MARLENE ROSE
Wednesday, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 | 6p – 7:30P

Join us for an evening with celebrated glass artist Marlene Rose. Fresh from the winter art fairs in Miami and Palm Beach, Marlene Rose joins us in Charlotte to talk about her process and the subtle air of mystery that infuses her glass sculpture.  Rose is an award-winning artist who sandcast glass technique is inspired by symbols that derive their power and strength from the common core we share with our ancestors. Her work is exhibited nationally and internationally, and is found in private, corporate and museum collections across the globe. Craft beer by Wooden Robot and light bites from Roots Catering. Program moderated by artist, professor and curator Crista Cammaroto begins promptly at 6:30p and ends promptly at 7:30p.

AN INTRODUCTION TO PHILOSOPHICAL INQUIRY
Video art installation and Q&A with Paul Travis Phillips
Wednesday, March 25, 2020 | 6p – 7:30P

Paul Travis Phillips is a Winston-Salem based interdisciplinary artist and instructor. Phillips has exhibited his paintings, mixed media work and videos across North Carolina and in New York, including at Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Ackland Art Museum and Duke University. His work is concerned with the reductive, and potentially destructive nature of language. Phillips co-opts and subverts traditional sources of information such as books, articles and notes to explore the nature of language as it relates to the search for knowledge and meaning. The resulting paintings, installations, videos and resurfaced objects inhabit the space between this and that, here and there, confusion and understanding, inarticulate and nameable. Phillips’ work is about philosophy and the limits of language, both written and spoken, and the deconstructed nature of his pieces allow the viewer to venture as far as they are willing in a philosophical search for meaning. Craft beer by Wooden Robot and light bites from Roots Catering. Program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends promptly at 7:30p.

MANIFESTATIONS OF HYBRIDITY
Wednesday, JANUARY 22, 2020 | 6p – 7:30P

Join us for an evening with Saba Taj and Antoine Williams, two North Carolina-based artists whose work fearlessly addresses the figure in response to salient issues of our time.  Their artwork seeks to capture what we gaze upon, yet frequently brings in the protagonist or antagonist, the psychological or socio-political narrative, issues of identity or an in-depth exploration of the human anatomy.  These artists create work that reflects a style perhaps less about gesture and more about who they are as they contemplate the figure. Craft beer by Wooden Robot and light bites from Roots Catering.  Program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends promptly at 7:30p.

Saba Taj is a Southern Muslim artist and arts advocate based in Durham, North Carolina. Her work is informed by her politicized identity as a queer Muslim in the American South, and challenges racism and xenophobia through empowered representations of people of color. Through interdisciplinary practices, Taj explores hybrid identities and the gaze, and imagines revolutionary futures. Saba was a featured speaker at TEDxDuke 2017, a founding member of Durham Artists Movement, and former executive director of The Carrack Modern Art. Taj received her BA in art education from North Carolina Central University, and an MFA in studio art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Antoine Williams’ practice is an investigation of power, perception, semiotics, and fear as they relate to institutional inequities. Influenced by sci-fi literature from such authors as Octavia Butler and H.P. Lovecraft, Williams has created a mythology, concerning the complexities of contemporary Black life. Through mixed-media installations, paintings, drawings, and collages, he has created a mythos populated with beings that are born out of the fragility of what Ta-Nehisi Coates refers to as the “dream.” In addition, Williams is interested in making the personal, public, and draws from his own experiences from a rural, working-class upbringing in North Carolina that relate to wider contemporary concerns of race, class and masculinity.

PRIVATE ARTIST STUDIO TOUR WITH CURATOR LAURA RITCHIE
Wednesday, NOVEMBER 13, 2019 | 6p – 7:30P

Meet the current McColl Center artists in residence and get an inside look at their studios and process during this private tour with visiting curator Laura Ritchie.  Ritchie is the co-founder and former director of The Carrack, a zero-commission community art space in Durham, and has a long history of championing emerging artists and broadening access to the arts in North Carolina communities. RSVP required: info@eldergalleryclt.com.  Meet at the McColl Center at 6pm: 721 N. Tryon St., between W. 10th and W. 11th Streets, next to Charlotte Ballet, in Uptown Charlotte.

