred Hitchcock. The music was performed in synchronization with excerpts from the Hitchcock films, which included ‘Psycho,’ ‘Marnie,’ ‘Vertigo’ and ‘North, By Northwest.’ Eighteen months in the planning, it was a culmination of an interdisciplinary effort involving many departments at Western. Claire Eye from Theatre was the program narrator. Terry Nienhuis and Jubal Tiner from the English department wrote the script. Martin Fischer from Human Services leant his digital video editing skills and Jack Shoulder, head of the Digital Motion Pictures Program, served as the dramatic director and picture-editing consultant. The program garnered a fair amount of publicity and was quite well attended. It was the fulfillment of long-nurtured desire to publicly present the music of this film music genius, made possible by the generosity of the University and Smoky Mountain News. Another personal artistic accomplishment occurred earlier in the year; I presented my first one-man art exhibit in June at the Glenn Eure gallery in Nags Head. It was an exhibit of acrylic paintings based on musical themes and was accompanied by a compact disc of original musical compositions following the theme of the show. Painting is a long-time hobby that I have been able to pursue since moving to Western North Carolina in 1998. One of my personal goals for 2006 is to exhibit some of my art works in galleries locally.”

— Bruce Frazier, 57, Carol Grotnes Belk Endowed Professor of Commercial and Electronic Music at Western Carolina University for the past eight years; lifetime member of the American Choral Director’s Association and the American Federation of Musicians

“One of my most rewarding projects this year was mentoring Josh Garrison of Smoky Mountain High School, for his senior project. His project was designing and building an electric guitar. This took long hours as well as learning many new skills. He showed great discipline and enthusiasm. Seeing the smile on his face and the pride he felt as he played it the first time, made the process very worthwhile. I highly recommend taking the time to mentor someone. You can really make a positive impact by doing so. My own personal projects and accomplishments this year were also very rewarding. I had the opportunity to design several new instruments. These tested my theories and skills and allowed me to go beyond my normal boundaries. My inlay skills vastly improved as well. All these projects were a success and some exceeded my expectations.”

— Bob Gernandt, 49, luthier (a stringed instrument maker) for 28 years, resident of Swain County, member of the Association of Stringed Instrument Artisans and of the Guild of American Luthiers

“My greatest arts contribution for 2005 was getting the Art League of the Smokies up and running. It provides an organization where artists in six WNC counties can come together to network and get to know one another and to broaden their own artistic knowledge and skill in their chosen medium or in new media. This group grew out of the Community Art Exhibit that is held each year at Swain County Center for the Arts. Thirty-six WNC artists participated in the two-month exhibit this year with sales of about $2,500. It gives me great satisfaction to promote the arts and artists and to see the growth in the artists as individuals as the public begins to appreciate their talents and products.”

— Eugenia L. Johnson, Director of Swain County Center for the Arts for the past five and a half years, Founder and President of Art League of the Smokies, member of the Blue Ridge Watermedia Society (vice-president of programs and workshops for two years; president for two years), member of Catch the Spirit of Appalachia board

“I believe my greatest contribution to the WNC arts community has been helping to keep the dialogue going — good, bad or indifferent. When it really comes down to it, the arts are far from necessary, but they do so much to enrich our lives. My role is in helping the public not to forget that, in helping them see if nothing else, the importance of personal expression.”

— Sarah Kucharski, 25, Smoky Mountain News Arts and Entertainment Editor for the past two and a half years, resident of Haywood County

“My greatest arts accomplishment this year is that Summit One Gallery is beginning its fifth year. The gallery has grown and prospered every year, thus providing a profitable and beneficial retail gallery for the artists represented at Summit One.”

