The Johnston County Arts Council Board of Directors today announced the resignation of Jessica Meadows as its executive director. Jessica informed the board that she will leave her position on October 6 to pursue new challenges as a Community Content Liaison with NBC 17.

Jessica Meadows was employed by the Johnston County Arts Council as Executive Director in January 2005. Following her departure, she will continue to work with the organization as a volunteer.

“It is not an easy decision to leave this position, as the arts are my passion and I was sincerely honored to serve as the executive director of the Johnston County Arts Council. However, I think the Arts Council is capable of new and unique opportunities and the next director can take the organization to the next step,” states Jessica Meadows.

Arts Council President Susan Lassiter said, “The board of directors accepted Jessica’s resignation with regret and thanked her for her excellent work and creativity in the management of the office, her good rapport with the Johnston County community, and her guidance to each board member. We will certainly miss her. She will especially be missed by all those who have worked with her in the Artists-in-the-Schools program, a successful program in its tenth year that brings professional artists from around the world to perform in every
Johnston County school.”

A search for a new executive director will begin immediately. Until a new director is hired, the board will oversee the daily operations of the office. The office is located at 231 E. Second St. in Clayton.

The Americans for the Arts is an organization that generally promotes and supports the arts in America.  I particularly like the campaign they have for increasing arts in our schools.  They have video, radio, print ads, and web banners that you can download and use in your community as Public Service Announcements and as I assume you would expect nothing less from a creative-minded organization, some of the ads are very funny.

Television Spots

Check out the commerical for Raisin Brahms.  There’s another video for Van Goghurt, but it weirds me out a little.  Below is the video on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7u8-stngXKs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF3HjoFzfVc

 Radio Spots

They’ve got a lot of spots for radio but I think I like the Boring Boy and Dancing Girl the best.

Web Banners

I LOVE these and as soon as I can, I think I’m going to try to add them to the Arts Council’s website. 

Print Ads

I think I like Louis Armstrong and Caravaggio the best, although the Walt Whitman and Homer ones are pretty funny too.

 Which do you like?

I got this from the Art News Blog, which is fast becoming one of my favorite places to find out about off-the-wall things happening in the art world.  I have to admit that hearing a visual artist would offer free downloads of their work is a bit surprising, until I think about all of the musicians that have done it; I guess it creates a bit of a buzz and gets people talking and interested in your work, which I guess is the goal…

The Australian artist Hazel Dooney is offering an unlimited print titled “Study for Unsated” to download for free. Which means that you will have to print the work, but if you then send it to her studio she will sign it and send it back to you.

Here’s Hazel’s blog post with a little more about the work.

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Most Popular Art Museums in the World

The Art Newspaper has released their annual list of the most popular art museums in the world, with the Louvre in Paris coming in first place with an estimated 8,300,000 visitors.

The most popular exhibition was at the Tokyo National Museum in Japan which attracted more than 10,000 people each day. It was more of a single painting than an exhibition, which makes the figure even more remarkable. Leonardo da Vinci’s painting “Annunciation” was loaned by the Uffizi gallery in Florence.

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As I mentioned in an earlier post, the Johnston County Arts Council MySpace page introduced me to a whole music scene that I had previously been unaware.  Not only are there a fair amount of local venues that support live music, there are a number of bands that are from right here in Johnston County.

 Jakt considers themselves a Rap/Metal band and formed a considerable fan base from the mid-90s to 2003, when they disbanded.  In 2007, they reformed due to high demand and continue to perform regularly in local and regional venues.  Another metal band is Stillhope out of Kenly, NC.  Formed in 2006, Stillhope has performed at several venues throughout the Triangle and vows to play anywhere, anytime.  Out of Benson, NC is Broadslab, a Metal/Southern Rock band.  Broadslab creates a high energy show, performing both original songs and cover songs and brings together a unique audience, one comprised of classic rock fans, punk fans, and death metal fans.  Elysium is a heavy, melocdic and versatile rock band from Princeton, North Carolina.  The band’s live debut was in February 2005, and since then have performed in venues around North Carolina.  Their music can be described as a mixture of different genres ranging from heavy metal, alternative and experiemental rock.     

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