The fall 2019 McColl artists in residence are:

Anna Garner (Photography, Video, Sculpture, Performance | Los Angeles, California)

Jason H. Green (Ceramics | Alfred Station, New York)

Lacey McKinney (Painting, Drawing | Syracuse, New York)

Pablo Rasgado (Sculpture, Painting, Installation | Mexico City, Mexico)

Sherrill Roland (Interdisciplinary | Raleigh, North Carolina)

Brittney Leeanne Williams (Painting, Drawing | Chicago, Illinois)

MAKING ART, MAKING A DIFFERENCE –
MAP NIGHT OUT AT THE MINT RANDOLPH WITH GALLERY ARTIST mARY eRICKSON
Wednesday, OCTOBER 16, 2019 | 6:30p – 8P

Join accomplished plein air painter and lifelong conservationist Mary Erickson as she shares her art and process while exploring a brief history of artists who have made a difference within their personal environment. Erickson’s 39-acre residence in Marshville, North Carolina is slated to be left as an artist retreat and bird sanctuary. It is listed on the North Carolina Birding Trail.

Erickson travels extensively to study and paint, viewing experiences abroad as essential to an artist’s career and growth. Painting tours have taken her to France, Italy, Spain, Guatemala, Argentina, Ireland, and throughout the United States. Erickson is a founding member of the American Tonalist Society (ATS), a signature member of the American Society of Marine Artists (ASMA), the Society of Animal Artists and the Artists for Conservation. In addition, Erickson is a founding member of SPAA (Southern Plein Air Artists) and a member of Plein Air Painters of the Southeast (PAP-SE), both Southern based alliances that are intent on recording the scenery of the rapidly vanishing natural southern landscape.

This inspirational talk about art, living and giving will take place at Mint Museum Randolph in connection with the Friends of the Mint speaker series. Refreshments served starting at 6:30p in the Atrium at Mint Museum Randolph. Presentation at 7p.

WITNESS THE MAKING – ARTIST KENNY NGUYEN
Wednesday, SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 | 6p – 7:30P

Experience the making of a silk masterpiece with artist Kenny Nguyen, whose work explores the concept of cultural identity, integration, and displacement. Influenced by his Vietnamese cultural heritage and traditional art, Nguyen also has a background in fashion design, which has shaped his studio practice in creating art, particularly in his use of materials such as silk.  For Nguyen, silk not only has a rich cultural history, but it also can be a symbol of exchanging cultures, social class, and beauty.

This presentation with Kenny Nguyen is made possible through a partnership with SOZO gallery, which represents Nguyen and his work.  Nguyen has shown in two solo exhibitions at SOZO and has led silk and acrylic workshops at the gallery.

Free beer by Wooden Robot and snacks by QC Catering. Socialize and network from 6-6:30, program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends at 7:30p.

SISTERS WITH STORIES – $HAN WALLACE
Wednesday, AUGUST 21, 2019 | 6p – 8:30P

Join us for a special collaborative event that will take us on an art stroll through South End while delving into $HAN Wallace’s extraordinary project, Sisters with Stories. Baltimore-based Wallace is a photographer and writer who began her project by publishing from an Instagram feed.  The photography project explores and highlights everyday survival and the realities experienced by black women.  Wallace is the 2019 artist in residence at The Roll Up CLT in the Camp Greene community.

The evening will begin at Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art with a documentary about $HAN Wallace by the Roll Up CLT 2019 Fellow Terry Suave. This film will explain the artist’s project and share personal insights discovered along the way.  At 7pm, we will head across Tryon Street to the rail trail and walk down to Hodges Taylor for a pop-up exhibition and discussion with Wallace.

This Millennial Art Program event is made possible through partnership with The Roll Up CLT – Elder Gallery of Contemporary Art – Hodges Taylor.  Free beer by Wooden Robot and snacks by QC Catering. Socialize and network from 6-6:30, program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends at 7p for the stroll to Hodges Taylor for discussion and pop up exhibition from 7:30 – 8:30p.

CLT MURAL TOUR
Wednesday, JULY 31, 2019 | 6p – 7:30P

Join the MAPs for a tour through Charlotte’s murals with artist Rosalia Torres-Weiner.  Rosalia’s work is featured in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Anacostia Museum has been exhibited in venues including the McColl Center for Arts and Innovation, Levine Museum of the New South, UNCC’s Projective Eye Gallery, the City of Raleigh Museum, the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute, and the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington D.C.  Her public murals celebrate the rich history and changing demographics of the South.

The artist will take attendees to view her murals as well as several others by well-known Charlotte artists.  Rosalia will explain the process, share lessons learned as she has created, and take questions along this walking tour.