— Mary Adair Leslie, 57, owner of Summit One Gallery in Highlands for five years

“As Executive Director of the Haywood Arts Regional Theater my greatest accomplishment in 2005 was guiding the organization through a year of recovery following financial setbacks suffered as a result of the hurricanes that hit the area in the fall of 2004. HART ended 2004 with a $10,000 operating loss, all suffered in the final four months of the year. Despite the challenges, HART sent a production to the Edinburgh International Fringe Theater Festival in Scotland in August. I am proudest of the fact that even in difficult years this theatre continues to take chances and push to always be better, never satisfied to rest on its laurels.”

— Steven Lloyd, 52, Executive Director of HART, board member, past president, and chair of the N.C. Community Theatre Festival, chair of the Southeastern Community Theatre Festival

“I began a series of collaborations with other fiber artists, in the last couple of years. This year, I realized that, in addition to bringing new life and excitement into my regular line of garments, I’d managed to have a separate, small body of work available for exhibitions, outside of my usual schedule of craft fairs. Public reaction has been generous: most have sold.”

— Liz Spear, 50, weaver for 13 years, self-employed craftswoman for 27 years, resident of Haywood County; member of the Southern Highlands Craft Guild, Piedmont Crafts, Inc., Carolina Designer Craftsmen, American Crafts Council, and Handweavers Guild of America

2. What was your greatest arts challenge or disappointment in 2005 personally or professionally and why?

“My greatest arts related disappointment was at the Quickdraw event at the Waynesville Country Club in late spring. The year before, I had painted a group of mountain trout and was honored by a strong, positive response from the patrons. In 2005, I made advanced preparations to really wow the crowd. I brought my wife in to model for me, and painted a lively and gestural canvas that seemed to draw a lot of attention. But when the auction came and the painting went up for sale, it was as if I could hear the crickets chirping outside the room. This failure so upset me that, according to the wife, I made an embarrassing scene as I stormed out of the building.”

— Andy Bailey

“My greatest arts challenge in ‘05 was also taking on the laureateship, trying to turn the post into one that addressed the issue of making poetry more accessible to the public. I feel disappointment that I haven’t been able to make more of an immediate impact in this attempt. I would like, for example, for all the public schools in N.C. to be tuned in to what we are doing on our Web site, but I’m not sure how to make that happen as quickly as I’d like. I would like to see more involvement, K-12, in bringing writing and literature into the classroom, and I would like to be able to help teachers do this.”

— Kathryn Stripling Byer

“We’ve had a banner year. Of course, we continually work to reach our ‘native’ population (our ARTSaturdays are furthering this effort), and to serve Maconians living outside the immediate Franklin area.”

— Bobbie Contino

No comments.

— Bruce Frazier

“My greatest challenges always seem to be business and marketing. I must discipline myself to schedule more time and energy to learn these skills.”

— Bob Gernandt

“My greatest disappointment in 2005, as well as in the previous years since Swain County Center for the Arts opened in fall of 2000, is the small attendance at the quality concerts and cultural events. Many of these events are supported with N.C. Arts Council funds through the Grassroots Arts Program grant so that they can be offered free of charge to the public. Advertising is sent to about 30 newspapers, radio stations and television stations, in addition to numerous email groups for each event. I will be attending a workshop in March on Growing Audiences, which is sponsored by the N.C. Arts Council, so I am not alone in this challenge.”

— Eugenia Johnson

“My professional employment as a writer leaves little time or motivation for pursuing any independent creative writing — spend all day writing and the last thing you want to do is go home and write some more, even if it is for ‘fun.’ Finding ways to somewhat vicariously foster my creative spirit, such as profiling other authors, attending a reading, or spending some time with a good book or National Public Radio’s This American Life, helps fill the void. Yet, at the same time it almost exacerbates the problem by making me profoundly aware of just exactly that which I am not getting accomplished.”

— Sarah Kucharski

“My greatest challenge has been getting the Arts Alliance of Highlands recognized as an avenue to promote Highlands as the artistic community that it is. Arts and culture provide a major source of revenue for North Carolina and the arts in Highlands are phenomenal and we should capitalize on that.”

