Culture Around Every Corner: October 26-28

Frank Selby. Progaulists, 2009. Part of one of the two shows debuting tonight at SECCA

On Wednesday, we brought you an overview of the Halloween events at our sites and venues this weekend and into next week, but there are some exciting events not related to Halloween that we wanted to let you know about, too.

Later today, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art (SECCA) in Winston-Salem will debut two new exhibitions. The first focuses on the breakdown of social order through meticulously-rendered pencil drawings. The other addresses the shifting topography of India through abstract forms and images. Also later today, the N.C. Museum of Art will offer gallery tours of its new still-life exhibition and screen L.A. Confidential as part of its “Femme Fatale” movie series.

Saturday, the focus will shift from art to the 19th century. Somerset Place in Creswell will present a program exploring safe havens during the Civil Wail, while the military and civilian reenactors will gather at the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer for a variety of demonstrations including a ladies high tea. Also on Saturday, Tryon Palace in New Bern will give visitors the chance to sample the food and drinks described in Jane Austen’s novels.

As part of its Al Norte al Norte exhibit, the N.C. Museum of History will host a lecture on the realities, opportunities and challenges of Latino life in the Tar Heel State. The Museum will also present two performances by Award-winning humorist Jeanne Swanner Robertson.

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Culture Around Every Corner: September 28-30

Celebrate Hispanic heritage Saturday at the N.C. Museum of History

From World War II naval re-enactors to a lecture on northern European art to a celebration of Latino culture in North Carolina, there’s truly something from everyone this weekend at the sites and museums of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

The fun begins today with Thomas and Friends train rides and entertainment at the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer. In town for the second weekend in a row, Thomas will be at the museum through Sunday.

Tomorrow, the N.C. Museum of History will celebrate Hispanic heritage month with craft demonstrations, music and dance performances and more. Right across Edenton Street at the State Capitol, North Carolina historian David Cecelski will launch his widely anticipated book on the Civil War. Across town at the N.C. Museum of Art, curator Dennis Weller will present a series of lectures on northern European art, complete with food and drinks from the region.

Closer to the coast, World War II living history interpreters will bring the Battleship North Carolina alive with re-enactments of daily duties and drills, while Tryon Palace will host its Fall Family Day. The N.C. Maritime Museum at Beaufort and the Museum of the Albemarle will also both present programs on the environment in celebration of National Estuaries Day.

Tonight and tomorrow, the North Carolina Symphony will pay homage to the music of Ray Charles. On Sunday, the Symphony will kick off its Sounds Bites series at Humble Pie in Raleigh.

Other events this weekend include model boat building at the N.C. Maritime Museum at Southport, an auto and  motorcycle show at Roanoke Island Festival Park and dog’s day at Town Creek Indian Mound.

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Culture Around Every Corner: September 20-23

Take a Ride with Thomas the Tank Engine, this (and next) weekend at the N.C. Transportation Museum.

Norwegian prints, Civil War-era reenactors and rides on Thomas the Tank Engine are just a few of the fun things you’ll find this weekend at the sites and museums of the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources.

Start your weekend off early with the N.C. Arts Council at the installation of the North Carolina’s poet laureate this afternoon. The celebration will begin around 4:30 in the old House of Representatives chamber in the State Capitol. Later in the evening, Historic Bath will screen The Help as part of its historical films series, while Elisha Minter will portray Fannie Lou Hamer, a civil rights activist, in a storytelling program at Tryon Palace.

Starting Friday morning and continuing through Sunday, Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends will be on hand at the N.C. Transportation Museum. Take your kids out for rides on Thomas, music, Thomas-themed games and activities and the opportunity to meet Sir Topham Hatt.

On Saturday and Sunday, Bennett Place in Durham will host a living history program on the Civil War homefront in North Carolina. Visitors will have the chance to see what is was like to be left behind after the men went off to war. Both days, Vance Birthplace in Weaverville will have 1800s military demonstrations and other pioneer life activities, while the N.C. Museum of History in Raleigh will offer special tours of the Gone with the Wind exhibit, led by the owner of the collection himself!

On Sunday, the N.C. Museum of Art will debut a widely-acclaimed exhibition of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s work, a lecture at the Museum of the Cape Fear will examine the role of railroads in the Civil War and a talk at the Museum of History will describe how the South was packaged for pop culture consumption.

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Charlotte Area Offers Convention Goers Lots of Arts and History

Reenactors at Polk Birthplace in Pineville.

Charlotte’s Got a Lot estimates that between 30,000 and 35,000 people will come to Charlotte as part of the Democratic National Convention slated to take place next week. To help all those out-of-towners make the most of their visit to the Tar Heel state, we’ve collected some great cultural experiences and attractions in the greater Charlotte area.

Two wonderful art museums in the heart of Charlotte—both supported by the N.C. Arts Council—are currently playing host to first-rate politically-themed exhibitions. “Read My Pins” at the Mint Museum Uptown gives visitors the opportunity to explore the history of American foreign policy through the jewelry of former Secretary of State Madeline Albright. Albright is famous for wearing decorative pins to send diplomatic messages. The Mint’s Vote for Art Project, which kicks off September 1, also invites visitors to explore politics in a unique way.

