If you've spent any time in Fayetteville, you likely know the International Folk Festival. One of the Arts Council's flagship events, it's now in its 48th year and returns to Festival Park and the surrounding downtown district on September 25 and 26. The festival is an annual reminder of what makes this community unique: global influence. And every once in a while in this strange world, you find things that are just meant to work together. That's how it felt when our staff received the proposal for what has become our current exhibition, Celebration of Sapphire: Mail Art from Around the World, which celebrates that same global spirit one postcard at a time.
Celebration of Sapphire was curated and installed by Penny L. Weaver and Michelle Davis Petelinz of Your Creative Connection and includes artists of all ages from 27 countries. Their project brings more than 100 original works to downtown Fayetteville, each a representation of someone’s corner of the world. Each a devotion to the many hues of blue. A true celebration of sapphire.
Curators Penny and Michelle conceived the project as a way to mark five years of “Seaside Sessions,” Your Creative Connection’s annual oceanfront retreat, which provides time and space for creative discovery for women. The two put out an open call for fellow artists to participate in a new mail art project. Then, they did something generous but natural to their creative process and ultimately integral to the exhibition on display: they taught. Creative workshops offered an engaging and educational series to instruct prospective artists through everything from making paper by hand to composing a collage. The call for art became not only a way to submit a piece of art, it was an invitation to learn the practice of mail art. The show grew further through a collaboration with Ryosuke Cohen, the Japanese mail art luminary behind the long-running Brain Cell series, which has been collecting and exhibiting mail art since 1985. Two of Cohen’s collages are on display as part of the exhibit.
The installation also serves as an educational display of mail art as an artistic form. Mail art emerged in the 1960s and is still going strong. Its genius is how little it demands: paper, medium, a stamp, and someone worth the postage. In this exhibit, you’ll find works that incorporate techniques including sketching, painting, collage, and more. Mail art welcomes and provides creative access to artists of every skill level and ability.
Intrigued? Want to try your hand? Join the curators for a hands-on workshop at 6 p.m. on Friday, September 25. This evening also marks the opening night of the Folk Festival, with music and artist engagements all along Hay Street.
Celebration of Sapphire is on display through October 25. While you're downtown this fall grabbing a coffee and sandwich or supporting a small business for the upcoming holidays, join us behind the red doors for a trip around the world. While you’re here, you’ll undoubtedly find a dozen pieces that move you. I’m particularly fond of a simple, serene piece from Spain. Then
There’s a piece from Malaysia offering a point of view of a fish, telling the viewer, “You like me as sushi.” In fact, I do.