— Mary Adair Leslie

“My greatest challenge in 2005 was a burst sprinkler pipe in the box office that flooded the lobby and auditorium. This happened in December and will require some major repairs before we reopen in the spring. Two steps forward, one step back. The challenge is to make sure that the result is an improvement in the facility, not just a repair.”

— Steven Lloyd

“The loss of weaving as curriculum in many schools has been an ongoing issue for many years. I learned to weave at St. Cloud State in Minnesota, in the mid-70s. When my professor retired in the early 80s, the looms were sold and the space turned into the computer graphics lab. I moved to WNC in 1992, specifically to attend the Professional Crafts Program at Haywood Community College, and found the crafts community I’d needed. Through my instructor, Catharine Ellis, I began attending, then teaching at, Penland School, followed in the last few years by John C. Campbell Folk School, in WNC, and Arrowmont and Appalachian Center for Craft in Tenn. I’m disappointed in the few weaving classes offered in these schools’ schedules, shoehorned in between surface design and other fiber-oriented crafts. This summer, whilst teaching at ACC, a jewelry instructor from New York was talking about going to teach 10 to 12 workshops a year, all over the country, around his regular university teaching schedule, and he asked me how often I teach. He was amazed when I told him twice a year was a gad-about year for me, and that that was as often as I’d been asked. We talked about the paucity of weaving classes — he’d taught at many more of the independent craft schools than I’d even heard of. I realize that I’ve come into this field of teaching craft very recently, and I’ll keep plugging away, trying to excite every incipient weaver I meet, with the possibilities of the color, the texture, the sheer pleasure of interlacing threads, oh yeah, and that cool tool, the loom. I’ll continue to remain connected to HCC, and support the crafts program, in these hard times.”

— Liz Spear

3. What, in your opinion, was the arts highlight of the year in Western North Carolina and why?

“I think Bele Chere in Asheville is the highlight of the year in arts. It’s fun to roam around downtown when the streets are closed off. The music is fantastic. Plus, I get inspired to paint and draw when I see some of the junk other people are willing to pay for... it encourages me that my junk is not so bad after all.”

— Andy Bailey

“The Western Carolina University Spring Writers Festival was the arts highlight for me in WNC, as far as being in the audience goes, especially the readings by former WCU instructor Charlotte Holmes, a superb fiction writer, and her husband, poet James Brasfield. This literary festival brings some of the best writers in the country to our region every spring, and in ‘05, it helped remind me why poetry, specifically, can speak to a listener in the way no other art can. I have to say, though, that I wish I could have been in the audience for Barry Lopez just recently. If I had to pick one event that stands out in the literary offerings of this year, it would have to be having Barry Lopez among us.”

— Kathryn Stripling Byer

“Western Carolina University’s new Fine and Performing Arts Center, and its inaugural performing arts season.”

— Bobbie Contino

“One of the highlights in the arts community in WNC for me and wife, Angela, was the appointment of Daniel Meyer as the new conductor of the Asheville Symphony. The group responds well to his baton and the performances that I have attended demonstrated inspired renditions by the ensemble. The culmination for me was the November performance of the Rachmaninoff second piano concerto with guest artist Berenika. It was electric.”

— Bruce Frazier

“The most exciting art experience this year was seeing the Flamenco Dance Troup at the Stecoah Valley Arts Center. It was truly an awesome show. The Center is definitely an up and coming arts community and gathering place with great potential. I recommend we all show them our support.”

— Bob Gernandt

“One of the arts highlights of the year in Western North Carolina was the Celebration of the Arts Evening sponsored by Catch the Spirit of Appalachia at Swain County Center for the Arts in November. They had quality performances, story telling, poetry readings and a visual arts exhibit. Many individual artists in many different artistic disciplines were given recognition and validation — a true celebration of the arts. Another highlight of the year in Swain County and WNC was the annual musical performed by the Swain County High School Choral Ensemble directed by J. Gilbert and the Swain County High School Band directed by Karen Williams. The drama classes and art classes build the props and scenery every year. In 2005 they did six excellent performances of “Fiddler on the Roof” with more than 100 students and numerous people from the community involved in the production and more than 2,500 people attending.”

