“There are times in our lives when we have to realize our past is precisely what it is, and we cannot change it. But we can change the story we tell ourselves about it, and by doing that, we can change the future.”
― Eleanor Brown (New York Times and international bestselling author)
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One Voice Many Community Warriors |
On Saturday the many who came out for Community Yoga at the Danville Museum of Fine Arts and History created a powerful and beautiful sign of strength and wellbeing – for themselves and for us at the museum. Seeing a sea of Virabhadrasana-Warrior stances gives us hope that we can, and we will, get through this pandemic year together. Thank you to Firefly Yoga and Lauren Mathena for this tremendous support for a positive community mindset as we enter an unknown winter.
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IN COMMEMORATION OF THE GARDEN CLUB OF VIRGINIA CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, THE GARDEN CLUB OF DANVILLE IS EXCITED TO PLANT A DOGWOOD AT THE DANVILLE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS AND HISTORY. THE PLANTING TOOK PLACE ON WEDNESDAY, OCT.21, AT 10:30AM WITH THE AID OF WALTER O. PRIEN AND CHRISTOPHER M. MIMS FROM THE CITY PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT. A BIG THANK YOU TO THEM, ALONG WITH MS. DENISE WYATT, AND OUR CLUB’S VERY OWN ELSABE DIXON AND KRIS CARBONE. WE APPRECIATE THE MUSEUM ALLOWING US THE OPPORTUNITY TO PLANT A TREE IN HONOR OF THE GARDEN CLUB OF VIRGINIA. I HOPE EACH OF YOU WILL TAKE A MOMENT TO STOP BY TO SEE THE LOVELY FLOWERING CHEROKEE PRINCESS DOGWOOD, LOCATED NEAR THE FRONT FOUNTAIN. A PLANT LABEL IS IN THE MAKING, ALONG WITH HIGH HOPES OF A DEDICATION IN THE SPRING.
YOURS SINCERELY,
GAYLE THOMPSON (President of the Garden Club of Danville)
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The DMFAH would also like to give a shout out to Helen Earl who dedicates many volunteer hours to tending the entryway garden and the front porch of the Museum. |
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Collections Spotlight: The Stolen Gravestone! |
.We had a visitor from Arizona and Jim Grasty, Director of Senior Adults Ministries, Greensboro, NC, this week. They came to look in on one of our Museum displays holding a gravestone of a Civil War Soldier called George Lightfoot Grasty. The gravestone was originally placed in the Graham family Cemetry in Orange county Virginia from which it mysteriously disappeared in the 1930’s. It had been broken off and stolen and was later found at a flea market where a kind patron returned it to the cemetery in 2016 only to find it had been replaced by the family. Upon which it was returned to James Grasty Jr., a great-grandson of George L.Grasty. It’s whereabouts were unknown for some 80 years. It was donated to the DMFAH. There are a few differences between Confederate gravestones and Union gravestones. The first differences are the shape. Confederate gravestones have a pointed top and the union stones are rounded. Union gravestones also have a shield to identify the individual as a soldier of the American Civil War. Most of the internments of Danville’s National Cemetery that opened in December of 1866 were Union prisoners of war. Green Hill Cemetery and Grove Street Cemetery hold Confederate graves.
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Another Visitor From Georgia |
Also visiting us this week from Georgia was Emory University Museum Fellow Annie Chappell. Annie is working “virtually” with the museum while accessing our collection files for maintenance procedures. She had met earlier this summer with UNC-G Fellow Kate McDannold who trained Annie on how to most effectively use the Past Perfect Collections input system and the best research tools for collection maintenance. Annie and the Museum Interns have taken on the Herculean task of going meticulously through our collections for updates and aligning our file and object data with our PAST PERFECT data platform. The aim is to finish in December. We would like to give a shout out to Annie and also Museum Interns Aidan Thomas, Adessa Breakley, Dillan Oxidon, and Tripp Hayes for their great work towards this Collection Maintenance Project that will make future curatorial and research projects possible. |
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Pumpkin Carving on a Warm Fall Day |
Thank you to all who came out for the Pumpkin Carve-off challenge on Saturday October 24 from 10am to 6pm when the pumpkins were lit for the last performance of Ghosts and Gravestones. All pumpkins are posted on our Facebook page HERE and our Instagram page sites HERE as we solicit a public voting for three prize-winners. Let us know which pumpkin tickled your fancy and deserves a shout-out! We thank Midtown Market, Smokestack, Crema & Vine, Dan River Nonprofit Networks, the DMFAH interns and all the neighbors who came out to enjoy this beautiful fall day.
Semicolon tattoos raise awareness about mental illness during this difficult pandemic. This sign is encouraged as a form of solidarity between people dealing with mental illness or the death of someone from suicide. “A semicolon is used when an author could have ended a sentence but chose not to.”
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Sign Up for the October Life-Drawing Class on Thursday, October 29, from 6:30-9pm at the Swanson Studio.
Please sign up for the October Life-drawing class on Thursday October 29 from 6:30pm to 9pm at the Swanson Studio. Send a your reservation for this session to [email protected]. There are only five places available and the cost is $20 per person.
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Mark your Calendars for a November 6th Campus Wide Open House.
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Ending on a High Note with Camilla Williams Singing - a Shout Out to Smokestack! |
We would like to applaud the great work done by Smokestack administrators Josh Lucia, James Anderson, Emily Wilkerson, Matt Doss, actors, volunteers, museum interns and all of the Ghosts and Gravestone program participants. We also want to thank the community for their great support of The Ghost & Gravestones programming this past weekend. The show Sold Out and we take this as a positive feedback from the community. We thank all the actors but would like to give a particular shout out to for Sadé Fountain for making our Camilla Williams come back to life for Danville audiences for the first time this year through historical interpretation. Thank you to Josh Lucia for flushing out the script based on the book: The Life of Camilla Williams: African American Classical Singer and Opera Diva (2011), written by Stephanie Shonekan and Camilla Williams. This book played a central role in the construction of the Camilla Williams exhibition timeline, and was processed and curated by Museum Fellow Kate McDannold (UNCG fellow 2019-2020). We will be asking for more feedback through surveys on all aspects of these history interpretations. Please send us your comments and recommendations to [email protected].
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Bite off more than you can chew, then chew it.
quote by Camilla Williams
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We Would like to introduce Our New Marketing Director |
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DMFAH Welcomes Our New Marketing Director |
Louise Martling moved to Danville with her family in 2018 from Massachusetts. Born and raised in Connecticut, she moved down the coast, ending up in Nantucket, MA for 15 years. While living in Connecticut, she started her own business, Eleventh Hour Design, A Graphic Design Studio, and was able to continue to grow her business on Nantucket. She received the Nantucket Chamber Award for "Best Up and Coming New Business". Her clientele included Non-Profit Organizations, Real Estate firms, Museums, the Nantucket Chamber and Retailers, among others.
The move to Danville has been a wonderful decision, providing new opportunities for her whole family. They love the people in Danville and the pace of life. When they first came to Danville to look at property, they were most impressed with the revitalization that Danville was undertaking to help its people and the City recover from the loss of industry over the years. The DMFAH is grateful to work with Louise who played a vital role in the construction and production of the Camilla Williams Exhibition as a private contractor. She will be regulating our Website, CCECC and Chamber online platforms and assisting with marketing all our new programming as our Marketing Director.
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