18 | September/October 2017
Seasonal
Art Walkabouts
BY JAMES L ANGSTON
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MATTHEW WONDERLY
Henri Matisse once said, "Creativity takes courage."
MATISSE, A FRENCH PRINTER,
painter, and sculptor, may not have ever lived
in North Carolina, but artists everywhere
understand what he means. Local artists
downtown Fayetteville had the courage last year
to create a seasonal Art Walkabout (happening in
the summer, fall, winter, and spring) encouraging
locals to come downtown, explore a handful of
different galleries, mix and mingle with their
neighbors, and see what the recent artists in our
community have been up to.
In a downtown that is shiing and shaping
itself to embrace the arts more wholeheartedly,
I was excited to explore the summer Art
Walkabout. It was a hot night when I toured
around back in July. ough there is no specific
way to enjoy the Walkabout, for me, Cape Fear
Studios, the art gallery on Maxwell Street, seemed
to me to be a good starting point. Cape Fear
Studios happens to sponsor the Art Walkabout
and collects donations to fund future ones.
Cape Fear Studios is set up so that you can
take a peek into where different artists of different
mediums work. While wandering around, I got
the chance to meet Nancy Edge, who conducts
the Art Walkabout. She told me that even though
this is the first year for the event, people are
coming out specifically for the art. In her mind,
that's equivalent with success. Edge, a former art
teacher herself, said, "Having the Walkabout four
times a year makes it more of an event rather than
an obligation." Since a majority of the art galleries
are all within walking distance from one another,
why not celebrate that?
A R T
