A Newsletter for the Friends of Weymouth                                                             Spring 2009

 

 

 

CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERTS by Elaine Sills, Chairman

 

The final concert of the season will present Amy and Sarah Hamann, pianists, on April 5^th. Amy and Sara are the first American Piano Duo to win the Absolute First Prize in the Frederic Chopin Concorso Pianistico Internazionale, held in Rome, Italy and the First Prize winners of the International Grieg Competition, held in Oslo, Norway. The Hamanns are the youngest First Prize winners in the history of the National Federation of Music Ellis Competition for Duo-Pianists.

 

All concerts are held in the Great Room at 3 o’clock.  Admission is by membership or $15 at the door.  All concerts feature an Artist Reception, immediately following the concert, in the Dining Room.

 

ARTS & HUMANITIES by Lois Holt, Chairman

 

SHEILA KAY ADAMS IS COMING TO WEYMOUTH

 

Balladeer, musician, story teller, novelist, comedienne Sheila Kay Adams will be performing at Weymouth in a Sunday afternoon program April 26.  We are fortunate to be on Sheila’s schedule because she is an extremely popular representative and educator of Appalachian culture in this part of the country.

 

In performance, Sheila sings with a strong voice the traditional Appalachian ballads in the same style in which they were handed down to her over seven generations.  She learned these ballads from her older relatives, primarily from her great-aunt, Dellie Chandler Norton.  Audiences also love to hear the stories about her childhood and the mountain community in which she grew up.  These have been collected in the 2004 book Come Go Home with Me. She has also written and published a novel My Old True Love, based on a true family story from the Civil War.  She is at present writing a second novel.

 

Sheila plays the traditional mountain instruments, especially the 5-string banjo, has performed at major festivals, colleges and universities, and in 1998 was chosen to receive the prestigious North Carolina Folklore Society’s Brown-Hudson Award in recognition of her valuable contributions to the study of North Carolina folklore.  She was an advisor and singing coach for the movie “Songcatcher.”

 

The at-the-door charge for this program will be $10 for Weymouth members and $15 for nonmembers.  Please come early because space is limited.  We are most grateful to our thirteen patrons who have helped to make this event possible.

 

GARDENS AND GROUNDS

 

Have you noticed that the numerous, unsightly tree stumps that were in our field at the corner of Connecticut Avenue and Ridge Road have disappeared?  THANKS to our friend and President of the Southern Pines Business Association Greg Zywocinski, who spearheaded the “Remove the Stumps” campaign for us.  Greg saw our need, approached us, and then went on to secure the funds necessary to complete this project.   We are indebted to him in helping us maintain the beauty that surrounds Boyd House.  In these difficult financial times, it is a struggle sometimes for us to do the things that we would like to do, so we can’t thank you enough Greg for your generosity of time and effort on our behalf.  The people and organizations who helped in this project are: The Southern Pines Business Association; The Southern Pines Rotary Club;  Sandhills Garden Society; Eileen Malan; Greg Zywocinski and the Jack Webster Memorial Fund.   We can’t begin to thank you all enough.

  

SPECIAL CHILDREN’S WRITING CAMP

 

For three days in August – Monday, August 3^rd through Wednesday, August 5^th – from 9 am until noon, there will be a very unique children’s writing camp here at Weymouth.  Open to 12-15 children in the 3^rd through 5^th grades, the campers will spend the first day with songwriter and performer Rae Anne Kinney and poet Malaika King Albrecht who will teach them how to write lyrics for songs and how to write poems.  Participants will have a chance to create their own masterpieces and to perform them.  Day two they will concentrate on Non-fiction and Fiction with writers Cos Barnes and Karen Gilchrist who will teach participants about the basics of writing short personal essays and short stories.  Around a virtual camp fire each child will get a chance to share their story.  Free-lance writer Ellen Marcus will instruct how to get the facts straight, Kit Kitteridge-style, on the last day of camp.  Participants will interview Weymouth Board members and write articles about their interviews.  Parents are invited to attend the last 30 minutes of camp for a reading of some of the participants’ creative writings.

