Spring is a Festival

Dr. Terry Zug

The 12th annual Catawba Valley Pottery and Antiques Festival will give you an opportunity to meet the potters and watch them work. Pottery expert Dr. Terry Zug, former chair of Southern Folklore at UNC-Chapel Hill and author of Turners and Burners: The Folk Potters of North Carolina, makes these recommendations to first-time festival goers:

• Viewing and purchasing pottery is more than an economic transaction, it’s a social transaction. You can become good friends with the potter you buy from, and develop a relationship that lasts a lifetime. Spend time talking to potters and learn their backgrounds and family histories. In doing so, you’ve have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the work that your bring into your home.
• When you go depends on what you want. Most festivals have a gala event preceding the public opening. Catawba Valley’s Friday gala gives you a first crack at purchasing the pottery as well as the opportunity to talk more intimately with the potters and pottery experts—there might be 800 people at the gala versus 6,000 at the opening the following day. Galas can be expensive, but they’re fun—in Catawba Valley, there will be live string band music as well as food and drink.
• Enjoy the beauty. Whether functional or decorative, pottery is meant to be looked at and enjoyed. Arrive early to appreciate the sparkling, shining sea of pottery that will greet you at the Catawba Valley Pottery Festival.
• Learn something about the craft of pottery. All pottery festivals have an educational component, but the Catawba Valley Festival has more of an educational thrust than most.There will be a pottery identification clinic, pottery making demonstrations and showings of videos about pottery. I’ve organized a display of wares from four potters, Sid Luck, Charlie Lisk, Kim Ellington, and Mark Hewitt entitled “How Contemporary Potters Use Tradition.” Chatham County potter Mark Hewitt will give a lecture entitled, “A Few of My Favorite Things about North Carolina Pottery.”

“The things that you buy to ornament your home these days come from all over the world, and you don’t know who made them or where they’re from,” Hewitt says.

“When you go to a pottery festival like Catawba Valley, you get to interact with the potters, you get something specifically North Carolinian, and you get something that is handmade that will warm the interior of your home with great friendliness and generosity of spirit. What you have in your home will directly reflect where you live. That’s special and very rare. It’s kind of like going to a farmer’s market and buying local produce.”

Chef Mimi Linthicum

Whether or not your travels to the coast coincide with the Beaufort County Traditional Music Festival, a visit to the “original” Washington is a must for any art lover. Joey Toler, Executive Director of the Beaufort County Arts Council, put Chef Mimi Linthicum of Mimi’s Water Street Café in Washington on the case to offer us her own artful tour below. Click here for a map of the area.

Start your day browsing one of the many exhibitions showcased by the Beaufort County Arts Council in the Washington Civic Center Gallery. Be sure to call ahead (252-946-2504) for a schedule of music, dance, theatre, and participatory events as well as dates for the yearly craft shows and children’s events. Take a minute to peruse the Lane Gallery for “one-of-a-kind” pottery, a local cookbook, boxed cards or a beautiful print to take home.

Upon leaving the gallery and walking up Main Street on any given Saturday morning, you are likely to come upon The Beaufort County Traditional Music Association. This group of talented individuals combines their skills by pickin’ and playin’ bluegrass, country, and gospel music for the delight of others.

As you stroll up Main Street to browse in our many unique and eclectic shops, be sure to take in the beauty of the architecture along the way. Check out the newly-renovated Turnage Theatre and call ahead (252-975-1711) for a schedule of performances. As you peruse the shops, you will be sure to find handmade jewelry, silk print scarves, and framed reproductions of vintage postcards. Make a point to stop by Riverwalk Art Gallery.

As Main Street intersects with Market Street, you will find several more shops before coming to Water Street. On the right will be the Visit Washington office, where you can collect brochures or learn about the historic homes tour. On the left you will find Art Tyndall’s Studio which is full of his own creations.

Next on the agenda consider lunch at my place, Mimi’s Water Street Cafe (a coastal-chic cafe and deli). At Mimi’s you will find a beautiful view of the Pamlico River which can be enjoyed while eating on the porch on a nice day. While you’re waiting for your order, scan the walls and shelves for original paintings, watercolors, prints, framed poems and hand-beaded wine glasses.

After lunch, head up Water Street a half a block to the North Carolina Estuarium. The Estuarium is an aquarium with more than 200 unique exhibits about the Pamlico-Tar River System. Any art lover will delight in the floor-to-ceiling kinetic sculpture in the lobby and river scene murals on the walls. View a 15-minute film entitled “Journey thru the Peninsula” with background music by North Carolina’s own Red Clay Ramblers.