KYLE MOSHER & David j. butler – THE INTERSECTION OF FINE ART AND COMMERCIAL ART
Wednesday, JUNE 26, 2019 | 6p – 7:30P

Canadian-born and Charlotte-based multidisciplinary artist Kyle Mosher’s work falls in the intersection where contemporary culture, music and aesthetics meet traditional fine-art techniques and ideas. It is a stylized collaboration of juxtaposing ideas, teachings, and movements. He works in fine arts media as well as commercial media. His signature style brings together a mix of hand painted acrylic, screen printed acrylic, illustration, decoupage and vintage paper to create art in both analog and digital mediums. He has been featured in/worked with: Forbes Magazine, Lululemon, Cultivator x Nike, HBO, Karmaloop, High Snobiety, Mountain Dew’s Green Label, Complex, Radeberger, Bud Light, and more.

David J. Butler is a Charlotte native and creative consultant working in arts, education, and culture.  In 2018, David was named one of Charlotte Magazine’s “Charlotteans of the Year” for his art projects that drive conversation around the necessity for the local community to invest in creative infrastructure.  David leads “Be Social” – a community initiative and a creative hub for interaction and innovation that lives in the back of the newly renovated Social Status store in Plaza-Midwood.

Free beer by Wooden Robot and snacks by QC Catering. Socialize and network from 6-6:30, program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends at 7:30p.

CANNUPA HANSKA LUGER
Wednesday, MAY 22, 2019 | 6p – 7:30P

Arrive early for this special event with Burke prize recipient Cannupa Hanska Luger.  Cannupa is a Santa Fe-based Native American multi-disciplinary artist who focuses much of his work on environmental matters and issues related to indigenous populations.  He was raised on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota and gained significant national and international recognition for his creative demonstrating with the use of Mirror Shields during the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance.  Cannupa, one of the featured artists in the gallery’s spring exhibition We See Heaven Upside Down, uses social collaboration to address contemporary issues.  He has been featured in articles by the New York Times, LA Times, American Craft Council, Arts Forum and Art News and is the recipient of the Museum of Arts and Design’s inaugural Burke Prize for contemporary craft.

Free beer by Wooden Robot and snacks by QC Catering. Socialize and network from 6-6:30, program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends at 7:30p.

MEDIUM EXPLORATION: PERFORMANCE ART – Elsie Mufuka with Mufukaworks dance company
Wednesday, APRIL 24, 2019 | 6p – 7:30P

Join us for an evening where we will demystify performance art with Elsie Mufuka, founder and director of MufukaWorks Dance Company.  Elsie is also a Charlotte Ballet teaching artist and a dance instructor at Benton Heights Elementary and Ebb & Flow Movement.  She will perform dance work based on Afro Russe Dance (Zimbabwean African, Ballet, and Contemporary) and dig into the importance of this sometimes misunderstood medium.  What is performance art? Is it theatre? Can it be dance? Where does the “art” part come in?  This interdisciplinary art form that brings together elements of time, space, bodies, and audiences is frequently focused on how collective action can challenge and overturn established ways of thinking. At its heart is a strong social critique, asking questions about how we perceive the world around us – and our place within it.

Elsie will be among the performing artists at Charlotte’s 2019 BOOM Festival, Charlotte’s annual showcase of contemporary and experimental art created on the fringes of popular culture.  Elsie received her B.A. in Dance and Communications from Coker College and is currently studying for her Master’s in Arts Administration from Winthrop University.

Free beer by Wooden Robot and snacks by QC Catering. Socialize and network from 6-6:30, program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends at 7:30p.

THE ROLE OF CURATOR
Wednesday, MARCH 27, 2019 | 6p – 7:30P

Join Lia Newman, Director and Curator of the Van Every/Smith Galleries at Davidson College, and Adam Justice, Director of Galleries at UNC Charlotte for a dialogue about the role of a curator in the contemporary art world. Often working behind the scenes, curators are highly influential when it comes to the art we experience in galleries and museums. What does it mean to be a curator? How do curators fit into the various art institutions? From galleries to academia to non-profits, Lia and Adam will share their experience and answer questions in a free-flowing conversation.

Free beer by Wooden Robot and snacks by QC Catering. Socialize and network from 6-6:30, program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends at 7:30p.

ALEX BERNSTEIN AND BRENT SKIDMORE
Wednesday, FEBRUARY 27, 2019 | 6p – 7:30P

North Carolina’s talent and depth in the medium of glass is extensive. Join Asheville-based artists Alex Bernstein and Brent Skidmore for a revealing evening where each artist will walk and talk through the works he is showcasing in the gallery’s current exhibition, Transparency, while also discussing their process and journey as a glass artist. Bernstein interrogates the idea of transparency by juxtaposing cast carved glass with the opaque qualities of steel. Skidmore, who creates tables with a vulnerable fragility, uses a balance of the sculptural wooden form to uphold the transparency of the functional glass table top. Free beer by Wooden Robot and snacks by QC Catering. Socialize and network from 6-6:30, program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends at 7:30p.