 

Campers will bring their own snacks and drinks.  Please register with Hope Price at 692-6261 – don’t wait as there is limited space, cost $30.

 

WEYMOUTH GARDEN TOUR SCHEDULED

 

Weymouth’s 7^th Annual Garden Tour is set for Saturday, June 6^th . . . 10 am to 3 pm.  This increasingly popular event will feature landscapes in Whispering Pines, Southern Pines, and Pinehurst.  Advance tickets are $15.00, and the day of the event $20.00.  Discount rates are also available to groups, including Garden Clubs.  Call Weymouth or Bart O’Connor 235-0635, for additional information.

 

“A CELEBRATION OF THE WEYMOUTH LEGACY:  1979-2009” by Elaine Morgan Sills

 

The purpose of observing Weymouth’s thirty year history is to celebrate the unique success of the arts and humanities in Southern Pines, Moore County, region and state.  Research is ongoing at full speed these days as many who were here to help preserve and establish the Queen of the Sandhills and Beyond, have passed on and the cherished legacy they have bequeathed to successive generations must be rekindled so that the highest achievements of the arts and humanities will continue to be a beacon for all who come to Weymouth.

 

The Original Mission Statement penned by Samuel T. Ragan, one of the key people in saving the home of the Boyds and establishing Weymouth as a center for writers, musicians, and artists,  is the foremost guide for perpetuating that legacy:

 

“The purpose of the Friends of Weymouth is to promote, as a charity, the conservation and development of the James Boyd Place in Moore County, North Carolina, known as ‘Weymouth’, with its unique virgin longleaf pine forest and rolling Sandhills, as a natural preserve and park. And, the spacious Boyd dwelling thereon and its curtilage, will be used as a center for education, literary, social and civic research, study and similar activity for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations of the public.”

 

By SAMUEL TALMADGE RAGAN 1915-1996; POET LAUREATE of NORTH CAROLINA

 

 With the ever present influence of Elizabeth S. Ives, Paul Green, Samuel T. Ragan, and many others, the 30th Anniversary Committee is pleased to announce that the opening event for celebrating Weymouth’s 30-year history will be the Premiere of a Readers’ Theater production  entitled “A Thousand Things Time Will Never Let Us Say: The Correspondence of James and Katharine Boyd and Friends,”  Compiled and Edited by Stephen Smith and Marsha Warren.

 

The performance will be held on May 22 at 7 o’clock in the evening in the Great Room.  The gracious hospitality and flowers will be coordinated by Kathy Evans and Andrea Wise-Leech. 

 

As an initial fundraiser, the fifty dollar admission fee will be used to support this performance and subsequent events. Additional performances are being planned during the year.

 

Georgann Eubanks, author, will appear at Weymouth on September 20, to speak about her new book “Literary Trails of the Piedmont,” which follows her “Literary Trails of Western North Carolina.”  Eubanks has published short stories, poems, reviews, and profiles in many magazines and journals including Oxford American, Bellingham Review, Southern Review, Duke Magazine, Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, and North American Review. She is a North Carolina Arts Council Writers’ Fellowship recipient, winner of a regional Emmy, former Chair of the North Carolina Humanities Council, and former President of Arts North Carolina.  

 

 Other 30^th Anniversary  projects include:  

• A Commemorative Booklet coordinated by Jane Wellard;
• A summer camp for 3rd-5th graders on August 3-5, 2009 coordinated by Malaika Albrecht and Cos Barnes; 
• Chamber Music Season Oct. 11;
• Thursday Lunch and Music 2010:  March 11 with Lydia Gill; with others on March 25, April 1 and 15 – musicians to be announced.
• The Young Musicians Festival, organized to feature 30th achievements, will be held March 20, 2010.

More detail and additional events will be in the Fall Newsletter.

 

The beautiful logo below was designed by Mims Studios.  The logo communicates the beauty and creativity of a truly special place:  Weymouth Center for the Arts & Humanities.  Appreciation is also extended to Bart O’Connor for his efforts in bringing this centerpiece to the community.