— Eugenia Johnson

“The announcement that Waynesville’s historic Strand Theater was — after so many years sitting vacant and derelict — finally going to be renovated and reopened came as most wonderful surprise. Owner Joey Massie’s concept is for an independent theater of sorts, maybe something along the lines of the Asheville Pizza and Brewery Company, where you can get a pie, a brewski and a movie all in one fell swoop. Whatever the end result is, it will be a great addition to Main Street. Also, Jackson County’s Kudzu Players put forth a great show with Neil Simon’s 1971 play “The Prisoner of Second Avenue.” Tom Wilson gave a riotous performance as Mel Edison, a corporate worker turned house husband upon being laid off.”

— Sarah Kucharski

“The arts highlight of the year was the celebration of the Highlands Community Players Tenth Anniversary season.”

— Mary Adair Leslie

“The arts highlight of the year is without question STONELEAF, which debuted as one of the largest theater festivals in the U.S. The Asheville-based theater festival was sponsored and organized by the North Carolina Theater Conference. NCTC expected six to eight productions when they began planning. Instead they had 26, and it is expected to grow in national prominence this coming spring with some major Broadway connections.”

— Steven Lloyd

“On Nov. 4, I attended an opening reception for an exhibition of new woven Shibori work by Catharine Ellis, in celebration of the publication of her book, Woven Shibori, by Interweave Press. The reception took place in the exhibition space in Textures, a fairly new and wonderful home furnishings gallery owned by Suzanne and John Gernandt, on Main Street, in Waynesville.”

— Liz Spear

4. What, in your opinion, was the most overrated arts event or artistic work of 2005 and what about it made it overrated?

“Without a doubt... the Folkmoot International Festival Day on Main Street in Waynesville... and I quote, ‘Main Street takes on the feel of an old-fashioned world bazaar as local and regional artisans, crafters and food vendors join the international groups with items to sell.’ In fact, the international visitors are crowded together like livestock under a small tent at the end of Main Street. Meanwhile, the rest of the “old-fashioned world bazaar” is a carbon copy of what I have come to refer to as the “identical festivals,” the Church Street Arts Fair and the Apple Harvest Festival. There’s barely any difference at all between these three.”

— Andy Bailey

“The most overrated arts event of the year was the official opening of the Western Carolina University Fine and Performing Arts Series, with Jay Leno as headliner. This was a distressing revelation of how little the current administration values the arts and its own role in making the arts available to both students and the general public. For the money paid to Leno, Western could have brought in some of the best musicians, actors, you name it, in the country or world, but they blew it. They paid a scandalous amount to The Tonight Show host to fly in for about an hour, chat with some token students, joke around, and then fly out immediately to his next gig. Just think, we could have had an artist of the stature, say, of Yo-Yo-Ma for a week’s residency! Or soprano Renee Fleming. Or any number of performers who would really have enriched the cultural and artistic life of this region. The whole series at the new Center is an embarrassment, save for the Atlanta Ballet. Certainly having Leno open the new arts center got way too much media attention, but then, that’s why he was invited, wasn’t it? PR rules at Western and at most other universities these days, sad to say. The irony is that having a first-rate artist officially open the Center would have brought real and lasting attention to Western.”

— Kathryn Stripling Byer

No comments.

— Bobbie Contino

No comments.

— Bruce Frazier

No comments.

— Bob Gernandt

“Rather than choosing some arts event or artistic work that is overrated, I’m just thrilled that the arts are getting more attention in general. Someday, the people of WNC might even choose to attend a concert or an art exhibit with the same enthusiasm that they attend football games.”