The Light Factory, also located in uptown Charlotte, has two exhibitions that explore politics through photography and film. “We are Charlotte” gives Charlotte high school students the opportunity to communicate their political beliefs through images and video, while “Out In the Streets” chronicles the 1968 Democratic National Convention through the eyes of photographers caught in fighting between police and protestors.

If history is more your thing, the area offers plenty of opportunities, too. The President James K. Polk State Historic Site, in Pineville, about 12 miles from downtown, preserves Polk’s birth place and explores the history of his presidential term. About a half hour east, Reed Gold Mine in Midland gives visitors the chance to pan for gold at the site of the first documented find of the ore in the United States, and the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer offers a glimpse into our industrial past on the grounds of a former Southern Railway’s steam locomotive repair facility.

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Fees Increase at Four State Historic Sites

Several state historic sites have raised their fees to ensure that they can continue to preserve North Carolina’s past and give you the best possible experience. Here’s a quick rundown of the changes.

Admission prices to the Thomas Wolfe Memorial in Asheville are now $5 for adults and $2 for children. At Historic Bath, admission prices for the Bonner House and the Palmer-Marsh House have increased to $2 per house for adults and $1 per house for children. At both sites, groups of ten or more will still receive half off the regular rates.

Reed Gold Mine in Midland, N.C.

General admission to the N.C. Transportation Museum is now $6 for adults, $5 for seniors and active military, $4 for children between the ages of three and 12 and free for children younger than three. For groups of 15 or more the rates are $4.50 for adults and $3.50 for seniors, active military personnel and children between three and 12.

A public hearing on the changes in the price structure at the Museum will be held on August 16 at 10:00 a.m. in Room 2172A-2 of the Dobbs Building at 430 N. Salisbury St in Raleigh. Public comments can also be submitted in writing between August 9 and August 31. Details on that process are available here.

Finally, while admission to Reed Gold Mine remains free, the fee for gold panning is now $3 per person, with a $1 discount per person for groups of 10 or more.

Admission to the majority of the 27 historic sites is still free. If you have any questions regarding the changes, don’t hesitate to contact us.

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N.C. Transportation Museum Gives Family the Ride of Their Lives

Photos from Rail Days by the Shell family of Salisbury. Owen Shell, 4, is center.

On June 2 and 3, hundreds of people transported themselves into the past at the annual Great Southeastern Rail Days Festival at the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer, but for one Rowan County family that trip had special significance.

For Darren Shell and his family, the event was like walking in the footsteps of previous generations. Though they took full advantage of the weekend’s activities by riding several trains, visiting most of the museum’s attractions, meeting train artist Andy Fletcher and snapping some pictures at a nighttime photo shoot, he says the connections to the past are were what truly stood out.

“For me the best part was the memories,” Shell says, “My grandfather worked for Norfolk and Western Railway when I was a kid, so being out around all the trains with my son just reminded me of a simpler time.”

And Shell reports that Owen, his four-year-old son, couldn’t get enough of the action. He loved riding the trains, and he loved watching the turntable in action. Of the four train rides they took on the first day of the festival, Owen loved the engine ride most, Shell says, because the volunteers working on the tracks gave him a railroad spike to keep.

“His sister is jealous,” Shell says, “But the volunteers were great. We go to the festival every year and this year has by far been the best.”

The best part is the fun doesn’t stop . The next two weekends, visitors can ride into the past on a genuine 1904 steam locomotive with the 21^st Century Steam Excursions, offered by the Transportation Museum in partnership with Norfolk Southern and Tennessee Valley Railroad Museum. Check here for details and tickets.

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Railroad Recuperation

One of my favorite exhibits at the N.C. Transportation Museum in Spencer is a fully restored hospital railroad car – one of the few to survive into the 21^st Century.  The development of these mobile care centers really helped in the logistics of transporting wounded soldiers. On the home front during World War II, hospital rail cars were vitally important because of the sick and wounded who arrived daily from overseas.  Many of the patients still needed medical attention, care, and supervision during the journeys to military hospitals.

The Museum’s hospital car, located in the last bay of the Bob Julian Roundhouse, is just one of the many interesting exhibits to encounter during the 2012 Southeastern Rail Days June 2 and 3 in Spencer.

Illustration of a Civil War hospital car from Harper’s Weekly in 1864.

Hospital rail cars actually date to the Civil War.  Patients were transported by trains throughout the war—but the bumping and jerking of the rail cars caused further suffering. By 1864 a Union Army surgeon designed a means by which cots could be suspended by thick rubber belts so that they would not jostle the patients.

During World War II the government purchased hospital cars of two principal types: ward cars and ward-dressing cars.  Ward cars had wide aisles for carrying litters, patient beds, office space for nurses, and cleaning facilities.  Ward-dressing cars had all of the above plus a small area for attending to dressings or performing emergency surgical procedures.  In a hospital train there were usually 2 ward cars to each ward-dressing car.  The hospital cars were often pulled by regularly scheduled passenger trains.  North Carolina destinations for the army’s hospital cars included Camp Butner, Salisbury, and Swannanoa.

Interactive exhibit in the restored hospital car at the North Carolina Transportation Museum.

After the war, the government sold off the surplus hospital cars—in fact Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus bought several!   Kept in case of future need, some were eventually sent to Korea.  Now, of course, the military uses trucks and airplanes to transport patients.  But, thanks to the Museum’s interactive exhibit, you can really get a feel for what it would have been like to travel the rails to recuperation.

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