2014 North Charleston Arts Festival design competition underway

2013 Festival Design Winner
'A' Train  by Linda Elksnin

The City of North Charleston is calling upon South Carolina visual artists to participate in the 2014 North Charleston Arts Festival Design Competition. The winning piece will become the official art design of the 2014 Arts Festival, taking place May 2-10, and will be featured on promotional materials and merchandise, including billboards, print ads, television commercials, program booklets, posters, apparel, online and more. The winning artist will receive $500 and be given the opportunity to exhibit other original works at the North Charleston City Gallery during the festival. In addition, the winning piece will become part of the City of North Charleston’s Public Art Collection, which is displayed throughout City Hall.

Applications are available online at www.NorthCharlestonArtsFest.com/apply. Submissions may be delivered in person to the North Charleston City Gallery on January 17 & 18, 2014, or may be submitted via email to culturalarts@northcharleston.org with a deadline of 12:00pm on Saturday, January 18, 2014. There is NO entry fee to participate. The competition is open to South Carolina residents ages 18 and older. Categories of work accepted are: acrylic, oil, drawing/pastel, watercolor and 2-D mixed media.

The North Charleston Arts Festival is organized and presented by the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department. The annual nine-day celebration of arts and culture highlights national, regional and local artists and performers in the areas of Dance, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Crafts, Photography, Media Arts and Literature. For over 3o years the festival has made quality arts programming affordable and accessible to the widest spectrum of the public, attracting over 30,000 residents and visitors from throughout the Southeast and beyond to experience 100+ free and modestly priced performances, workshops, exhibitions and activities in a variety of venues, including libraries, community centers, schools, civic auditoriums and parks. Named a Top 20 Event by the Southeast Tourism Society, the event has matured into one of the most comprehensive arts festivals in the state of South Carolina.

For more information about the North Charleston Arts Festival and other participation opportunities visit NorthCharlestonArtsFest.com, or contact the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department office at (843)740-5854 or culturalarts@northcharleston.org.

North Charleston Arts Festival Reveals 2102 Design Competition Winner

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The City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department is pleased to announce My Muse, an acrylic painting by Elena Barna, as the winner of the 2012 North Charleston Arts Festival Design Competition.  As the winner of the statewide competition, Barna’s original design will be used to promote the 2012 North Charleston Arts Festival, taking place May 4-12.  In addition, the piece will become part of the City of North Charleston’s Public Art Collection.

Barna gathers inspiration from the Impressionism and Post-impressionism art movements, as well as Art Nouveau, and cites Van Gogh, Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin, Monet, Degas, and Alphonse Mucha as artists she admires. Preferring to work in acrylic and oil, her work features vivid colors, thick application of paint, distinctive brush strokes, and realistic subject matter, mainly people. Form and color are central to her aesthetic and shimmering surfaces and rich dabs of paint characterize her paintings. Her art is an emotional vision of the world.  She uses color as a means to express feelings about a subject or her memories – a way to express emotion and communicate to the viewer a spiritual message.

Born in 1987 in Volgograd, Russia, Elena Barna began her art education in high school.  She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Painting and Art Education from Volgograd State University of Education in Russia.  In 2008, Elena came to Charleston to work for the summer and learn about life in America.  To her surprise, she fell in love with the city, the Carolina Lowcountry, and resident Josh Barna.  After returning home to complete her education and the long process of legal immigration, Elena and Josh were married following her return to Charleston in 2009.  She currently lives and works in North Charleston with Josh and their bull mastiff, Phoenix.

An exhibition of Elena’s work will be on display at the North Charleston City Gallery throughout the month of May. The gallery is located within the Charleston Area Convention Center at 5001 Coliseum Drive in North Charleston. Gallery hours are 9:00am-5:00pm daily and admission and parking are free. The public is invited to meet the artist at the gallery on May 5 and 6 during the Main Event of the North Charleston Arts Festival. T-shirts and posters featuring the winning design will be available for sale.

For more information about the North Charleston Arts Festival, or other competition and exhibition opportunities, contact the City of North Charleston Cultural Arts Department at (843)740-5854, email culturalarts@northcharleston.org, or visit the Cultural Arts section of the City’s website at www.northcharleston.org.