— Eugenia Johnson

“This spring’s pointless, ‘saffron’ fabric adornment of New York’s Central Park, ‘The Gates’ by so called artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude was nothing more than a grotesque waste of money. The project lasted for just 16 days, and cost $21 million. Granted, the project was funded entirely by the ‘artists,’ but that money could have been so much better used say for expanding an inner city arts program, or doing just about anything else that would have had a somewhat more permanent impact.”

— Sarah Kucharski

“I don’t believe an arts event can be overrated because the conception of the art, the discussion that ensues and the enjoyment or not is what makes it art.”

— Mary Adair Leslie

“The most overrated arts events are movies, television, and all electronic media, which is disposable and quickly forgotten. The arts are about human connections.”

— Steven Lloyd

“I don’t get out much, don’t read many newspapers, don’t have a TV, listen to public radio a couple of times a week. The hype surrounding Harry Potter VI penetrated even my self-imposed isolation, and made me leave the book on the table for a week after my sister sent it, this summer. I read it, was severely disappointed, and put it on the shelf. I just reread it, a couple of days ago. I’ve changed my mind. About the book.”

— Liz Spear

5. Who, in your opinion, was a new individual artist, writer, performer or performance group that you discovered in 2005 in Western North Carolina?

“In 2005 I discovered the Haywood Arts Regional Theatre in Waynesville and was flabbergasted. The scope of each production is beyond what I would expect from such a small town. The theater itself is beautiful, there is artwork displayed in the lobby, wine served at intermission, and there’s even an orchestra pit where live musicians accompany every performance. You will delight in the boundless acting and singing talents of the local people ... the restaurant owner, your kid’s teacher, the legal assistant, the real estate agent.”

— Andy Bailey

“A new voice in WNC literature became ‘new’ all over again to me when she read at Malaprop’s Bookstore in the Writers At Home Series. I’m talking about Cherokee resident and former student, Debora Kinsland Foerst. Debora earned a master’s degree from Western, writing her thesis on Cherokee stories she had heard growing up. But she also took a graduate writing course with me and began to write about Cherokee legends in traditional ‘western’ forms like sonnet, sestina, and villanelle. She has continued this work and now is on the verge of becoming one of our most important regional writers.”

— Kathryn Stripling Byer

“Robin Swaby, a visual artist/youth arts specialist who lives in Franklin, developed our ‘Art-in-the-Park’ program, brought talented workers to the project team, and has overseen all our ARTSaturdays. (She has already laid plans for our next three events.) In addition to being a talented painter, Robin contributes unlimited imagination, skill and energy to this project.”

— Bobbie Contino

“Being a part of the Sounds of Jackson County Project gave me the opportunity to be exposed to a variety of talented musicians that reside in our community. Led by Linda Watson as a fund-raising effort for the new Jackson County Public Library, a CD sampler of performances of musical talent in the area is being released on Jan. 10 coinciding with a live concert by the groups. I had the privilege, along with John Wells and Stephen Wohlrab of the studios in Western’s Center for Applied Technology, to record the ensembles involved in the project. The CD is a compilation representing a wide variety of musical styles. It is an eclectic mix ranging from gospel singing from the Heaven Bound Quartet and the Liberty Church choir, to the progressive sounds of the Chris Cooper/Ashley Chambliss duet. The familiar blend of the Pirates of the Tuckaseigee is included; even Indonesian Gamelan music is represented on the album. All 13 groups presented on the CD will display their talents at the live concert at 7 p.m. on Jan. 10 in the Fine and Performing Arts Center.”

— Bruce Frazier

“Although Zan Barnes is not a ‘new to me this year artist,’ I feel she deserves some recognition. She is the daughter of Brant and Karen Barnes of the Riverwood Pottery in Dillsboro. I first met Zan at Merlefest (a four-day music/arts festival in Wilkesboro). We were all in the Heritage Craft Tent, demonstrating our art. She was doing Origami. The next year she was making clay ocarinas. These were amazing creative critters. She then attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, studying Theatrical Design and Production, and her minor was Studio Arts. Now she has evolved into a unique artistic potter. It is worthwhile to visit the shop and see her and her parents’ works.”