 

FINE ARTS LECTURE SERIES

 

“Generations of Spanish Painters: Velázquez, Goya, and Picasso”

 

When Pablo Picasso exhibited his early paintings in Barcelona and Paris around 1900, he was hailed as a “little Goya” or often as the “new El Greco,” who would lead the modern school. In other words, he was seen as the inheritor of the Spanish tradition in art. The Spanish School was acknowledged to have begun in the 17^th century with Diego Velázquez, whose portraits of King Philip IV and the royal family captured the splendor and ritual of the Hapsburg court. At the end of the 18^th century, another gifted artist, Francisco Goya, was appointed painter to King Charles IV and his portraits of the nobility were characterized by the same naturalism, psychological insight, and technical virtuosity as his great predecessor Velázquez. While Picasso was considered a modernist, his early paintings clearly paid homage to the masterpieces of his artistic forerunners, Goya and the painters of Spain’s Golden Age. He was drawn to subjects typical of his Catalonian culture, in particular the colorful pageantry of the corrida or bullfight. In addition, his portraits of avant-garde artists, writers, and art dealers suggested the network of friendships and patronage that had replaced the royal support enjoyed by Velázquez and Goya.

 

Three lectures will trace the development of Spanish painting from the Golden Age to the modern era through the art works of Velázquez, Goya, and Picasso. Each artist worked within a specific context of historical events and audience expectations, but all expressed enduring aspects of the Spanish character, such as a preoccupation with religion and mortality, a taste for drama, and an appreciation of the dark side of human nature.

 

About the Lecturer:  The lecturer is art historian Molly Gwinn who has presented the spring lecture series in the past on topics including A Century of American Landscape Painting, Americans in Paris, and Impressionism. Dr. Gwinn earned her doctorate from Rutgers University and has taught art history at Rutgers and the School of Continuing and Professional Studies at New York University. She is the daughter of the late Barbara Sutherland, a well-known Southern Pines artist, a long-time resident of Penick Village, and a member of the Artists League of the Sandhills.

 

Lecture #2 – Thursday, April 30, 2009, at 10:00 am

“Goya:  From Court Artist to Populist”

 

The second lecture will focus on Goya’s paintings as reflections of the political upheavals and private anxieties of his age. If Velázquez showed a monarch at the peak of his power, Goya displayed a court in disarray and his patrons among the intelligentsia as increasingly disillusioned by Spain’s backwardness. He ridiculed the corruption, ignorance, and self-interest that he detected at all levels of society in a suite of etchings entitled the Caprichos (1799). Later, when Napoleon’s armies invaded and occupied Madrid in 1808, he expressed his support for the people, who rebelled against the invaders and were punished by the French, in two monumental paintings, The Uprising of the Second of May, 1808, and The Executions of the Third of May, 1808 (1814). In contrast to the prestige enjoyed by Velázquez, Goya’s final years were spent in Bordeaux, France, in exile from his beloved Spain.

 

Lecture #3 – Thursday, May 21, 2009, at 10:00 am

“Picasso:  A Spanish Soul among the French Avant-Garde”

 

Picasso’s prodigious talent and ambition drove him to Paris, the center of the art world in 1900, where he could exhibit his paintings alongside those of his peers. While France became his home in 1904, he retained the habits of his youth in Barcelona throughout his life, always surrounding himself with a circle of cronies and filling his evenings with gossip, usually in Catalan, at a neighborhood café. Like Goya, he showed his empathy for the outcasts and impoverished of bohemia in the Blue and Rose Period paintings, and again like him, found beauty in the grotesque. Picasso’s anti-war statement Guernica (1937) recalls his predecessor’s earlier expressions of outrage against the French army’s violence to the Spanish people.

 

COST (per lecture):  $10 for ACMC & Weymouth Members / $15 for Non-members

All lectures will be presented at the Weymouth Center (555 E. Connecticut Avenue, Southern Pines).Space is limited.  Register with full payment at the Arts Council of Moore County’s offices at Campbell House (482 E. Connecticut Avenue, Southern Pines) or by calling 692-4356.

