Cupcakes and Chocolate, Tennis and Tickling, Fondue and Fogo, Cards and Cuddling, and Lots of Love!

Okay, I know that this title is completely about all the incredible things that made up my wonderful Valentine's weekend, but I also need to catch up on everything that happened last week leading up to this weekend. I'm snuggled up in my bed with some fabulous PJs, so let's go!

Last week seems like kind of a blur/was a little bit boring. We were all recovering from our WS Shuffle the Saturday before and didn't really have too many big things going on last week, so it was pretty relaxed overall. I've got a few things that I'm working hard on right now, so I'll just add some details about last week that way....

The Intersections Project: an awesome way that SECCA interacts with the education community, focusing on blending the arts with other subjects. We build artist residencies with local educators and the 2 groups (artists and teachers) work together to create and implement lesson plans that illustrate the importance of art in all subjects. I'm really excited about working with Lakeside HS in WS on a project involving our upcoming Munoz exhibit. We had a meeting with the art teachers last week and I might even get to work with the dance department too! SO exciting!

Community Day at SECCA: a partnership with Reynolda House (our neighbor and another art museum, although they have a permanent collection and are fairly different than us). Coming up in March, this day will be a blend of activities and art that tie together themes from the Munoz exhibit. I've been working on lots and LOTS of ideas about ways to do this/translate his work into things that are relevant for children/families. Water is a common theme, so I've been thinking about activities like water glass music, water drumming (awesome!) and channeling my HS drumline and their show using water on top of steel drums. We (my supervisor Michael and I) have had a lot of meetings last week and this week too with community members and other people involved in the planning phases. I'll keep you posted on everything and if you have ideas to share, definitely let me know!


Crossroads Concert: It's THIS Saturday! I feel like we've pretty much got everything in place except for a few last minute things, like cutting gels for lights and setting the different scenes, picking up random things like table cloths and pizza, and other fun things....I'm going to be helping with lighting a little bit this week I think, which I've found out that I really enjoy. :) Also related to Crossroads, I got to help hang the artwork of Jim White, one of the performers that actually is from Athens. Funny story: his daughter is also friends with my sister. Small world! It was exciting getting to help install some work, which I had never done before and will be a great skill in the future. Adding it to the resume, along with backwards parallel parking, which I did the other day in order to park in front of TJ Maxx. I swear, Winston-Salem had more parallel parking spots than any city I know!

Social Media Marketing: I'm getting a little sick of it, but hey, it's good info/experience/reveals the true intricacies of successful marketing/PR.....


This week I also got to help with the de-installation of 2 of our shows: Shinique Smith and Glenda Wharton (not yet on Glenda, but I hope to). Each of these exhibits were really different in scope, technique and material and it's interesting to see the different techniques that are used to pack everything up. It's also surreal to see the "dissection" of some of the pieces. Literally the day before this pile of materials was "art" that no one could touch, get too close to, or breathe on but today we put on our white gloves and very carefully take this piece apart, package it in bubble wrap (I had to keep myself from playing with it the whole time) and pack it safely away to the artist or next gallery to be reconstructed, installed, and become "art" again.



Okay, so enough about all the worky stuff (and I'm sure I'll post more later this week). On to the fun Valentine's stuff and lots of pictures! :)

I had an absolutely INCREDIBLE weekend in Georgia with my fabulous family and bodacious boyfriend! :) I was able to make it to Mel's first tennis match

and then baked some delicious Valentine's cupcakes while spending some quality time at home

and then I headed down to Atlanta to see my boo (aka Nick my fantastic BF!) He surprised me my taking me to Atlantic Station where they had a valentine's dipping station with lots of chocolate and lots of things to be dipped in it: strawberries, rice crispy treats, cookies, and all kinds of delicousness! He even got me a cute teddy bear. And everything benefitted Make-a-Wish Foundation, which is supah awesome :) Then we went to Kilwin's and picked out some truffles to share before heading to Ikea for adventures in towel bar searching, furniture investigation, and all around fun.  When we got back to the Phi Kap house it was time to get ready for a surprise dinner at.....Fogo de Chao! It's an amazing Brazillian steakhouse that I'm pretty sure has it's only location in the southeast right in Atlanta! Nick has been telling me about it for literally months because he and his fraternity brothers usually go once every semester (at least) and I can see why now. It.was.delicious!

