Special to the
Opelika Observer
Pioneer Park will be hosting its first-ever one-person art show April 13. Local artist Vivian Green-Harris of Camphill has been selected to exhibit her paintings at the Smithsonian in Washington D.C.. The Lee County Historical Society will have a preview as Harris shares some of her paintings with us during this second Saturday in April.
Harris’ grandfather Faust was lynched in Mississippi in 1903. This tragic event is the motivation for her series of paintings entitled “Lynching’s and Liberators.”
Coffee and light refreshments will be available during the show. The showing will begin at 10 a.m. and continue until 2 p.m. Harris will be present and will speak to the group at 10:30 a.m. and at 1 p.m.. For the children who might not appreciate the paintings, Margaret Baggett of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians will be teaching the children to paint egg gourds.
These gourds will be “permanent” Easter Eggs for each child to take home. This group will meet in the pavilion or in the Trade Center depending upon the weather. The class will begin at 10 am and end at 2 p.m. All materials are free.
Upstairs in the textile room, Mary Delaney will be continuing to assist teenagers in using the Inkle looms to make bands of varying widths to use as belts, shoe strings, necklaces or whereever the imagination leads. She will also have weaving looms available and more dolls to stuff and decorate. This class will last from 10 a.m. until noon. All materials will be provided and there is no fee. Don’t forget the “garden walk and talk” at 9 a.m. with Dr. Charles Mitchell. Spring is everyone’s ideal time to start a new garden and visitors will have a chance to visit several of them on the second saturday in April.
At the same time, LCHS will be hosting its first ever museum sale to benefit the restoration of Fred’s Music Hall. Surplus museum furniture and items d’art will be displayed and sold from the existing Fred Lord ‘barn” adjacent to Pioneer Park in Loachapoka.
On the second Saturday of every month, volunteers and re-enactors gather at Pioneer Park to demonstrate their arts and crafts. Blacksmiths are usually working at the forge, spinners and weavers are upstairs in the Trade Center, and someone is always cooking up a period meal in the Cook House or outdoors over an open fire. Visit the period gardens at Pioneer Park. The Trade Center Museum and other museums are open on Second Saturdays, and the Whistle Stop Pickers gather to practice at 1 p.m.
What a great opportunity for LCHS members and visitors to explore the museum.and enjoy a period meal from the Cook House at noon.
For more information, visit www.leecountyhistoricalsociety.org.