 

MEMBERSHIP by Patricia Williams Dawes and Barbara Dvorozniak, Co-Chairs

 

Your membership Co-Chairmen have both good and bad news.  The number of “couple level” memberships is down from the 2007-2008 fiscal year.  The good news is that the number of “individual level” memberships is up.  We thank you for your participation, support and your generous contributions.  Without the monetary donations in addition to the modest membership dues, Weymouth would not be able to continue as the important, viable Arts and Humanities Center it is.

 

WOMEN OF WEYMOUTH by Kathy Evans, President

 

Another success year is drawing to a close for the Women of Weymouth. Attendance at the monthly meetings has been high due to an outstanding schedule of programs – Deirdre Newton’s presentation on her trip to the Antarctica, “The Boyd Legacy” with Bea O’Rand, Chris Dunn from the Arts Council, “Teaching in Africa” with Tally Bandy and Jessie McKay, a visit by Bill Clemons and his seeing-eye breeder dog Nor’e, a presentation on SALT by Candace Williams, and Karyn Joyner’s program on Chekhov, Keats and EB White. Prior to the meetings the members and guests enjoyed the coffee hour hosted by Stella Butters, Brenda Jamison, Johnni Johnson, Carole Moody, Carol Nevins, Peggy Schechter and Chair Diane McCarthy. Many thanks ladies for providing this special time!

 

The last meeting of the year, a traditional Strawberry Fest Luncheon, is on May 18 at 10:30. A program of music will be followed by the lunch of tea sandwiches, deviled eggs, salad and strawberry shortcake. All friends of Weymouth are invited. Reservations are needed and may be made by calling the office, 692-6261.

 

The Sunday receptions for concert and lectures were provide by the Women of Weymouth. A big thank you to Marion Gaida, Kay Goulet, and all the ladies who provided food, or hosted this year’s events. Sunday Receptions are one of the special times at Weymouth and they could not happen without all the volunteers.

 

The spring also brings two fund raisers. In March “An Evening in Tuscany” sponsored and catered by Elliott’s on Linden was held. The Chordspinners provided music for this wonderful event. Chair for this event was Carol Van Zanten. Wonderful job, Carol.

 

On April 24^th, at 7:00 pm Weymouth will be the site for “Take Me Out to the Ballgame”. Following Cy Young Award winner Mike McCormick’s speech, hotdogs, peanuts, popcorn, beer, wine, and soft drinks will be served. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children under 12. Tickets may be purchased in the office. Barbara Dvorozniak and Marion Gaida are heading-up this fun evening.

 

Without all the volunteers WOW could not provide the programs and social events so important to Weymouth. Thank you to all those ladies and their husbands who have helped is so many ways. Also, a thank you to Hope Price and Alex Klalo, we could not do it without you!

 

I would like to express many thanks to the outstanding group of ladies serving on the Women of Weymouth Board this year. They have made my job a joy and under their leadership the Women of Weymouth has grown in numbers, funds and fellowship. Thank you – Gerry Turk, Shirley Frei, Elizabeth Kimsey, DeeDee Forehand, Marion Gaida, Kay Goulet, Diane McCarthy, Barbara Dvorozniak, Alice Craig, Carol Van Zanten, Barbara Johnson and Mabel Barker.

 

The year may be drawing to a close but not the WOW energy – mark your calendar for September 17^th, and the fabulous Supper on the Grounds!

 

WRITERS-IN-RESIDENCE PROGRAM by Cos Barnes, Chairman

 

Chambergrass, two musicians who play bluegrass and classical music, entertained the N.C. Poetry Society on Saturday, March 14.  They could not say enough about the acoustics in Weymouth’s Great Room.  It truly lends itself to the poem recitations made my members of this society, clad as always in bow ties and straw hats reminiscent of Sam Ragan.

