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Exclusive! Older couple continues to decorate home for holidays despite being old
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4 Bridges gets new director Jury selects 175 artists for 2012 festival Pulse staff report The Association for Visual Arts late last week announced Laura Linz of Greenville, S.C., has been selected as the organization’s new major projects manager, which includes the role of director of the 4 Bridges Arts Festival, replacing outdoing director Jerry Dale McFadden, who has relocated to Florida. “Laura brings the highest level of enthusiasm, professionalism and experience to the table,” AVA executive director Anne Willson said. “We have the utmost confidence in her ability to make the 4 Bridges Arts Festival the best it can be.” Linz, who graduated from Furman University with a degree in studio art, has worked in the arts community for nearly a decade and has a comprehensive background
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Laura (Linz) brings the highest level of enthusiasm, professionalism and experience to the table. We have the utmost confidence in her ability to make the 4 Bridges Arts Festival the best it can be. Anne Willson AVA executive director in nonprofit arts management and in directing art festivals. She has she been executive director for two nonprofit art organizations and served as festival director for three major arts and crafts festivals. The jurying process for selecting artists to exhibit in the 4 Bridges Arts Festival occurred on Dec. 10 and 11, just two weeks after Linz began in her new position. About 700 applicants vied for a spot in the festival, of which the three-person jury selected approximately 175 artists from the pool. The jurors for 2012 included Daniel Stet-
son, Sylvie Fortin and Amy Pleasant. Stetson, director of the Hunter Museum of American Art, came to Chattanooga earlier this year from the Polk Museum of Art in Lakeland, Fla., where he served as executive director for nearly 15 years. A native of Oneida, N.Y, Stetson holds a bachelor’s degree in art history from SUNY Potsdam and a master of fine arts from Syracuse University. Fortin, editor-in-chief of Art Papers Magazine, is an independent curator, art historian, critic and editor who has
worked internationally since 1991. Fortin studied art history and theory at the University of Toronto, Université Laval and Duke University. She has received numerous grants and awards as a critic and curator, as well as for her academic research. Fortin was named Lexus Leader of the Arts in December 2007. Pleasant received her bachelor of fine arts degree from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago and her master’s from The Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. She has held solo exhibitions at Jeff Bailey Gallery, The Birmingham Museum of Art, The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Rhodes College, Tandem Gallery, The Ruby Green Center for Contemporary Art and the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “The expertise of this jury is at the highest level we have ever had,” Willson said. “We will undoubtedly have a standout festival this year.”
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• In the world of community journalism, good stories can be hard to come by. Each week, there’s another oversized check donated, another Rotarian or Kiwanis luncheon, another senior citizen craft festival, the church wingding. You get the picture. But every so often, an intrepid community news journalist stumbles upon a real barn-burner. Such was the case recently when the Times Free Press’ Weekly Community News managed to locate a Hixson couple who, quite shockingly, continue to decorate their home for the holidays—every year! Reporter Katie Ward attempted to cleverly cloak this otherwise mundane occurrence in the context that the “magic of Christmas can fade for adults as they age,” but not for Zella Dixon. This zesty 79-year-old literally drowns her Valleybrook home in what Ward describes as an indoor winter wonderland. “I love Christmas,” Dixon was quoted in the article, defying Ward’s assertion that old folks give up on turning their homes in holiday theme parks. We’ve truly come to depend on the Weekly Community News to provide the in-depth community coverage we so desperately crave—plus it’s free! Without the WCN, we’d have never known about the surprisingly tacky home of Sherwin and Zella Dixon, nor could we ably keep track of the Soddy-Daisy Goat Wars or, indeed, the 19-year-old undercover “hottie” (our term) who has been stinging Red Bank stores who continue to sell her beer even after they know her age. We salute you, Weekly Commuity News.
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