— Bob Gernandt

“A new artist that I discovered in WNC in 2005 is Juanita Greenspan, who began carving in stone only one year ago and is virtually self-taught. I first met Juanita when she came to the organizational meeting of Art League of the Smokies at Swain County Center for the Arts. She brought seven of her stone carvings to be exhibited at Swain County Center for the Arts in the fall. Each piece was unique and carved in a different type of stone, ranging from semi-realistic to abstraction. Juanita sculpted in a variety of other media for the past three years before moving to the Nantahala area and focusing her attention primarily on stone. I was so impressed by the quality of her work that I purchased a carving before her prices escalate. She is one of those rare artists that you just know will be famous someday.”

— Eugenia Johnson

“Waynesville-based glass worker John Nickerson was featured in the Haywood County Arts Council’s exhibit “FireWorks!” and really stood out for his exquisite perfume bottles, with their strands of vibrant color twisting through the body of each bottle. It’s the closest I’ve ever come to making a serious financial commitment to a piece of art. The only problem? The arts council director had already laid claim to the one I liked best. At least I know she’s got great taste.”

— Sarah Kucharski

“Toby Penney, abstract artist, represented by Summit One Gallery while painting at Spoleto in Charleston, S.C., was seen by curators from across the country. During the month of July her work was accepted into the permanent collections of Museum of Modern Art in New York; the Gibbs Museum of Art in Charleston; The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Ga.; The Columbia Museum of Art in Columbia, S.C.; and the S.C. State Museum in Columbia, S.C.”

— Mary Adair Leslie

“My personal discovery this year was the musician Baraka Mundi, who performed at the University of North Carolina at Asheville last winter. He is not new, but new to me.”

— Steven Lloyd

“Every couple of years, Catharine Ellis asks me to substitute teach for her at HCC for one to five days, usually, so that she can attend a professional conference. I gladly do so, because of the aforementioned desire to remain connected to the crafts program, to give back what I can. And, this year, one of the students was Louise Grenell, a woman from the Burnsville area, fulfilling her dream of returning to weaving, and learning of the possibilities of her own creative voice. This woman made me feel like a really good and giving teacher, and I can hardly wait to see where she goes with weaving, because our part of the world will be the richer. I also met young Will Baker — a potter newly relocated to the Penland area, formerly associated with Odyssey Clay Studios —placed next to my booth partner and I at the July Southern Highlands Craft Guild Fair in Asheville. This first time exhibitor, having borrowed a display booth, graciously accepted the advice of a couple of middle-aged weavers, to re-configure said booth (so it fit within the invisible, but prescribed lines) before he unpacked any pots. I spent the four days of the Fair visiting those wood-fired pots; they were graceful, and thoughtful, and brown. Will is a fine addition to our professional crafts community.”

— Liz Spear

6. What are your hopes and dreams for the arts community of WNC in 2006 and why?

“My hopes for the arts community are always that the general public develop some appreciation for something other than realistically rendered mountain landscapes. The market here is glutted with these things, and they are all basically the same image done over and over. Challenge yourselves, people!”

— Andy Bailey

“I’d like to see an arts community that interacts with its members in creative, exciting ways, helping to spread the sheer joy that art can bring to each of our lives. I’d like to see community and educational institutions working together to make this happen. As for my personal goals, I hope to continue working on a collection of poems and short stories set here in the mountains, a novel, and a book of essays. My first priority, though, is the Laureateship and the challenge of convincing more and more people that poetry matters, showing them what a treasure of N.C. poetry that we have and making that treasure trove accessible to them through readings, class visits, and our Web site.”

— Kathryn Stripling Byer

“No more ‘starving artists’/more arts events. Because of a substantial increase in N.C. Arts Council Grassroots Arts Program funds (thanks to our legislators), all the arts councils in WNC should be hiring more artists/producing more arts events in the coming year. As for our goals, we’re working to diversify our programming, and to offer more participatory activities.”

