Raleigh Artist Jason Craighead Receives Consecutive “Standing Ovation”
July 29, 2009 at 12:09 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
The artist at work in his downtown Raleigh studio.
July 27, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – For the fifth year, Raleigh-based artist Jason Craighead has received a MetroBravo Award for Best Artist in Raleigh Metro Magazine’s annual reader’s poll covering a 22-country area of North Carolina. This honor marks his his second consecutive “Standing Ovation” award, the poll’s highest honor, which he shares this year with fellow Raleigh artist Kyle Highsmith.
Jason Craighead is a prominent member of the North Carolina art scene and has been featured in a number of arts journals, including Artists & Art Galleries of the Southeast. His work has been featured in numerous group and solo shows through the Southeast, including a three-artist exhibit at the Fayetteville Museum of Art last fall and a two-artist exhibition in the Miriam Preston Block Art Gallery in the Avery Upchurch Municipal Building in downtown Raleigh. The City of Raleigh purchased his largest painting in that exhibit for its permanent collection.
The artist is currently preparing for a solo show at Somerhill Gallery in Durham that will open August 30.
“My work will forever be a passionate and emotionally charged evolving exploration of line and space, from scribble to scrawl,” he explains. “As artist, or even just thinker, one must never give in to the ‘simple’ or the ‘known’. With less fear comes more freedom.”
Craighead has been an active participant in the Triangle arts community for many years. He has donated numerous paintings to charitable art auctions. Paintings he donated to the Works of Heart auction for the Carolina AIDS Alliance and for the Visual Art Exchange’s annual fundraiser broke both organization’s records for the highest winning bids in their history.
He has also served as a juror and signature artist for Works of Heart, the Visual Art Exchange in Raleigh, the Greensboro Center for Visual Arts Members’ Show and Raleigh’s annual Artsplosure festival. He is also a member of the City of Raleigh Arts Commission’s (RAC) Public Art Committee.
Jason Craighead is currently represented by Somerhill Gallery in Durham, Broadhurst Gallery in Pinehurst, Anne Irwin Fine Art in Atlanta, GA,, and Bucks Gallery of Fine Art in Newtown, PA.
The first half of the Metro Bravo awards appear in the July edition of Raleigh Metro Magazine, which is available on newsstands and on line at www.metronc.com.
For more information on Jason Craighead, visit www.jasoncraighead.com.
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Triangle Modernist Houses. com Awards Its First Research Grant
July 16, 2009 at 12:32 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
July 15, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – David Hill, assistant professor architecture at North Carolina State University’s College of Design in Raleigh, has received Triangle Modernist Houses’ first Macon Smith Research Grant.
Triangle Modernist Houses.com is the online entity of Triangle Modernist Archives, Inc., an award-winning nonprofit which preserves, advocates, and builds community around modernist residential design in the Triangle area of North Carolina.
TMH established the Mason Smith Research Grant program to support research into Modernist architecture and architects who practiced in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill region of North Carolina.
TMH grant recipient David Hill
Hill will use his grant to travel to Oakland, California, where he will interview modernist architect George Matsumoto. Matsumoto taught and practiced architecture in North Carolina from the late 1940s to the early 1960s and was instrumental in helping establish the NC State University School of Design. Besides numerous residences in the area, Matsumoto also designed the College of Design’s “Matsumoto Wing” at Brooks Hall.
“David Hill’s oral history of Matsumoto will be placed in the NC State University Library Special Collections,” said TMH founder and director George Smart. “The archive and recording will then serve as a material basis for further grant proposals, research, documentation, and perhaps a book that publishes Mr. Matsumoto’s work.”
“David Hill’s petition for funding was accepted,” says Smart, “because it was focused, directly relevant to our mission, and easily implemented.”
The TMH grant awards of up to $1000 to private citizens, academics, or institutions on an ad hoc basis during the year. It is named for architect Macon Strother Smith, an NC State graduate, past president of the North Carolina Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, and the recipient of AIA/NC’s highest honors, the Deitrick Medal in 2001 and the F. Carter Williams Gold Medal in 2006. In early 2008, Smith scoured his own records to help TMH get underway. He died later that year.
