Chatham Arts Council’s event features JumpstART artists eager to share their works

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PITTSBORO — Ready for an outdoor event that has a little something for all arts lovers?

The Chatham Arts Council’s Chatham Experience, Featuring JumpstART artists, promises to deliver. The event, sponsored by Mosaic and Chatham Park, is being held in partnership with The Pittsboro Business Association and Main Street Pittsboro. It will take place on Nov. 7 as part of Pittsboro First Sunday. Designed to help get Chatham County artists and arts-workers back to work by paying artists to make art, Chatham Experience features local artists who were awarded the JumpstART grant. The Chatham Arts Council is excited to help these artists bring their art to the public sphere as we reconnect with one another in our public spaces.

“I’m honored to be part of an event that is showing so much art in one of Chatham County’s downtown streets,” said participating artist Steve Fagan. “Art exists solely for the sake of beauty, inspiration and thought. With the events of the past few years having sown isolation and division in our world, both great and small, public displays of art have the ability to unify. Everyone can appreciate it, no matter what’s going on in their lives or what they believe. Maybe it gives us a moment of inspiration or causes us to look at the world in a different way — that’s important.”

The JumpstART grant was awarded to performing, visual, and literary artists living in Chatham County who have been financially impacted due to COVID-19 cancellations and closures. It was generously funded by Manbites Dog Theater Fund and the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.

Chatham Experience, Featuring JumpstART Artists will include the 15 JumpstART grant recipients and their artistic collaborators, representing multiple art forms:

• Sculpture with JR Butler, Steve Fagan, Alexander Percy

• Textiles with Tanja Cole

• Painting/Drawing with Britt Flood, Julia Kennedy, Kate Ladd, Nancy Ann Moore, Felix Obelix (aka Wendy Spitzer), ~buffy, Cope Aesthetic

• Literary with Brenda Linton and Dolly Sickles

• Music with the Chatham Rabbits, Grand Shores, and Breadfoot. Musician Edith McCaskill will also be joining the lineup.

“It feels so good to be able to share work from these talented artists with our community,” said Cheryl Chamblee, CAC’s executive director. “We’re all craving something positive that brings us together right now. The arts have a unique ability to create a sense of unity, while allowing individuals to have a distinctive, meaningful experience.”

JumpstART visual artists’ work will be on display in both the Welcome Center in downtown Pittsboro and participating surrounding businesses, including The Salon, Edwards Antiques, Perch Co-Working, Chatham Park, Carolina Cravings, Pittsboro Toys, Ladies Fitness Center, Page Vernon Park and Eric Michaels Salon. In addition to the Nov. 7 Chatham Experience event date, JumpstART visual art will be on show from Oct. 30 until Nov. 16.

Chatham Experience, Featuring JumpstART artists, is free to the public.

Pittsboro First Sunday

Pittsboro First Sunday takes place on the first Sunday of the month (March through December) in downtown Pittsboro from 12-4 p.m. It’s a family-friendly event with food trucks and vendors selling art, jewelry, textiles, woodwork, soaps, pottery and more.

The Chatham Arts Council will continue to monitor COVID-19 conditions and work to provide a safe environment following all local and state mandates at the time of the event.