Arts

Covington is getting ready to take a big step toward making its name as the Hollywood of the South, as a $100 million film studio prepares to break ground.

Triple Horse Studios will buy a 160-acre parcel, off Georgia Highway 142, from the Newton County Industrial Development Authority.

Covington-Newton Chamber head Hunter Hall says it’s something Triple Horse has wanted to do for years.

The nation’s largest celebration of the arts and cultures relating to African Americans and the African Diaspora is experiencing major challenges.

The Atlanta based National Black Arts Festival has become an annual international event.

But financial woes are forcing the organization’s board of directors to make some drastic changes.

Changes that need to happen if the National Black Arts Festival is going to stay a part of Atlanta and more importantly survive says current board chair, Evern Cooper Epps.

The annual National Black Arts Festival is months away, but it’s not clear if the organization will have an executive director in place.  For the third time in four years, the organization is once again looking for leadership. 

In May of 2009, WABE interviewed Neil Barclay.  He had just been introduced as the new executive director of the National Black Arts Festival.  Barclay was replacing longtime executive producer Stephanie Hughley.

He talked about the challenges of a large arts organization like NABF.

We take a walk through Georgia's History as we tour the state capitol building with Dr. Tim Crimmins.

In this Atlanta Sounds audio slideshow, we meet Kerin Reed, a long-time elementary school orchestra director.  Reed says her favorite part of the job is watching her students mature on the instruments.   She seems especially proud when she finds out that some of them have gone on to play professionally.  

Prince, Chris Rock, Porgy and Bess, and King Tut have something in common. They’ve either performed or been on display at the Atlanta Civic Center.

The event space is 47 years old.

“We’ve had minimal improvements or changes,” said Civic Center director Ann Marie Moraitakis. “It’s time for a little facelift.”

But before the facility goes under the knife, officials have to figure out what they want the Civic Center to look like when the bandages come off.

For centuries now, millennia in fact, people have been inventing new ways to share art with others.  Jennifer Schwartz is the owner of an Atlanta fine art photography gallery, and she’s come up with an innovative way to connect artists with would-be collectors.  She stopped by our studios to talk about it with WABE’s Steve Goss.

Downtown Atlanta will come alive on Friday night with the formal start of 'Elevate,' a free, public art event spread across downtown.  Over nine days, local, national and international contemporary artists will transform downtown streets into a living art experience, with everything from mixed-media installations, to music, to graffiti artists, to an all-out street party.

Kennesaw State University breaks ground today on a new, 9,000 sq. ft.  art museum.

The Bernard A. Zuckerman Museum of Art will include three galleries, a research center, and a sculpture pavilion.

Zuckerman contributed most of the $3 million cost. The museum will house the university’s permanent collection which already includes sculpture by Zuckerman’s late wife, Ruth.

It’s a partnership that’s considered historic.

New York Times best-selling novelist and Atlanta based playwright Pearl Cleage is teaming up with award-winning filmmaker Dr. Ayoka Chenzira to adapt Cleage’s books into feature films.

Chenzira is also a professor at Spelman College.

It’s the first time two African American women will collaborate on this type of venture and Ayoka Chenzira sat down with WABE’s Rose Scott to talk about it.

Their conversation begins with Chenzira’s admiration of Pearl Cleage and their long time friendship.