For more information on the Mason Smith Research Grant and Triangle Modernist Houses, visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
The Triangle area of North Carolina has the third largest concentration of modernist houses in America, more than anywhere except Los Angeles, California, and Chicago, Illinois. Triangle Modernist Archives, Inc., is committed to archiving, advocating and, where possible, restoring modernist architecture in the Triangle. Its primary public service is managing Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH), an award-winning nonprofit educational archive for cataloguing, preserving, and advocating modernist residential design in the Triangle area of North Carolina. TMH also hosts modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these works of art for future generations. Established in 2007 by George Smart, Triangle Modernist Archives, Inc., became a formal nonprofit in 2009.
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Lather Hair Salon Hosts “Hair Tales…Pony Tails…Cocktails”
July 14, 2009 at 7:00 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
July 14, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Lather Hair Salon in North Raleigh and DiscoveringHair.com will host “Hair Tales…Pony Tales…Cocktails” in the salon on Sunday, July 26, beginning at 10 a.m.
As the first of a series of similar events sponsored by DiscoveringHair.com, the morning will offer participants a chance to test new hair care products, swap old products for new, learn hair care and styling tips and techniques from professional stylists, and share stories about their best and worst hair experiences.
Hair care product vendors are supplying products for testing and give-aways. And DiscoverHair.com will serve up a selection of Mimosa cocktails with such names as ““Color Me Dirty,” “Pretty as a Peach, and “Basic Blonde.”
The event is free, but participants must register by July 19 either in Lather Hair Salon or by going to www.DisoveringHair.com. Click on “the blog” then on “events.” 
DiscoveringHair.com is a website and blog dedicated to hairstyle ideas, how-to’s, and easy one-click access to salons across the country. The site also includes a gallery of styles, question-and-answer opportunities, and spotlight features on individual salons
Lather Hair Salon is a full-service, upscale salon specializing in make-overs and wedding styling. Lather stylists also maintain “Hair Academy 101,” an on-going blog on hair care, styling, products, and techniques.
Lather Hair Salon is located at 8521 Cantilever Way, Suite 109, just off North Glenwood Avenue/Highway 70 West near Carmax. For more information on the salon or “Hair Tales…Pony Tales…Cocktails,” visit www.latherhairsalonnc.com or call 919-792-0715.
Lather Hair Salon is also available on Facebook and through Citysearch.
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National Journal Features Case Study of Duke’s First LEED-Gold Building
July 2, 2009 at 9:36 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Ocean Conservation Center. Photos by Jeffrey Jacobs
July 2, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Duke University’s only LEED Gold-certified building – the Ocean Conservation Center in Beaufort, NC – is featured in a case study in this month’s Environmental Design + Conservation, a professional journal and premier source for integrated high-performance building dedicated to efficient and sustainable design and construction.
Designed by award-winning architect Frank Harmon, FAIA, of Raleigh, North Carolina, the 5600-square-foot, state-of-the-art teaching facility is the Marguerite Kent Repass Ocean Conservation Center at the Duke University Marine Laboratory. It includes a teaching laboratory, a 48-seat lecture hall with advanced teleconferencing and videoconferencing capabilities to connect to classrooms and research labs around the globe, interpretive educational displays, and spaces for social interactions overlooking Beaufort Channel. 
The case study, entitled “ Beacon for Sustainability,” discusses how the building’s form directly responds to its location and allows it to maximize natural ventilation and lighting. The study also delineates the building’s other green features, including photovoltaic rooftop panels for converting sunlight into electricity, a solar hot water system and high-efficiency ground-coupled heat pumps, and the use of recycled and local materials wherever possible.
Since 1997, Environmental + Design Construction has supported progressive architects, designers, specifying engineers and building developers who enhance the sustainability of new and existing buildings. For more information, visit www.edcmag.com. To read the entire online version of the OCC study, click on “Article Rotation.”
In March of this year, the OCC received a Wood Design Award: Green Building Category from WoodWorks-Southeast, a division of the Wood Products Council of North America for non-residential construction.
Frank Harmon, FAIA, is the founder and principal of Frank Harmon Architect PA in Raleigh, NC, and a recognized national leader in modern, innovative and regionally appropriate sustainable architecture. For more information, visit www.frankharmon.com.
