By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
The very best in regional art will be showcased later this week during the Beaufort County Arts Council’s Fine Arts Show.
The 45th annual event will open Thursday and run through Saturday, according to BCAC Executive Director Joey Toler. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily and admission is free.
“The history of the Fine Arts Show predates the Arts Council itself,” Toler said. “What began as the creation of a Fine Arts category at the Beaufort County Fair in the early 1960s has become one of the region’s most anticipated art exhibits.”
This evening, PotashCorp will host a gala preview party for Arts Council members, artists and the media at the Washington Civic Center from 8 to 9:30 p.m. Prior to the reception, patrons who have signed up to participate in the “guaranteed sales” portion of the show will be give the opportunity to choose and purchase works of art.
As part of this year’s show, visitors can register to win an original piece by local pottery artist Carolyn Sleeper, owner of Slatestone Studios and teacher of classes in pottery and various other media. Sleeper has donated a piece for the raffle titled “Meet Me in the Middle,” which is valued at $200. Tickets for the raffle are $1 each or six for $5.
Juror for the 2009 Fine Arts Show is Pam Toll, a faculty member in Studio Art at the University of North Carolina in Wilmington. Toll will hold a juror’s critique of the show on Friday beginning at 6:30 p.m. That event is free and open to artists as well as the general public, according to Toler.
Now held in the Washington Civic Center, in its earlier years the Fine Arts Show was showcased in the Atlantic Coastline warehouse before its renovation, at Washington Square Mall and outdoors near Haven’s Wharf, Toler said. It moved to the Civic Center about 20 years ago.
In partnership with the Historic Downtown Washington Merchants Association the BCAC Fine Arts Show coordinates with this weekend’s Smoke on the Water festivities planned for Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more information about this week’s show and other upcoming Arts Council events, call 252-946-2504 or visit www.beaufortcountyartscouncil.org.
The Arts Council also operates the Lane Gift Shop and Gallery from Tuesday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the historic train depot on the corner of Main and Gladden streets in Washington.