— Bobbie Contino

“Looking ahead to next year, I am thrilled to conduct the Artist in Residence Orchestra in a performance of American Masters on April 2. The orchestra, composed of Asheville Symphony musicians and students from Western’s music department, will perform works that have become standards in the repertory. The program features Aaron Copland’s ‘Billy the Kid’ Suite, Roy Harris’ Third Symphony, a new work for clarinet and orchestra by John Williams, featuring Western faculty clarinetist, Shannon Thompson, and will conclude with Howard Hanson’s Song of Democracy for orchestra and combined Western choral ensembles. Also, the Fine and Performing Arts Center is a wonderful new asset to the community. It is valued not only for the lovely venue for concerts, musicals, and the like, but for the studios and galleries that promote the artists and fine art of our region. I look forward the part it will play in the enjoyment and enrichment to the citizens of WNC in the years to come.”

— Bruce Frazier

“I’m hoping for more music and dance venues and overall more local support for the entire arts community.”

— Bob Gernandt

“It is my hope that the public will respond with ever-increasing enthusiasm to all the excellent cultural offerings in WNC in 2006. Those of us in arts administration are working hard to bring quality concerts, programs, plays, art exhibits, workshops, networking and growth opportunities to our communities and the surrounding area. It is my desire to see the public readily receive these gifts of the arts that we offer them, many free of charge. I plan to continue to seek out quality artists, performers and musical groups, whether well established, emerging or brand new to the arts. I hope to see the Art League of the Smokies grow with the membership taking over many of the responsibilities. On a personal note, I would like to have more time for my own creative pursuits as a visual artist.”

— Eugenia Johnson

“Our arts community’s success has in effect priced out the younger or more financially limited population. A great deal of events and individual works come with exorbitant price tags. In terms of performances, these high prices may be reflective of the cost venues have to pay to bring in a quality performer and the low attendance rates they can expect. On the other hand, no matter how great a show it is, I’m not coming if I can’t afford it. And in regards to artists’ works, notoriety doesn’t always have to translate to charging big bucks. I understand that artists are trying to make a living, but one day I’d like to leave a gallery with something more than a memory. Though it may sound cliché — the youth are the future of the arts and the community can not afford to limit their access.”

— Sarah Kucharski

“My hopes for the 2006 arts community is that arts and culture tourism increase for WNC so that all of the fabulous theater groups, chamber music festivals, museums, galleries can continue to flourish.”

— Mary Adair Leslie

“My hopes for 2006 are that the arts will continue to be recognized as the driving force behind the economic health of our region and be increasingly supported by the community we serve. I personally have a couple of projects I hope will excite the community in our season. In the wake of water damage I hope to see the theater reopen in the spring better than ever.”

— Steven Lloyd

“My hopes and dreams for the arts community of WNC? Well, in the spirit of ‘World Peace... ,’ I hope that we can all go to our studios and make stuff. Our current culture continues to nurture some art forms, and make existence difficult for others, through budget cuts, infighting, overenthusiastic scheduling, and lack of educational support. Ours is a difficult way to make a living, when we not only make stuff, or music, or whatever, but also must make a viable business out of what we love (and long) to do. My schedule is fairly well filled in, with my usual six craft fairs, a couple of teaching gigs, a gallery exhibition in February/March, and with what one hopes will be a triumphant return to Convergence, the international weaving conference at the end of June. I’ll fit in a couple of educational demonstrations for the Southern Highlands Craft Guild, my yearly volunteer production of the Fiber Day Fashion Show, in May, and somehow, weave 200 yards of fabric this winter, and sew around 100 garments. Plus hats. And I plan to take a couple of classes this year: polymer clay, to get back to some button-making, and papermaking, to explore the possibilities of that exhibition coat form in another kind of fiber... 2006 will be another great year.”

— Liz Spear