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TriangleModernistHouses.com Wins National Architecture Award
July 1, 2009 at 5:56 pm | In architecture, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, vintage | Leave a CommentTags: mid-century architecture, mid-century houses NC, modern architecture, modern houses NC, North Carolina architecture
July 1, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) — Triangle Modernist Houses, an online, nonprofit educational archive for cataloguing, preserving, and advocating modernist residential design in the Triangle area of North Carolina, was honored recently with the 2009 Paul E. Buchanan Award from the Vernacular Architecture Forum.
The Buchanan Award was established in 1993 to recognize contributions to the study and preservation of vernacular architecture and the cultural landscape that do not take the form of books or published work.
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) provides extensive details on more than 145 architects with over 3300 photographs of 640 rarely seen homes. Information is gleaned from public records, published reports, interviews, and reader contributions.
“Since the 1950s, the Triangle area of the state – Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill — has been one of the most active areas for really cool houses,” said George Smart, founder and executive director TMH. He defines “cool houses” as “contemporary homes characterized by large common areas and windows, extensive use of natural light, and aesthetic geometric forms. Because of Dean Henry Kamphoefner’s vision for a modernist School of Design at North Carolina State University, this area has more modernist houses than anywhere else with the exception of LA and Chicago.“
The Buchanan Award is the third honor TMH has received since its inception. In 2008, TMH won an Award of Merit from the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill and a Gertrude S. Carraway Award of Merit from Preservation North Carolina (www.presnc.org).
Since it was launched in 2007, TMH’s efforts on behalf of modern architecture, which includes tours of modern homes in the area, has received national recognition in Dwell and Metropolis. The website’s work also been featured on WUNC Radio, in the Raleigh News and Observer and Durham Herald-Sun, and in a variety of online media. For complete information, visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
The Vernacular Architecture Forum was formed in 1980 to encourage the study and preservation of these informative and valuable material resources. The Buchanan Award is named for Paul E. Buchanan who served as director of architectural research at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for over 30 years and set the standard for architectural fieldwork in America. For more information visit www.vernaculararchitectureforum.org.
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
A unique combination of construction and art, modernist houses are being torn down in record numbers as newer, larger houses are built on the valuable land. Through its extensive website and public tours of modern houses in the Triangle, TMH is committed to advocating, protecting, restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. TMH’s six modernist house tours during 2008 and 2009 attracted over 1500 architecture enthusiasts from North Carolina and beyond. For more information, contact TMH executive director George Smart at (919) 740-8407 or by email: george@trianglemodernisthouses.com.
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Chapel Hill Artist Hosts “En Plein Air” Session In Her Gardens
April 25, 2009 at 1:16 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: Chapel Hill artists, en plein air, North Carolina artists, Paint NC
Kimberly Alvis in her studio
April 24, 2009 (CHAPEL HILL, NC) – Artist Kimberly Alvis loves her gardens, which spread out among the trees and pond around her home just outside downtown Chapel Hill. Well tended, they provide her with constant sources for still life paintings, landscapes, and people in landscape paintings – especially when she can capture one of her sons outdoors among them.
On April 27, Alvis will share her gardens and the subject matter they provide with PAINT NC, a group of emerging and professional artists from Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill who meet together regularly to paint en plein air, or “in the open air.”
Alvis is a regular participant in plein air events, both through PAINT NC and
Outdoor Painters, a group based in Graham, NC.
“I love plein air painting because it’s so challenging,” she said. “You never know what you’ll have to deal with. It could be wind, cold, manipulating the easel so the sun isn’t shining on it, which messes up the values.”
Frank LaLumnia, a founding member of Plein-Air Painters of America, explains the challenge – and attraction — of plein air painting:
“Painting from life is a pursuit unlike any other painting technique,” he writes on the organization’s website (www.p-a-p-a.com). “It challenges artists to concentrate every sensory nerve on the information in front of them. They absorb it all, from sight to sound, from temperature to atmosphere, and then channel those feelings from head to hand, re-creating the vision in paints on paper or canvas.”
The late April session in Alvis’ gardens will offer PAINT NC artists a vast assortment of flowers on which to focus their attention and talents including “Lady Banks” roses, Vibirnum and Foxglove. Ducks also wander through Alvis’ gardens regularly, and their likenesses are bound to wind up on a painter’s canvas.
