The three Exhibitions listed below are part of the museum’s 2009 – 2010 exhibition season sponsored by Pickens Savings & Loan and Upstate Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery & Dental Implant Center.

The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Located at the corner of Hwy. 178 at 307 Johnson Street in Pickens SC, the museum is open Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. until 7:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9:00 a.m. until 4:30 p.m. Admission is free but donations are welcomed.

A native of Greenville, SC, April Harrison paints images primarily in acrylic, powder, watercolor, pencil and collage. Working with this diverse collection of media she is able to work fast, often layering numerous colors, textures and images in a single session to create her lush tapestry-like backgrounds. Found objects such as coins, specialty papers, magazine print and interesting treasures found on the street are often incorporated into her paintings. These, coupled with bits and pieces of her recycled older works, create strikingly rich textures and dimensions.

Though April has received no formal training, she feels that with each new brush stroke she is guided by “the greatest Master-Teacher-Creator of all time!” She says, “One has only to look around at God’s magnificently creative masterpieces and marvel at the handiwork of his hands! It is with this understanding that I’m merely a vessel being utilized to instinctively create narrative, sentiment and observation. Why I’ve been chosen, I know not, nonetheless, I am humbled by this gift.”

About this exhibition, April says, “The name of my exhibit is “Grateful”......It speaks to a life of faith in a God who blesses daily. It also speaks to a life of simplicity, one in which the viewer is asked to stop and meditate on the true treasures surrounding them, treasures that are eternal and not just for a little while. My hope is to cause the viewers of this exhibit to pause for a moment and thank God for the one thing we sometimes take for granted...Love & Life.” She continues, “My exhibit is in homage of life itself and the God that provides said life.”

April has been professionally involved in the arts for nearly 20 years as an award-winning artist and illustrator. Her work has been featured at numerous venues including the Hampton University Museum in Hampton, VA, Morris Museum of Art in Augusta, GA and the Romare Bearden Juried Invitational at Charlotte’s Mint Museum. Her work has been published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s McDougal Littell’s Literature, The Judith Roth Collection, San Francisco’s Image Conscious and Doll Graphics in Louisville, KY. Her work has also been featured in ‘Upscale’, ‘Essence’ and ‘Talk’ Magazines as well as on BET, 106 & Park.

Represented by numerous galleries such as Avisca Fine Art in Marietta, GA, International Visions in Washington, DC, ArtJaz of Philadelphia, House of Art in Brooklyn, NY and Ethnic Notions in Benicia CA, April’s work has made its way into numerous collections including the Atlanta Housing Authority, Vanderbilt University and Erskine University Museum collections and high profile collections such as Whoopi Goldberg and S. Epatha Merkerson.

“Story, Song, and Image” is the conception of Glen Miller and John Fowler. Both artists have a passionate interest in the traditional music of South Carolina, and how it intertwines with its’ people and their lives. Miller, a visual artist and educator, is also a musician. Glen creates narrative works and themed exhibitions and has often used music and dance as subject for his work. Fowler, storyteller, musician, and music collector with production experience, has created several successful field recording projects relative to South Carolina.

Miller and Fowler have combined their fields of study, creating a multi-media project, which celebrates South Carolina's broad music heritage. They have combined elements of visual and performing arts and regional history into a museum based experience, which will include music and contemporary narrative paintings. Several forms of roots music, each relative to a particular geographical region of South Carolina are incorporated in the project. The exhibition and performance elements will be available as an educational opportunity for schools (private & public) as well as the general public. The educational elements include regional and local history, music, art, language and oral history.

“Story, Song & Image” focuses on 10 musicians who represent different genres of roots music that are important to South Carolina’s regional musical traditions. The musicians represented were drawn from different geographical regions throughout the state. The exhibition aspect of the project encompasses the historical and cultural traditions of the genres of music as well as the musician’s personal stories which are the subject of the contemporary narrative paintings. The paintings were derived from conversations with the musicians, their music, their stories, and composed in the studio from sketches, notes, and photographs taken in their home environment. The non-traditional paintings are intended to present the musicians as persons that, although representative of a historical tradition, are nonetheless living stories themselves. The performance aspect of the project further emphasizes this concept by bringing the music into the present, completing the purpose of Story, Song, and Image.

The exhibition is guest curated by the Johnny Nutt who says about the show, “South Carolina has a long, rich tradition of ceramic production. Edgefield, South Carolina is recognized widely as the birthplace and earliest center of the alkaline-glazed stoneware tradition in the southern United States, and from there spread as far west as Texas and on up into the northeast. By the middle of the 20th century, however, there were virtually no traditional potters working anymore in South Carolina. Today however, a combination of thriving university-based ceramics programs, such as those at Clemson, the University of South Carolina, Winthrop, and Furman, along with the Professional Clay Program offered by Piedmont Tech in Edgefield, have revitalized ceramic production in South Carolina. Graduates of these programs, along with newly-immigrated South Carolinians and self-taught outsider-artists have brought an incredible diversity of ceramic production to the Upstate area of South Carolina. It is the hope of the Pickens County Museum, through this exhibition, to highlight not just the work of the twenty-six participating artists but to provide a unique opportunity for folks to see, in a single stop, the wide array of ceramic art being produced in the Upstate of South Carolina in these early days of the 21st century.”

“Story, Song, and Image: A Merging of Musical Heritage and Narrative Painting” featuring John Fowler & Glen Miller. Exhibit feature narratives and field recordings conducted by John Fowler of traditional music from throughout SC accompanied by the wonderful paintings of the subjects by Glen Miller.

“The ‘Up’ State of Clay in South Carolina”, a collection of works from some of the Upstate’s most influential ceramic artists; guest curated by Johnny Nutt.

Paintings by April W. Harrison; featuring the sentimental and powerfully emotive mixed media work of this daughter of Greenville, now living in Simpsonville, SC. April’s work reveals a sophistication and agility that are at odds with her experience and years in art. A self-taught artist who only began painting in 1991 after her mother’s death, she has achieved a great measure of success and acclaim in those relatively short years.

Pickens County Youth Arts 2010

31st Annual Juried SC Artists Exhibition

Works by Kent Ambler, Cecile Martin and Carole K. Tinsley

Cherokee Carvers: Tradition Renewed

Monthly: Sign up for our ongoing Tuesday & Thursday Art Classes for Children and Adults. Pre-registration is required. For more information contact the museum.

All classes will be held in the Liz Smith Cox Educational Studio (unless otherwise noted). For more information please contact the museum at 864-898-5963.

The Hagood Mill Historic Site and Folklife Center
138 Hagood Mill Road, Pickens SC 29671
(864) 898-2936

The Hagood Mill is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10:00 until 4:00 for tours of the buildings and grounds.

The Pickens County Museum of Art & History is pleased to announce our 2010 “MUSIC IN THE MOUNTAINS” programs. We invite one and all to join us at the historic Hagood Mill on the third Saturday of every month for a day of MILLING, MUSIC & MEMORIES AT THE HISTORIC HAGOOD MILL, including tours, concerts, demonstrations, living history presentations and seasonal thematic activities. Upcoming events include:

The Hagood Mill is located just 3 miles north of Pickens, or 5 1/2 miles south of Scenic Hwy. 11, off Hwy. 178 on Hagood Mill Rd. The site is open to the public Wednesday – Saturday from 10:00 until 4:00. For more information please call the Hagood Mill Historic Site & Folklife Center at (864) 898-2936 or the Pickens County Museum at (864) 898-5963.