The Manteo Arts Scene

Since being here I have been making contact with the many art galleries and artists who are here in Manteo, some of whom came to our reception the day after we arrived and have kept in touch. In downtown there are numerous spaces to show and sell artwork – Dare County Arts Council have their new premises with 4 gallery spaces, all showing work by local based artists, (Manteo and the Outerbanks). The people who live here are in 3 categories depending on whether they were born here or have moved, or just visiting (natives, locals and tourists) akin to North Devon's locals, incomers and grockels. The artists are natives or locals.

There are also a few other galleries showing work by a mix of local artists, including Full Moon Gallery, run by Sharon Enoch which is an eclectic mix and includes wine, photography and Sharon's own pottery. A lot of the work in the galleries is very commercial and sells to the visiting tourists, so there are a lot of coastal scenes, birds, flowers, boats - very similar in subject matter to artwork for sale in North Devon. In fact there are more galleries that pop up once you start walking around dowtown, these also include Gallery 101, Endless Possibilities (based on recycled wares), Washed Ashore which has some 'funky' hand painted high stools and a kids rocking horse and pottery in the windows of the large downtown book store.

I met the owners and potters at 'Wanchese Pottery' in downtown – so called because they used to live in Wanchese and relocated to Manteo. I have yet to go back and watch Bonny at the wheel but have had a chat with Bob on the porch whilst he was playing with their kitten, who has adopted them. They have a small studio and shop by the Maritime Museum and make a variety of pots. Bob said they are down in stock due to a busy summer season and have different colours, the ones I have seen are different green glazes, from aqua to grass, and Bonny and Bob make mugs, plates, dishes and bowls that hold pebbles with wicks in to act as candles. Another potter is Nancy of 'Nancyware' and she has mainly her own stuff for sale in the shop.

Out of town on the main road is Silver Bonsai Gallery – so called because owners and jewellers Ben and Kat have their silver jewellery studio there and run the gallery, but they also sell Bonsai trees! Its an impressive studio at the back of the main gallery so you can see them at work. They also have an employee to help them. When we met they were very busy trying to finish some wedding rings for the upcoming 10/10/10 date, apparently a very popular day to get married. We had made email contact with Ben and Kat a few months ago and they were very keen to get to know the arts community in Bideford, so it was great to finally meet. A lot of the work is by local artists – as well as their own jointly made jewellery, also paintings, photography, textile hats, decorated light switch covers (a very American thing) and pottery.

Dave and I met Katy Caroline (she has a mural at Poor Richard;s cafe, above) at First Friday and she won the Beach Book Prize that we judged. She invited us to her art opening at a new venue called 'Art Space' which is at Southern Shores about 20 miles North of Manteo in the OuterBanks. It was good to see her work but also the space – Art Space is a gallery and studio to 3 artists. It's not a huge place but is packed with art on the walls and floors in 2 rooms and the studio areas are in amongst it all. It was fascinating to see that the artists were all working in a relatively small area but producing lots of work, they enjoy feeding off each other in a creative atmosphere, Katy is there every day to paint. I also met a painter who lives in the same area, Rick Nilson. I have seen his work for sale and he has only been painting the past few years. He won the Beach Book prize last year and was there at Katy's opening to support her.

At a party on Saturday night I met a potter, Cody Dough, and she was very excited about the twinning and future exchange plans wants to come over to Bideford as soon as she can. I have yet to see her work but will look out for it in the Arts Council galleries as she has some work there.

There are many other art galleries and spaces all along the Outer Banks, both to the North, up to Duck and down to Hatteras and Ocracoke to the South. In terms of twinning and exchange activity this area is too vast to get to know artists and galleries very well and we have decided that staying with Manteo based artists or artists who show their work in town will be an easier process to manage upon returning to Bideford and making an arts exchange programme happen in the future.

A Welcome Party

I had been planning and getting ready for the welcome reception in Manteo throughout the trip – before I left home I trawled through lots of our photos of Bideford, the arts community and artwork, the natural environment, Bideford 500 Heritage activities and hiking / landscape images. This would form a slidehow of pics for the Manteo folk to see what Bideford is like. I had also written some bullet points of what to talk about and had copied lots of information from various sources, including our own Experiencedevon website, as I know that the Americans love statistics and factual information and they always have theirs at their fingertips. I was also feeling a little daunted by the prospect of the whole thing – I didn't know what to expect, how formal or informal it would be or how many would be there.

I had been in touch with both local artist and restaurateur Sharon Enoch, and Laura Martier, Executive Director of Dare County Arts Council a few times before I left Bideford. Sharon had very kindly offered to organise a reception for my arrival and the Arts Council agreed to host us at their venue.

We arrived earlier in the afternoon to say hello and find out where the reception was. Dave and I were greeted very warmly by the staff, Laura Martier and Fay Davies (Gallery Director) and volunteers and I felt instantly at ease with the space – the Arts Council have just moved into the Old Courthouse and is a fabulous space, with a series of gallery rooms and a corridor downstairs and the Courtroom upstairs which will be used for classes and special events. I was also relieved to find there were no huge rooms for me to speak 'to' later on!

The reception was from 6-8pm and went very well, there were about 20 people there and we had wine, beer and some food which was wonderful and all catered by Sharon's Full Moon Restaurant. The lumpy crabcakes were to die for. I did a speech (without photos) and made sure that I covered why I was here, what I was researching and some key points about the arts connection and what I was hoping would happen in the future – mainly to set up some arts exchange activity and in the future an exchange programme between Bideford and Manteo. It was received very warmly and positively. Dave also talked a bit about his own work as a photographer, the networking artists networks for Bideford Bay Creatives (as the group were awarded a 'Go and See' bursary for this purpose) and the postcard project idea that Bideford Bay Creatives wish to do – exchanging handmade postcards between artists and exhibiting them at Appledore Visual Arts fest in 2011.

I met some great people, (lots of artists, the President of the Arts Council Board, the Mayor, someone who works on the replica Elizabeth 11 ship and is very knowledgeable about local history), and got a couple of leads to follow up for possible pottery finds, the main one being to go and talk to Scott Dawson at Buxton, on Hatteras Island, he has been involved in an archaeological dig there and has sherds. More on this later when I have been to see him! The Mayor and his wife, Jamie and Nadine Daniels were very eager to see plenty of us and make sure we get what we need from our trip. It was also a great opportunity to publicly thank not only Sharon and Laura but also Carl Curnutte from the Elizabethan Gardens for arranging our lovely accommodation at Fort Raleigh National Park.

The only regret is that Dave and I were so busy talking that we both forgot to take pictures of the evening or me doing my speech, but Fay Davies, Dare County Arts Council Gallery Director took photos - we haven't seen them yet but when we do we'll get a copy and I'll post them up.