Artists visiting from out of town are welcome to join the PAINT NC group at this spring event by contacting the organizers via the website: www.paintnc.org.
Kimberly Alvis is an accomplished artist represented in the Triangle by Somerhill Gallery in Durham and the Little Art Gallery & Craft Collection in Raleigh. To see more of the artist’s work, visit www.alvisart.com.
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Sets, Scenery, Props & More at VDG’s “Clear The Clutter” Event
April 24, 2009 at 8:06 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: event design, props, scenery, sets, television, theater, yard sale
Inside Valentine Design Group
April 23, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) — After 19 years of building broadcast production and theatrical sets, specialty props, signs, kiosks and more, Valentine Design Group (VDG) in Raleigh needs more room to build more of the same in the future. As a result, VDG and Aardvark Screen Print are throwing a Clean Out The Clutter Parking Lot “yard sale” at 1019-1021 East Whitaker Mill Road, Raleigh, on Saturday, April 25, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
“You never know what you might find in this unusual event,” said VDG founder and designer Roland Valentine, “from props, sets, scenery, and signage to vintage screen art.”
Valentine is hoping area TV stations, community theaters and others will take advantage of his need to clear out some space for future VDG projects.
Hotdogs and other refreshment will be available for the parking lot event, which is open to the general public.
Valentine Design Group LLC is a full-service design company offering turnkey production for broadcast, live events, specialty props, signs, kiosks and more.
Founded in 1989, VDG has become an integral part of the television production and live event industry across the country. For more information and to see a portfolio of VDG’s work, go to www.valentinedesigngroup.com.
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CIA Officer To Present Jail House Videos During Raleigh Spy Conference
February 24, 2009 at 6:42 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: CIA, downtown Raleigh events, espionage, intelligence, Raleigh Metro Magazine
February 24, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) — Former CIA officer Brian J. Kelley will relate the drama of notorious traitors — male and female — including videotaped prison cell interviews during the 6th Raleigh Spy Conference (www.raleighspyconference.com) to be held March 25-27 at the North Carolina Museum of History in downtown Raleigh.
Kelley, who was identified in 2003 as the “wrong man” in the Robert Hanssen investigation, will also discuss the Felix Bloch case in his session scheduled for Thursday, March 26, from 3 pm – 4:15 during the 2-day conference.
The theme of this year’s event is “Sexspionage: Famous Women Spies and the Ancient Art of Seduction.”
Kelley retired from the Central Intelligence Agency in 2007 following a 42-year career, which included 20 years as a United States Air Force officer. Kelley was a specialist in counterintelligence, serving as a case officer for both organizations involved in double agent operations and counterespionage investigations.
Kelley had five overseas tours as a case officer, serving in various locales in the Far East, Middle East, South America and Europe. He has received the Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal; Intelligence Achievement Medal; Commendation Medal and the “Collector of the Year” presented to him by the Director of CIA.
Other speakers for this year’s conference include Ron Olive, the special agent who served on team that captured Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard; IC Smith, former FBI special agent who worked to capture Chinese female spy Katrina Leung; British espionage writer and researcher Terry Crowdy, Cold War journalist Jerrold Schecter and his wife Leona; and keynote speaker Nigel West, former Member of Parliament and author of the forthcoming “Historical Dictionary of Sexspionage.”
The Raleigh Spy Conference is hosted by Bernie Reeves, editor and publisher of Raleigh Metro Magazine. Sponsors include Rosemary and Smedes York and Florence and Charles Winston. This year the conference is presented in association with NC State University’s Department of Political Science, Andrew Taylor, Chairman.
For more information, including registration, ticket prices, a complete list of speakers, sessions schedule and local accommodations, go to www.raleighspyconference.com.
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Metro Celebrates 10th Anniversary with Series on Regional Cities
January 15, 2009 at 3:37 am | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: Cary, Chapel Hill, Durham, Metro Magazine, North Carolina cities, Raleigh, Triangle area
January 14, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – To celebrate its tenth year of publishing during 2009, Raleigh Metro Magazine has launched a five-month, in-depth exploration of the cities, towns and coastal communities that comprise its readership reach: their history; where they are today, and what they’re poised to become by the Year 2020.