ALLI CELEBRON-BROWN, CHRIS WATTS, LINDA LUISE BROWN
Wednesday, JANUARY 30, 2019 | 6p – 7:30P

Get the inside story on the evolution of the artist-in-residence program at the McColl Center for Art + Innovation with President and CEO Alli Celebron-Brown, then hear from current artist-in-residence Chris Watts and resident alumnae Linda Luise Brown.  NC-based Brown and NYC-based Watts will share details about the residency experience and how it influenced – or influences – their body of work.  They will also explore both conceptual and aesthetic approaches towards the lucid and obscure as they walk through their artwork on view in the gallery’s current exhibition, Transparency. What is revealed and what is not revealed starts a narrative around the work. Brown’s work is abstract as she blends contrasting fields of bold color and texture into her feathery translucent brush strokes, while Watts is currently experimenting with transparencies between layers of silk and textiles in screened veneers of acrylic, providing the viewer with the opportunity to see themselves in and through the work. Free beer by Wooden Robot and snacks by QC Catering. Socialize and network from 6-6:30, program begins promptly at 6:30p and ends at 7:30p.

MAP HOLIDAY PARTY AT THE GALLERY
Wednesday, DECEMBER 12, 2018 | 6p – 7:30P

Celebrate the holidays with fellow MAP enthusiasts! Join the MAP steering committee and several speakers from the past year and share in a champagne toast.

VICARIOUS EXHIBITION EXPERIENCE
Wednesday, NOVEMBER 28, 2018 | 6p – 7:30P

Meet the veteran artists from CreatiVets and engage with them as they share the stories from service that inspired their conceptual artworks; join Charlotte artist and veteran Suje Garcia for his “Last Letters” participatory performance; listen to writer, academic, entrepreneur and veteran Paula Broadwell discuss the use of virtual reality to create empathy, and take part in a headset-on experience of her virtual reality film project. 6 – 7:30p

MAP NIGHT OUT!
Wednesday, OCTOBER 31, 2018 | 6p – ?

Meet up at the Wooden Robot at 6 pm for this Halloween celebration. Come as you are or as you like!

Location: Wooden Robot Brewery, 1440 S. Tryon Street.

the roll up clt with JESSICA MOSS and zun Lee
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2018 | 6p – 7:30p
SPECIAL TUESDAY NIGHT EVENT

The Millennial Art Program is excited to welcome Jessica Gaynelle Moss, founder of The Roll Up CLT and the curator behind “Black Blooded,” this summer’s group exhibition that demonstrated Charlotteans will show up, support black artists, contemporary work, and put their money where their mouth is. Jessica’s new residency program, The Roll Up CLT, is based on the West Side at Camp Greene, and furthers her mission to activate culture and community. Jessica will be joined by noted Canadian photographer Zun Lee, The Roll Up CLT’s inaugural artist.  He is already spreading out across his present West Side neighborhood embracing The Roll Up CLT’s goal of engaging neighbors and neighborhoods through art. Come discuss with Jessica where she – and Charlotte – can go next and how to carry the momentum forward, and talk with Zun about his current body of work, the give-and-take of The Roll UP, and what he intends to create while in residency.

BREAKING DOWN BOXES
Wednesday, August 29, 2018 | 6p – 7:30p

Breaking Down Boxes is a survey of Charlotte’s limitless arts community and an engaging discussion with Charlotte Magazine’s Andy Smith about the outmoded practice of categorizing creatives.

Smith covers arts and culture for Charlotte magazine, while also serving as the magazine’s digital editor.  Smith is also a writer for international art magazine Hi-Fructose Magazine (and is a co-writer on their New Contemporary Fashion book, released through Abrams Books) and has written for several other magazines and newspapers.  He gets up close with performances, galleries, museums, pop up shows, and artists of every stripe and persuasion.  In his presentation, Smith will challenge conventional notions and the boxes we create for artists to neatly fit in, using The Fine Art of ArtPop as a backdrop. Free beer by Wooden Robot and snacks by QC Catering.  Socialize and network from 6 – 6:30, program begins promptly at 6:30p.

MAP Meet Up!
Wednesday, July 25, 2018 | 6p – 7:30p

Medium Exploration with Katherine Kirchner
Wednesday, June 27, 2018 | 6p – 7:30p

Medium Exploration with LARRY HOROWITZ
Wednesday, MAY 30, 2018 | 6p – 7:30p

STEERING COMMITTEE