The Holly Springs Arts Council (HSAC) physically changed the face of our town earlier this year when they installed banners advertising the 2015 Arts Festival. The event, which is their largest of the year, features low-cost art classes, artist exhibits, a vendor show, and live music performed by local musicians and beyond. A generous grant from Town Hall made this possible, along with the dedication of many, many volunteers. The Festival, which was a collaboration between the Holly Springs Cultural Center and the HSAC, was a huge success, culminating in a sold-out gala featuring renowned blues musician Scott Ainslie. More on his soul-stirring performance below.
The HSAC’s goal is to “enrich the overall vitality of the arts and foster the creative spirit” in our community. Just one recent example of a simple but impactful way the HSAC has bettered our residents is when they took a small grant from Wal-Mart and multiplied it so that they could purchase a color printer for Holly Springs High School’s art department. If you’re surprised that the art department didn’t already have a color printer, you’re not the only one. But the impact that actions like this have is not lost on Brenda Priest, President of HSAC. “We are changing Holly Springs through the arts,” she says. The Council is expanding arts around town; local businesses are opening their doors and allowing art to be on display, not only from professional artists but also from some of the many talented students in our community. Additionally, the HSAC will very soon be exploring public art, and has formed a relationship with our incoming Rex Hospital, having been promised art space in the building. “That is huge,” Priest says. “Art can heal people.”
With “Winter Blues” as its theme, area dance, theater, and music performers from the six public schools in our town participated in the festival. Artwork from artists of all levels lined the halls of the Cultural Center, and festival participants were invited to cast their ballots for their favorite pieces. Among my own favorites included the different American landmark postcards, a paper mache mounted deer head, and Pop Rocks mixed media art of JFK and Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the “Joker.” A mixed media piece titled “Inside My Thoughts” was truly mesmerizing, and a graphite piece called “Happiness Machine” left me downright pensive. This is art by students. Imagine what can happen if our community, via the HSAC and of course art teachers, continues to nurture them. (Art teachers receive free membership to the HSAC, by the way, and membership scholarships are available for students and seniors in our community.)
An arts & crafts vendor showcase took place during the festival featuring local vendors and food trucks. Kristin Malaer, coordinator of the event says the showcase had a very hometown feel, with everything from copper garden art to silkscreen scarves to handmade soaps and lotions. Holly Springs resident Beth Gaughan is one of many who took advantage of the Zentangle class offered during the festival. Zentangle, she explains, is like structured doodling. The instructor, Pat, showed the class how to draw several different patterns and then they each created a drawing using the different components. “Although we had learned the same patterns, everyone’s drawing was different,” she says. “The class was informative and fun.” It’s that kind of curiosity that encourages people to participate in the arts. There were also classes offered on wine & cheese pairings, creating miniature sculptures, crocheting, and even a photography class for seniors. Community engagement is vital. Priest, who emceed the gala fundraiser, made an impassioned plea for working as a community to keep the arts alive. They are a volunteer-driven organization, and so you can imagine it takes quite a lot to keep it going. In fact, there are many volunteer position vacancies (which you can find on their website) and they are looking for a kind soul to procure them a physical space for workshops, visiting artists, and collaborative projects. Right now, all the HSAC owns is a laptop, if you can imagine.
Blues musician and historian Scott Ainslie, who lived in North Carolina for about twenty years, was the headliner for the gala. Ainslie might not be what you typically think of when you think of a blues musician. Not only does music seem to live in his bones, he approaches it with a certain academic rigor. To experience his music is to be immersed in its cultural context. You can’t have one without the other. He took me backstage before the show and introduced me to instruments I’d never seen or heard of: one being what’s known as a jitterbug, diddley bo, or cigar box guitar, composed of a broomstick, a cigar box, and a single string. Another was an African-style gourd banjo made out of a squash grown somewhere on a farm in Georgia. “Its highest incarnation was to be a banjo,” Ainslie explains, “because it grew between two boards, making it more oblong than round.” Then he introduced me to an “84-year-old lady in great shape,” otherwise known as a steel Hawaiian guitar. It’s a pre-electric guitar, a self-amplifying instrument; a shiny steel beauty that requires no electricity but projects incredible sound. Ainslie strums each of these instruments and gives me a quick primer on what makes them unique. There’s a built-in conflict between the major chords of European music and the minor, more bluesy chords coming out of places like the Mississippi Delta and played originally on rudimentary instruments such as these. This conflict is reflected in lyrics such as, “I mistreat my baby / I can’t see the reason why.” There’s something intriguing to the ear when Ainslie strums one of those chords. There’s a story there. Ainslie brought 165 years of guitar with him that evening.
Ainslie strikes me as someone deeply meditative, warm, and soul-filled. The role of art in his life is a given. If he had to, he probably couldn’t tell you where music begins and his own person ends. Aside from having a decades-long connection to North Carolina, it strikes me that Ainslie was invited to perform at the 2015 Holly Springs Arts Festival because of the way art/music/history steers his soul. The people he meets, the conversations he has around the guitar—or diddley bo, or whatever it may be—aren’t light and airy. They connect person to person, to land, to history.
He tells the audience of the sold-out show, “I’m deeply honored to be here.” When it was suggested that he was the reason the tickets sold out he said no, that wasn’t the case. “You’ve been working here 365 days a year for this community,” Ainslie said to one of the board members of HSAC. “And this community has responded.”
While Ainslie performs, the rest of the Cultural Center is quiet. But as I listen to his songs, and he plays the instruments he introduced me to nearly two hours ago, I can’t help but think of those halls lined with art. There’s a watercolor piece on display titled “Van Gogh Goat.” On it, the artist, Amina, a 4th grader, wrote this simple inscription: “My picture came from somewhere in my heart.”
When you think of the blues, a lot of people think about sadness. But I think about heart. And soul. And one thing’s true: this festival and the people who made it possible have both.
For more information about the HSAC, visit their website at www.hollyspringsartscouncil.org