The series begins this month in the Triangle area — which, as editor and publisher Bernie Reeves notes in his introduction, is actually “a rhomboid, a four-sized configuration comprised of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill and Cary.”
Metro’s January edition focuses on Cary, the “biggest little town in the South,” where a passion for its past blends seamlessly with world-class companies and accommodations. Metro writers Diane Lea (design, historic preservation) and Rick Smith (technology) study the people, places and commitments – to the arts, to the environment, to controlled growth — that continue to make this thriving “town” so appealing to residents and business.
Calling Cary “the keystone of the geometry of the Triangle,” Smith writes, “With a booming, largely affluent population and an economy anchored by high-tech stalwarts…Cary wraps up the first decade of a new century with strong momentum for continuing growth in the years ahead.”
In its February edition, Metro senior writer Sharon Swanson will take readers into the heart and soul of Chapel Hill, once defined as a “college town” yet solidly on its way to being much more than just the flagship home of the University of North Carolina. Food Editor Moreton Neal will provide a history of cuisine in this “foodie” town and Diane Lea reviews the architecture, new and old, of this progressive university community.
In March Metro will dig deep into Durham, a city defined as much by its bohemian fringe and trendy warehouse district as its “City of Medicine” status. Veteran writer Jim Hughes, a Durham native who knows the Bull City inside and out, promises a not-to-be-missed journey into the heart of Durham. Food editor Moreton Neal will examine the city’s great culinary tradition and Diane Lea will survey the gracious architecture of the past with the thrusting skyline of the new Durham.
North Carolina’s Capital City – Raleigh – will be the focus of the April edition, with several writers assigned to tackle this fast-growing and sophisticated metropolis. Steeped in history, Raleigh is changing rapidly inside and outside its landmark beltline.
The many communities and beaches that comprise the “down east” portion of Metro’s reach will centerpiece the May 2009 edition written by Dr. James Leutze, former chancellor of UNC-Wilmington and a regular Metro columnist. With coastal issues “going critical” in the next decade, Leutze will draw on his expertise on the subject to clarify the key issues, including offshore drilling; beach renourishment; explosive growth and the impact on the region and state.
Raleigh Metro Magazine is available on newsstands and online at www.metronc.com.
For more information and to access the special features on Cary, NC, visit www.metronc.com.
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http://www.prlog.org/10167480-raleigh-metro-magazine-celebrates-10th-anniversary-with-series-on-regional-cities.pdf
New Governor Divulges Gubernatorial Pets, Promises To Open Mansion Doors to the Public
December 29, 2008 at 11:22 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentDecember 30, 2008 (RALEIGH, NC) — While Americans await the arrival of the nation’s First Dog to move in with the Obama family, North Carolina’s Governor-elect Beverly Perdue is bringing two First Dogs into the elegant ambiance of the state’s 1891 Victorian-style Governor’s Mansion in Raleigh.
Carroll Leggett, author of Raleigh Metro Magazine’s “Between You and Me” column, offers the first look at “Dos” and “Zipper,” two Tibetan terriers about to become North Carolina’s First Dogs after Perdue’s inauguration January 10.
Metro’s Leggett met the perky pups a few months ago in the Chapel Hill home Perdue shares with husband Bob Eaves. Perdue describes her pets as “watch dogs and barkers” and is already “thinking about how to contain their enthusiasm in their new digs.”
Leggett’s January 2009 column also notes the state’s new governor and her family are planning to make the Governor’s Mansion more accessible to the people who own it – the citizens of North Carolina.
Perdue’s efforts will begin immediately after the inauguration when the new governor plans to “throw the doors of the Executive Mansion in the afternoon and invite everyone to come and visit their house that they are going to let Bob and me live in,” she told Leggett.
“It is going to be wonderful to have the lights burning brightly on Blount Street,” Leggett writes as he compares Perdue’s feelings about the mansion with those of former residents, including current Governor Mike Easley who “entertained infrequently.”
To read the complete “Between You and Me” column, pick up Metro on newsstands after January 5th , call 919-831-0999 or go to www.metronc.com.
Established in 1999, the four-color monthly Metro Magazine has a circulation of 40,000 covering from the Triangle area to the coast of North Carolina.
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