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Athens Art Crawl Expands to Prince Avenue & “The Art of the Craft” Hosts Masters


Crawl Along: Moving from Pulaski Street to Prince Avenue this year, the fourth annual Art Crawl, spearheaded by the Athens Area Arts Council, has expanded to showcase more than just handmade arts, now including music, performance art, audiovisuals, film, spoken word and theater. Set for Saturday, Oct. 11 from 5–9 p.m., over two dozen businesses along Prince will host special exhibits or performances, demonstrating the remarkable density of the local arts community. 

New “art venue/music gallery” Noun Factory will take over Go Bar for a well-rounded evening. Indoor performances—complemented by visual projections provided by the Noun Factory A.V. Club—include Jacob Morris of Moths and Old Smokey; Ryan Gray Moore’s solo project, Little Brothers; dream-pop duo Powerkompany; Edgar Lopez’s experimental hip hop and performance art project, Ginko; moody rock band Oak House; ethereal pop-rock trio Acapoco; and k i d s, the noise-pop/psych rock brainchild of K. Jared Collins. Outdoors, a lineup of readings, spoken word and film features Rob White and Juliet Easton of the Athens Writers Association, Patrick Joseph Conley of Word of Mouth, Showyn Al-Gorjus Buddha Walton of Kiss My Athens and an experimental short film by Benjamin Roberds and Jordan St. Martin-Reyes of Dominar, Ltd. 

For a darkroom-style gallery installation at Fire Hall No. 2, Eddie Boswell and Margaret Schreiber enlarged 20 or so photo strips taken at the busterbooth.com photo booth at Max Canada and distributed them to local artists to add coloring, graffiti and other enhancements. The duo will additionally project a live broadcast of the Athens Public Access Instagram photo stream. Once Instagram users have added Athens as their location or used the hashtag #athnow on their crawl photos, the server will add the images to a live slideshow accompanied by local music that has been uploaded to athenspublic.com.

Over at Hendershot’s Coffee, Andy Gonzales of Marshmallow Coast, Thimble Circus, Killick and Ranch will perform. Up on the wall, the “Wild Rumpus Kids’ Art Show,” curated by parade ringleader Timi Conley, celebrates the season through this year’s theme, “HalloWitch,” a playful spin on the astrological earth sign Virgo that presents her as a little witch working her magic to better the environment. 

In the Bottleworks courtyard, sustainable fashion boutique Community and Shakina Robinson will present shows highlighting local designers. The Wedge—the wooded area owned by Piedmont College at Cobb and Harris—will host an open jam led by Myriad, theater games by Rose of Athens and artwork by Barbara Odil. Avid Bookshop will host poetry readings, the T.R.R. Cobb House Museum will have performances by the Underground Dance Society and Siri Thai will screen art films by Mary Willoughby.

Among the artists scattered along the crawl are Jacob Wenzka and Hena Jang at Suska; Lindsay Pennington and Eve Nettles at Lulumon; Rebecca Wood at The Grit; the Athens Metal Arts Guild at Taziki’s Mediterranean Café; Cameron Bliss and My_Athens at Big City Bread Café; and an interactive maze by Kristen Morales and performance art by TVHeadGuy (Mux Blank) at Captain D’s. Yes, you read that last part right.For a complete schedule of events and exhibits, find Athens’ Art Crawls on Facebook. For an interactive map, visit athensarts.org.

Craft Masters:  “The Art of the Craft,” currently on view at the Lyndon House Arts Center through Friday, Oct. 17, brings together a dozen artists from around the world who have all found their way to the peach state. Curated by the Bright Ring Foundation, the exhibit highlights artists who are masters at their craft, using traditional materials and techniques in unusual or new ways.

Adrina Richard, a first-generation American born of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, hand builds stamped and textured vessels from white stoneware and porcelain that are both contemporary and architecturally complex. Hung Nguyen, who moved from his native Vietnam to Georgia in 1981 as a refugee, has been creating exceptional glass sculptures for over 27 years. Inspired by his upbringing in rural Jamaica, the drawings and paintings of Errol Tomlinson depict scenes of village life recollected from childhood. Swedish native Mona Waterhouse transforms paper made from plants, pigment and wax into delicate, pod-like sculptures. The exhibition also includes nature photography by Richard Levy and David Warren Bell, ceramic works and functional furniture by Kathi Earles-Ross, delicate wood turned and pyroengraved objects by Michael and Cynthia Gibson, ceramic sculptures by Shadow May and Michael Schmidt, and colorful marbled paper by Marcia Watt.

Two artist demonstrations and gallery talks will be held on Saturday, Oct. 11. At 10 a.m. Richard will demonstrate ceramic stamping techniques, and at 1 p.m. Nguyen will share glass sculpture techniques.

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