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Let’s Go! Fairhope
Your Source for Event-Related Information for the 36532
June 24 - 30, 2024
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Special thanks to local friends, businesses and individuals
helping to make it happen including:
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Check out Fairhope’s new home for events, event-related news, articles,
resources and more at LetsGoFairhope.com
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Sunday, June 23, 2024
Greetings from C. Darby Ulery, founder of the "Let's Go! Fairhope" weekly list of local events for the 36532. In this week's newsletter we:
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Find out what's-up with some local Upcyclers
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Collect last-minute info on the Women's Art Collective
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Find out what's cooking with some upcoming food workshops
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Preview the week of events ahead, below...
Thank you, Readers! Once again, last week's newsletter had a 60% newsletter open rate (as stated before, this is an honor when 20% is considered good!)
I hope you'll consider replying with feedback, ideas for future articles, event news, and sponsorship interest to help the Let's Go! Fairhope project continue to bring events-related information to the 36532.
In addition to listing events, we are collecting event-rental spaces, venues, caterers, designers, musicians for hire, estheticians, and more. There are opportunities to be included in the newsletter and the Resources page of the Let's Go! Fairhope website. For more information, send an email to LetsGoFairhope.com or call 929-GOGO (4646).
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-Let's Go! Fairhope News- | |
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Two culinary events happening this week:
Food As Medicine: Eating to Heal the Earth and Ourselves Class
Date: Monday, June 24, 6-8 PM
Organizer: Gulf Coast Creation Care
A plant-based cooking experience with Chef Matt and the University of South Alabama Integrative Health and Wellness team to be held in the new demonstration kitchen in Fairhope at 21950 Alabama 181. Includes a chef’s demonstration and instruction, hands-on cooking experience, and shared meal prepared by participants. This event is limited to 20 persons.
Note: Class space is limited and may already be filled by the time of this article. Email the organizer(s) for information.
Mimosa Jelly Class
Date: Saturday, June 29, 10 AM
Organizer: The Alabama Forging Society
Growing abundantly in South Alabama, the mimosa tree (Albizia julibrissin) is not only known for its stunning pink blooms and fern-like foliage but also for its potential mood-boosting properties.
Whether you're a seasoned canner or a complete beginner, this class will provide you with all the knowledge and hands-on experience needed to make your own batch of mimosa jelly. Plus, you'll get to take home a jar of your homemade creation.
Note: Class space is limited and may already be filled by the time of this article. Please click here to find contact info.
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Saturday, June 29 will be the last day to view a series of works comprising the 15-women show "Women's Art Collective" exhibition, on display at the Eastern Shore Art Center (EASC). Let's Go! According to Charles Siebert, EASC's Customer Service Representative, "The show opened on May 3 with a well-attended First Friday reception with local community members welcoming many of the exhibiting artists who traveled from Hattiesburg, Mississippi for the event."
Siebert said the EASC is also conducting Art Bash summer camp for youth. While the kids are able to enjoy the galleries during scheduled times, Siebert explained the art center still offers a reflective, zen-like space for visitors who would like to quietly take in the works on display. According to Siebert, gallery-goers can even purchase a work of art from the show to add to their personal collection.
Siebert told Let's Go! Fairhope the next exhibition at the ESAC will be a display of quilts.
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In an interview with Kim Whitt, Director of the Mississippi Art Colony, one of the 15-artists who have come together to be known as the Women’s Art Collective, Let’s Go! Fairhope learned the group “typically shows around Mississippi including Vicksburg, Jackson, Meridian and Hattiesburg.” “A lot of us have individual representation in other galleries,” Whitt said.
Kim also explained the Collective exhibits 3-4 times a years and comprises practicing professional artists who meet monthly to provide “critique opportunities, support one another and promote the group.” “We’ve even shown as far north as Oxford, so we travel a bit. Out of that show, some members now have regular representation there, so that’s one of the advantages of the group working together,” said Whitt.
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The group of friends “grew from meetings at Betty Press’ house,” said Whitt. Elaborating on the benefits of strength in numbers, she added: “Any creative group, like-minded community that gets together to support one another, that’s the beautiful thing.” Ms. Whitt talked about the history of coalitions of visual artists in Mississippi for 75 years and added that Alabama has been doing this for likely even longer.
Regarding the Eastern Shore Art Center exhibition, Kim said “We have shown there before and were well-received.” When making their schedule for the year, the Women's Art Collective reached out to the EASC through Adrienne Clow, Marketing Director, “to see if there might be an opening. We were delighted and jumped at the chance.”
To learn more about the Women’s Art Collective, Ms. Whitt recommends checking out the group’s website or connecting via Facebook.
