• “Big Al” Carter, the Washington, D.C.-based artist who designed and painted the big mural at the YMI Cultural Center, will have work in an exhibit at the Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, N.C., through Sept. 17. Recently, The Washington Post did a huge spread about the artist and his career as a public-school teacher, and about his passion for his art. The article is a wonderful, in-depth study of Carter’s work and philosophy. See online at this site.
• Congratulations to Asheville’s Renaissance man, poet, painter, singer, actor, playwright and nature essayist David Hopes, upon his receipt of the Lambda Literary Award that supports gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered writers.
• Asheville’s Public Art Board is selling great T-shirts with the caption “Long Live the Loop,” to help with the restoration of the Dirk Cruser sculpture and to send it back to its rightful place in City/County Plaza. Call 259-5800.
• Five new graduate students have been accepted into the MFA program at Western Carolina University. They will be living and working in Cullowhee for 10 weeks this summer with visiting artists/instructors. Beginning June 7, each of the instructors will speak at Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center; see blackmountaincollege.org for a full lineup of these free presentations.
— Connie Bostic
