By By JONATHAN CLAYBORNE
Staff Writer
October promises to be the busiest month of the year for the Beaufort County Arts Council, which will serve up a packed menu of programming to the community during the first full month of autumn.
“We’ve got an intense October coming up,” said Joey Toler, BCAC’s executive director.
The arts council’s 46th-annual Fine Arts Show, one of the organization’s biggest events of the year, will be open and free to the public from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Oct. 21 through Oct. 23 at the Washington Civic Center.
The juried show, judged by artist and educator Bob Rankin, is open to artists 18 years of age or older, reads a pamphlet provided by Toler.
“All work must be original (no copies or classwork), executed within the past two years, for sale, and not previously shown in a BCAC Fine Arts Show,” the brochure reads.
For more information about the Fine Arts Show or any other arts council program, call BCAC at 252-946-2504 or visit its website at www.beaufortcountyartscouncil.org.
In addition to the Fine Arts Show, BCAC will present two community-outreach concerts — one Oct. 9 in Belhaven, the other Oct. 16 in Aurora — in cooperation with the Beaufort County Traditional Music Association.
The locations for the concerts hadn’t been announced as of Tuesday.
One new item on BCAC’s October events list is a Halloween costume party set for Oct. 30 at the Civic Center.
The $50-per-person fundraiser will benefit the arts council, Toler said.
“The entertainment is everybody’s in costume,” he added.
Beer, wine and snack foods will be served, a costume contest will be held and scary, black-and-white movies will be projected on a wall, Toler related.
“We’re always looking for ways to raise money creatively,” he said.
BCAC also is in the midst of its annual business campaign, through which it solicits donations from businesses.
Business sponsorships range from $125 to $1,000, Toler said.
“We try to do this only once a year so we’re not out knocking on doors, asking for help,” he commented. “This is a real important fundraiser for us.”
As BCAC loads its schedule for October, it continues a transition from more of an arts presenter to an advocate for the arts, said Toler. He added that, with so many art galleries and performing-arts groups around, the arts council is no longer the “only game in town.”
“I think that the arts council has broadened its programming in the last couple of years,” said Marilyn Roth, secretary of BCAC’s board. “I’m also excited about the fact that we’re doing it very carefully with our money that we raise, get from grants, and that we really are reaching out as much as we can throughout all of Beaufort County.”
The Fine Arts Show is “always exciting,” partly because it draws attention to BCAC’s activities, said Neil Loughlin, vice chairman.
“It’s almost like the kickoff to the fall and to the Christmas season,” he concluded.