ROCK HILL, S.C. - Thanks to collaborative community-wide efforts, Rock Hill soon will become home to one of renowned artist Patrick Dougherty’s unique large-scale wood installations.

Beginning March 8, Dougherty will spend three weeks building an installation at Rock Hill’s new Community Performance Center, located at 249 E. Main St., weaving donated tree saplings into a large, intricate sculptural installation. Throughout the building process, the accessible artist will work with volunteers – including Winthrop University fine arts students – and interact with visitors who stop to watch his progress.

Funded by ACE Projects at Winthrop, a privately funded outreach program, the Patrick Dougherty installation project is a partnership among the Arts Council of York County, the Rock Hill Old Town Association, Rock Hill’s Gallery Up, Winthrop and ACE Projects.

The interactive installation project should provide the Rock Hill community with a unique opportunity to “realize the impact of temporary public art on economic development and quality of life in our college town,” said Tom Stanley, chair of Winthrop’s Department of Fine Arts. “Patrick Dougherty is especially gifted in helping to demystify art – helping us to see that it is a vital job that needs to be done.”  

As part of the installation project, Dougherty will give a public presentation about his work on Thursday, March 11, at 7:30 p.m. in the City of Rock Hill Council Chamber, located at 155 Johnson St.

Dougherty, a native of North Carolina, first began experimenting with woven tree saplings in 1980. Since then, he has constructed more than 150 monumental tree-sapling sculptures throughout the United States, Europe and Asia. Dougherty also has served as artist-in-residence at universities and museums across America. A resident of Chapel Hill, N.C., he earned his B.A. at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and an M.A. at the University of Iowa in Iowa City and completed post-graduate work at UNC-Chapel Hill.

For more information about Dougherty’s work, visit his Web site. 

April 6 - May 7, 2010
Monique Luck:
Painted Rhyme – an exhibition
Dalton Gallery - Clinton Junior College

York County resident and self-taught artist Monique Luck creates “soulful and
wonderfully lyrical images in mixed media” and has gained national recognition of her work. Free.

Monique Luck Arts Talk & Reception
Thursday, April 22, 2010 - 7:30 p.m.

For more information, contact 803-327-7402, ext. 226 or dellamariecheek@gmail.com.

Release - Monique Luck

ACE Projects is an outgrowth of the Dalton Downtown Arts Initiative.  One goal of ACE is to expose students to the vital importance of artists' participation in civic engagement at every level.  
ACE recognizes that we live in an era of a significant paradigm shift that will impact where we go, how we go, and the quality of where we live.  ACE is taking a step to refocus its goals and activities around the concept of student civic engagement via the arts.  Some of the primary activities of Artists & Civic Engagement Projects (ACE Projects) will include:

• An emphasis on its significant partnership with Clinton College's Dalton Gallery

Programming at Dalton Gallery/Clinton Junior College is made possible through
the support of the Artists & Civic Engagement Project (ACE). 
ACE Projects at Clinton are supported by Jo Sherrill Dickert, Gay Randolph, and Robert Breakfield.  Additional support for ACE Projects has been provided by Becca and Harry Dalton,
Clinton Junior College, Winthrop’s College of Visual and Performing Arts, and
Winthrop University Galleries.