 

Writers-in-Residence continue to praise Weymouth’s facilities.  Sarah Shaber of Raleigh said, “I just want you to know how much we appreciate the use of the Weymouth Center of a ‘writing week’ away from home.  Our crowd – Diane Chamberlain, Margaret Maron, Katy Munger, Brenda Witchger, Kathy Trochek, Alex Sokoloff, and I – not all at the same time – find that we accomplish so much more work there than we can at home!  Together we brainstorm, plot, and write without distractions.  On breaks, we can walk around the gorgeous grounds, pet the horses, and wander downtown.  Weymouth has become a kind of muse for us all.  We appreciate the new task chairs and other improvements to the rooms.”

 

 

WEYMOUTH HOUSE COMMITTEE by Jane Wellard, Chairman

 

Writers-in-Residence have begun to respond to a request, initiated late last year, for donations to help defray the cost of their stay at Boyd House.  Although the amount of donation is left to the writer’s discretion, we are pleased to announce that the results are promising.  Approximately 40% of what has been received to date has been earmarked for utility usage.  As an ongoing cost associated with the program, and one that is escalating with the increasing numbers of writers, we believe, as donations increase, we should be able to make dependable contributions to the upkeep of the house.

 

Donations are also helping with repairing, or replacing worn furnishings in the Writers’ Residence, such as bedding and upholstery, without the need to draw from the general fund.  A consequence, as the number of applications to the program continues to grow, will be the financial need for maintaining the quarters.

 

The Katharine Boyd book collection, inherited from the Sandhills College Library, is finding a home in the Boyd House library workroom.  Bookcases have been installed in phase one, with the installation of glass doors to follow.  Funding for the bookcases comes from a generous donation by The Cooke Foundation.  We are most grateful to them for helping us preserve another contact with the Boyd family.  Readers wishing to view the book collection should contact Dottie Starling, our Librarian.

 

The seats of the straight-back chairs in the Great Room have been reupholstered in a higher rated, dark blue fabric and should withstand use over a long period.  The color matches well with the oriental rugs and other furnishings.

2009

 

Sunday, April 5^th

CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES

The Hamann Sisters, Piano Duo

3:00 pm

 

Monday, April 20^th

WOMEN OF WEYMOUTH

Karen Joyner

“Anon Chekhov, John Keats & E.B. White”

10:30 am – Program, 11:30 am – Luncheon

 

Friday, April 24^th

WOMEN OF WEYMOUTH

Mike McCormick

“Take me out to the Ball Game”

7:00 pm

Beer, Wine, Soda, Hot Dogs, Peanuts & Program

($20 adults, $10 children, reservations required)

 

Sunday, April 26^th

ARTS & HUMANITIES SERIES

Sheila Kay Adams

3:00 pm

($20.00, reservations needed)
 

Tuesday, April 28^th

Dirt Gardeners’ Annual Plant Sale

9:00 am – 12 noon

Thursday, April 30^th

FINE ARTS LECTURE SERIES

Dr. Molly Gwinn

“Goya: From Court Artist to Populist”

10:00 am – Weymouth Center

              (call the Arts Council of Moore Co. for reservations)

 

            Sunday, May 3^rd    

Moore County Writers’ Competition

AWARDS CEREMONY

2:00 pm

 

Saturday, May 16^th

NC POETRY SOCIETY

TBA

 

Monday, May 18^th

WOMEN OF WEYMOUTH

Strawberry Festival

10:30 am – Program, 11:30 am – Luncheon

(Reservations required)

  

Thursday, May 21^st

FINE ARTS LECTURE SERIES

Dr. Molly Guinn

“Picasso: A Spanish Soul among the French

 Avant-Garde”

10:00 am – Weymouth Center

(call the Arts Council of Moore Co. for reservations)

  

Friday, May 22nd

FUNDRAISER – READERS’ THEATER

“A Thousand Things Time Will Never Let Us Say,”

The Correspondence of James & Katharine Boyd & Friends

7:00 pm

($50.00 per person, reservations needed, followed by a reception)

                         Saturday, June 6^th

WEYMOUTH GARDEN TOUR

10 am – 3 pm

 

 

NOTICE:  The Friends of Weymouth Board of Directors invite any interested members to the Friends of Weymouth Annual Meeting – Wednesday, April 22 at 3:00 pm in the Great Room.