Running concurrently, and closing together with the Women's Art Collective, is a show of works of Alabama's Watercolor and Graphic Arts Society of Mobile, founded in 1948.
Check out the two exiting exhibitions through June 29 at the Eastern Shore Art Center, located at 401 Oak Street Fairhope AL 36532 Hours: Tues-Fri 10am-4pm / Sat 10am-6pm.
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"What's Up" with Upcycling? | |
If you've never heard of Upcycling, let alone National Upcycling Day, June 24, you're not alone. But according to the World Wide Web, it's been a thing since 2019. In honor of this relatively new quasi-event, one of our local upcycling hubs, Southern Antiques and Accents, is this week's sponsor, plus Let's Go! Fairhope is offering a sampling of three additional perspectives from the 36532 below: | |
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Southern Replenish
First, "What is Upcycling?"
According to Janet Boullemet, owner of Southern Replenish based in Montrose/Fairhope, "Upcycling is taking something you already have and making better use of it."
While Boullemet upcycles at home by finding new uses for old flannel shirts and t-shirts, she doesn't consider herself first and foremost an upcycler, "I am a Refiller." Janet said: "I do sell washable toilet paper and washable menstrual pads, nursing pads and facial pads that take the place of disposable cotton balls, but at Southern Replenish we focus on less plastic and practice the reuse of plastics."
How does it work? Southern Replenish is now a delivery service. Residents simply call Mrs. Boullemet (local area code + 533-8050) and Janet will personally come to your home to refill your existing plastic bottles with fresh products. She can also provide you with containers to keep and refill again and again.
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Southern Replenish will refill your bath products including shampoo, conditioner, body oil, hand soap, lotion, witch hazel, facial cleanser, toothpaste, deodorant and more. Boullemet offers both powder and liquid laundry detergents, plus an array of home cleaning products including all-purpose, countertop, class, granite and stone cleaners, stainless steel and wood polish. Dish soaps, dishwasher power, toilet and stain cleaners are in her arsenal as well. Southern Replenish even has pet products.
Whether you consider it cycling up or down, in or out, the concept is to reuse. To learn more about refilling your plastic containers instead of sending them away to decompose and perhaps never disappear, contact Janet Boullemet at local area code + 533-8050 for details about Southern Replenish.
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Fairhope resident Rivers Tilley enjoys a challenge. She grew up on a farm in Mississippi, went to art school in England, holds a degree in nursing plus two graduate degrees, studied printmaking and once fixed her car in an emergency by repurposing a radiator hose. “But that was back in the day, before cars got complicated,” said Tilley.
Rivers agrees there probably isn’t always an important real-life distinction between repairing, recycling, repurposing and upcycling in the vernacular, but whatever we choose to call it, she’s in the business.
Getting her start sewing costumes for a theater department, Tilley now specializes in 3-D object repair. She doesn’t advertise, relying instead on word-of-mouth from her clients. “Mending implies textiles, but that’s not all I do. I was too much of a tomboy for home EC or sewing lessons. I liked mechanical things and finding out how things worked.”
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Headpiece - Before & After
Photos courtesy of Rivers Tilley
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Currently, Tilley is repairing lace and has an old chandelier awaiting repair in the garage. She works on anything that will fit on her 9x5 workbench including antique, collective, and vintage items.
“When you repair Grandma’s gravy bowl for someone, you have to have patience. You have to know what kind of adhesive to use. It’s not always simple. Sometimes you have to go online and look for things and jerry-rig until you find a better solution. Visually, you always have to make it look right, too, while other aspects are functional. I like challenges that I can address. I like the fact that everything I attempt to do is kind of new, always an uphill learning curve. The fun is in what [clients] have and what they need,” said Tilley.
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Photos courtesy of Rivers Tilley | |
Rivers elaborates: “I’m honored when people bring me something that they really value, and I feel blessed that I have some skills and abilities to help. That gives me pleasure.” The only down-side, according to Tilley is when people don’t realize what the process is going to take. “Sometimes people bring something and they think it will take 15 minutes and look like it was never broken, but that’s not reality.” Rivers doesn’t repair furniture though she receives requests. She explains, “I usually do things more artsy, related to design, color, shape and form. Also practical things, depending on what it is.” | | |
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Photos courtesy of Rivers Tilley
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“Almost everything I have in my life is free, pre-owned, most things I use were meant for another use which gives me great pleasure.”
Contact Rivers Tilley about repairing something you hold dear by emailing rivers.tilley1 (at) gmail (dot) com.
