By By KEVIN SCOTT CUTLER
Lifestyles & Features Editor
BATH — The subject “Today is Tomorrow’s History: Capturing Our World Through Art” is the focal point of the third, and final, Second Saturdays celebration hosted this summer by Historic Bath State Historic Site.
The event is planned for Aug. 14, rain or shine, said Leigh Swain, site manager.
“People often capture the essence of a place or time through their paintings, photographs, quilts or other art forms,” Swain said. “Sometimes the artist doesn’t even mean to include a clue in their work, but if you see a Model T car in a photograph, it can be an indicator of the time period in which the photo was taken.”
Two Washington residents — teacher and artist Nancy Scoble and photographer and jewelry designer Valda Belyeu — are among those who have signed up for this month’s program.
“Nancy will be painting on the grounds of the site, capturing history and speaking with visitors,” Swain said. “Valda will conduct a number of mini-workshops on the topic of creative photography. The focus of these sessions is not technical; they are meant to inspire people to look at things through their lens in a new and different way.”
Belyeu said she is particularly looking forward to this Second Saturdays celebration.
“Photography has been a long time passion of mine,” she said. “Having the opportunity to teach a creative-photography workshop is a dream job. In all my classes, I try to get people to think outside their box. I want people to come away from the workshop with new ideas on how to take photos and at the same time make art and even help preserve a little personal history.”
Belyeu shared a recent experience she had while photographing local sites of interest.
“I was shooting around Washington and was taking a shot of the old train depot, and there were all these cars in the way,” she said. “I moved around them sometimes, but in others I included the cars because that is a great way to show what kinds of cars people are driving now, even the way they are decorated with all the bumper stickers people use. A hundred years from now, they will look as old-fashioned as the Model T’s do to us.”
Taking a look into the past, the historic site will offer a display of photographs by Thomas Draper, who captured life in Bath during the 1920s.
The day’s festivities also will include an outdoor market in which vendors will sell items such as handcrafted baskets, jewelry, artwork, candles, pottery, tobacco stick art and quilted angels.
Second Saturdays combines history and the arts with special programs and activities, Swain said. Partnering with Historic Bath in the venture are Our State magazine, the Golden LEAF Foundation, N.C. Division of Tourism/Department of Cultural Resources, N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and the Tourism Extension program in N.C. State University’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism Management program.
While the Aug. 14 celebration marks the end of this summer’s Second Saturdays series of events, organizers are looking ahead.
“The state has been collecting information from all the sites and will be evaluating how to make the program stronger,” Swain said. “I expect we’ll be doing it again next year.”
For more information about the upcoming Second Saturdays event and other special programs hosted by Historic Bath, call the visitors center at 252-923-3971.
For more examples of vintages scenes around the Bath and Washington areas, see Pamlico Horizons in Sunday’s Washington Daily News.