Celebrate the Arts Saturday at ECHS
Celebrate the Arts, billed as North Carolina’s largest student arts festival, is this Sunday at East Columbus High School in Lake Waccamaw.
Scheduled from 5 to 9:30 p.m., Celebrate the Arts will bring students in grades 6 through 12 to the East Columbus campus for classes and clinics on Friday and Saturday, capped with performances and exhibitions Saturday evening.
Hundreds of pieces of art and more than 300 student performers will take part. Admission is free, and the public is invited.
Schedule
A visual arts exhibition will be open in the lobby and hallway from 5 to 9 p.m. Saturday.
Scheduled performances, all in the school auditorium, include:
• 5 p.m. – Visual arts presentations
• 6 p.m. – Middle school chorus
• 6:30 p.m. – High school chorus
• 7 p.m. – Dance performance
• 7:30 p.m. – Theater performance
• 8 p.m. – Middle school band
• 8:30 p.m. – High school band
Performances
• Miranda Fowler Conner will direct the middle school chorus. A native of Columbus County and 1996 graduate of South Columbus High School, she has been involved in the arts since the age of 3. She is a graduate of East Carolina University with a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music Performance with a concentration in piano, graduating Magna Cum Laude and has been teaching in the county schools for five years. She is presently choral director at South Columbus High.
• Dr. Gerald Knight of Elon University will direct the high school choir. He is a graduate of The Florida State University.
• Nancy Heath, a teacher at Midway High School in Sampson County, is the high school dance clinician.
• Jef Lambdin of Lumberton is the high school theater arts director for Celebrate the Arts. He is a mime, mask theater, and variety artist.
• Crystal Hairston, band director at South Columbus High, will direct the middle school band. A native of St. Pauls, she was a recipient of the North Carolina Teaching Fellows Scholarship. She received a bachelor’s degree in Music Education from Appalachian State University in Boone.
• Dr. Stephen Etters of Catawba College will direct the high school band.
• Joy Fowler will lead the middle schools visual arts workshop. A Columbus County native, the visual arts instructor at South Columbus High has titled her program “Claymation in Action.” A graduate of Williams Township School, she graduated from Southeastern Community college and transferred to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where she majored in architecture. She graduated Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Creative Arts degree. She has been teaching art in Columbus County for 17 years.
• September Krueger, a fiber artist and printmaker who explores storytelling and mythology in her work, will lead the high school visual arts workshop. Originally from Harrisburg, Pa., she is the art instructor at Southeastern Community College.