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Many Let's Go! Fairhope followers are familiar with Fairhope-based artist Bruce Larsen's large-scale assemblage sculptures that often rise towards the sky in celebration of a new life. Comprising old fused gears, wheels, bolts, bikes, bullets, chairs, tractor parts and more, in a seemingly infinite array of soldered miscellaneous metal, we were recently wowed by his new "Seahorses" installation located at the west-side of what is now "Arts Alley" in Fairhope. | |
You may have also seen Larsen's epic mechanical butterfly which now resides at the Mobile Botanical Gardens, and the team of giant athletes forever striving for new records at the US Sports Academy in Daphne. | Photo by Let's Go! Fairhope | |
In a recent interview with Let's Go! Fairhope, Bruce says he wasn't familiar with the new "upcycling" term until recently when his daughter informed him, "YOU Upcycle!" "I've always been called a Recycler," said Larsen. "Jo Bonner once called me the ultimate recycler."
Larsen said he identifies with local farmers who deny they ever keep any junk on their property, rather "useful spare parts." "To me, I’ve always been attracted to metal and shapes," said Larsen. "I'm always inspired to look around to see what is already here. I like to look for what’s standing out, what’s weird." Bruce finds repurposing items more interesting and rewarding rather than "buying new, everything-looking-the-same objects."
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Bruce said "Some people would call me a hoarder, but when I [received the commission for] the seahorses, I had most of the metal I needed. And I was lucky to get the rest from the community. We’re working on a QR site for the Alley so you can learn more about the sculptures and all the incredible local stories they’re made from."
When asked what he is currently working on, Larsen said some of his next big projects include a large metal tree, a barrel racer horse and rider, and an elephant for the upcoming Saban Center in Tuscaloosa.
"I also still do the occasional work in film. I just got a text yesterday from writer/director Mike Flanagan, he has some exciting stuff coming up. We’ll be making another Hush mask this week for the upcoming physical release of the film. Not that I like doing slasher films or anything, I mean I’ve only killed 150 plus people on several different continents."
(Let's Go! Fairhope and Larsen enjoyed a good laugh at this, as the artist - who is usually quite safety oriented - mused about once flying back from Kazakhstan with gory prop that caused quite a stir at US customs.)
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A best-kept local secret is the fact that according to Bruce, "I actually really like doing smaller pieces related to the spontaneity”. "I don’t get out and push it, but yes, you can set up an appointment."
According to the artist, creating individual, smaller pieces in-between his larger-than-life, months-in-the-making installations provides a quick sense of creative reward. Per Bruce, some of his "smaller, simpler pieces start in the hundreds and go up from there."
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To purchase your own piece, reach out to Bruce Larsen directly at brucelarsenart@gmail.com. Bruce or one of his family-team members will personally respond, and you might even get a glimpse behind-the-scenes of some upcycling happening right here in Fairhope, Alabama.
****Click here to view a video clip of Bruce Larsen describing some of the local antique treasures that make up his work.****
****Click here for a second video where Bruce describes WWII artifacts in one of the Arts Alley seahorses *****
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Let’s Go! Fairhope Preview:
Monday, June 24, 2024
8 am: Local Info / 9:05 - 10 am: Gulf Coast Swap Shop @ WABF 1480 AM Radio
9 am - 3 pm: Vacation Bible School Week Begins @ Redeemer Lutheran Church
9:30 am: Butterflies Dancing Music & Movement Ages 0-5 @ Baldwin Co. Youth Orchestra
10 am: Knit & Crochet for a Purpose @ Fairhope United Methodist
1:30 - 3 pm: TED Talks Discussion Group @ Fairhope Public Library - Computer Lab
2 pm: Eastern Shore Uke Club @ Fairhope Unitarian Fellowship
3 pm: Grief Group @ Fairhope United Methodist
4:30 pm: City Council Work Session, 5:30 Agenda Mtg, 6 pm Meeting @ Council Chambers
5:15 pm: Marvelous Mondays Supper & Service w/ Dr. Charles Smith @ First Fairhope
5:30 - 7:30 PM Bingo @ Provision
6 pm: Food as Medicine: Eating to Heal the Earth and Ourselves @ 21950 State HY 181
6 pm: David Butler Live Music @ Gambino's Italian Grill
7:59 pm: Sunset @ Fairhope Pier
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Click here to visit the new Let's Go! Fairhope website with even more events and information than ever before. You'll find a printable PDF events list for the week ahead and a new electronic calendar which will be updated to include additional events and links to venues. Event-related businesses and news articles are also featured.
Click here to find Let's Go Fairhope on Facebook.
Click here to join the Events in Fairhope Facebook Group.
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Let’s Go! Fairhope is a local project celebrating local events.
It does not endorse or represent any entity or event listed unless specifically stated.
Please contact each venue and/or host to confirm event information and availability.
To become a sponsor, and/or have your events added, removed, etc.
Contact: LetsGoFairhope@gmail.com / (251) 929 - GOGO
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