It’s hard for me to imagine Ware’s Folly, also known as the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art, painted any other color besides white. That’s the only color I ever remember.
However, if Horace Talmage Day’s 1937 oil painting of the structure on Telfair Street is to be believed, it was once yellow with white trim. Day would know. He served as the institute’s first director
That particular piece is part of the Morris Museum of Art’s permanent collection, donated in memory of Louise Keith Claussen, the Morris Museum’s first director who died in December 2018.
Other glimpses of Augusta during Day’s time in the Garden City are on display through May 8.
“Although he traveled widely and continued to explore new subjects throughout his life, he is particularly well known for his depictions of Augusta, its environs, and the countryside throughout Georgia and South Carolina, especially the Lowcountry,” according to the Morris Museum of Art’s website.
The Day exhibition is one of three temporary ones. Others include one focused on Alfred Hutty, who was one of the principal artists of the Charleston Renaissance, and Luke Allsbrook, a contemporary artists who is former Augustan and studied under Ed Rice.
The Morris Museum of Art is the “oldest museum in the country that is specifically devoted to the art and artists of the American South,” according to its website.
While there are permanent and temporary exhibitions throughout its space at 1 Tenth St., the Morris is also offers many programs.
On Thursday, Create With Me: Radiant Rainbows will be from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m.
“Tour the rainbows of the Morris, then make your own rising rainbow artwork,” the website said.
The program is open to children from “toddler to tween.” It’s free for Morris Museum members and $5 per participant for non-members. Registration is required.
On April 15, Ellen Pruitt, an architect with Studio 3 Design, will present an architectural history lecture “The New and the Nostalgic: Augusta Architecture in the 1920s.”
Reservations are required by April 13. The cost is $12 for members and $16 for non-members and includes a catered lunch.
Admission is free to the museum on Sundays.
To find out more about upcoming events, visit the museum’s website themorris.org or call (706) 724-7501.
The Greater Augusta Arts Council announced it would start accepting applications for project grants for individual artists beginning April 1.
The maximum award will be $3,000, and the grants are open to artists of a variety of disciplines in the CSRA, including the visual, performing and literary arts. The focus of the grant funding is to support publicly shared arts projects in the following Georgia and South Carolina counties: Richmond, Columbia, Burke, Glascock, Jefferson, Lincoln, McDuffie, Taliaferro, Warren, Wilkes, Aiken, Edgefield and McCormick, according to a news release.
The deadline to submit is 3 p.m. May 20. Announcement of artists project awards will be June 20.
Additional information is available at www.augustaarts.com/our-grants.
The deadline for the 2022 Congressional Art Competition is April 13. Students in the 9th through 12th grades may submit their artwork to one of the U.S. Rep. Jody Hice’s three district offices. The first-place entry will represent Georgia’s 10th District for one year in the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
Hice will announce the winner and present awards for the top entries on Saturday, April 30 during a ceremony at the Walton County Historic Courthouse. A reception and artwork viewing will precede this event at the Monroe Walton Center for the Arts.
For more information, go to https://hice.house.gov/constituent-services/arts-competition.htm
A shoutout to Ron Baxley Jr. who was just named one of five finalists in the Best Novel/Novella Category for the 2022 Palmetto Scribe Awards at Atomacon which will be taking place May 13-15 in the Hilton Garden Inn in N. Charleston, S.C.
Baxley, who is a correspondent for The Augusta Press, has written several “Oz Universe” books related to “The Wizard of Oz.”
Also congrats to Project Happy Water for raising $12,000 in the High Water exhibition March 24.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the managing editor of The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