After resting/getting over our "meat coma" at his fraternity brothers aptly call it, it was time for Partygeddon at the Phi Kap house!

It was great to see all the bros and their awesome girlfriends/fiances and everyone else down in Atlanta, especially Johnny!. :)

I got to swing by and see my family before heading up to NC and we had a great "nicnic" on the porch in the beautiful sun. I really couldn't have asked for a better Valentine's with so many people that I love! :)

Home Is Where The Music Is...

I just got back from visiting Centenary United Methodist in downtown Winston and I had to take a minute to try and reflect on all the "soul searching," realizing, recognizing, and rejoicing that I've experienced in literally the last 12 hours. Last night was our WS Shuffle battle of the bands and it was absolutely incredible. There were all kinds of performers and instruments: mandolins (and octave mandolins), guitars, basses, miniature pianos, banjoes....and so much more. It really and truly made me feel like I was "home" to hear all the different styles of music that I grew up around and lots of new styles too. I think that we all feel a deep connection with music (at least I know I do), but I have experienced this even more so in the past few weeks.


As I'm struggling (maybe not struggling...trying?) to make a temporary "home" for myself here in NC, I think that I've become more and more aware of the power of music in my life. Whether dancing like a crazy person to my ipod, listening to the chapel bells play my favorite songs, discovering new radio stations, or singing songs from my childhood with the congregation at a Sunday morning service, the last few weeks have presented me with musical experiences that have helped me to know myself better through music.

Soirees and Social Media

This week has been a mixed bag of all sorts of experiences, people, celebrations, and opportunities.
It was back to the office on Monday for our 9 am staff meeting where I found myself dozing off a little bit. Not because of the content, but I guess driving all over 3 states in 3 days the past weekend had finally caught up with me. Our curator Steven Matijcio, who is extremely creative and bright, presented lots of information about our upcoming Oscar Munoz exhibit, which I hope to help install when it comes in March. Munoz is a Colombian artist who works with video and multimedia, including newspapers (which I immediately connected to because of my love for collaging) and sugar cubes...delicious! :) I spent a lot of time this week thinking about how to tie in Munoz's representation of memories with concepts for Community Day and am really excited to (hopefully) come up with some cool ideas for performances, activities, etc. 


Monday evening was the Winston-Salem Women's Fund Marvelous Monday gathering at SECCA. (what a mouthful!) My Aunt Patti is a member and it was really nice to see her and all 115 women having a great time. They had only expected about 40-50, so it was great for everyone (and especially our attendance numbers) that so many people came to see how wonderful SECCA is. 




Tuesday and Wednesday I worked a lot on researching/brainstorming more things for community day, organizing my calendar, and taking care of other necessary tasks. I had the unique opportunity to meet with the Programs Committee of our SECCA board and the exec. director of the Hispanic Arts Initiative that is working with us as we continue planning for our Community day. I'm thankful that I've gotten to meet so many different people up here and that I'm able to see how the "bigger picture" of everything works into what I'm doing everyday.


My other main project for this week was social media!!!!! And lots of it....Almost since I started interning it seems like I've been brainstorming, refining, presenting, and finalizing my ideas for how to use our social media (blog, FB, Twitter, Flickr, and YouTube) for promoting things like our concert series. I called my first "big girl" meeting with some other staff members this week, which went really well. I also made up a timeline for how to implement promotions and how to phase out 2 of our THREE Facebook pages (which we weren't aware that we had.....most had been created and abandoned-ish by other interns years back...). I got lots and lots of positive feedback on my ideas today, which was really exciting. It's kind of terrifying to put your ideas out there in an organization you've only been a part of for a few weeks....


Okay, that takes care of (most) all the worky stuff. Now it's time for the recap of the highlights of my week.....


Groundhog Day!
Why? 2 beautiful reasons.....


1. Both Punxsutawney Phil and Groundhog Gus of Athens did not see their shadows. Bring on the spring!!!


2. I got to celebrate the Chinese New Year with my cousin Jonathan, Miho, and their beautiful baby Emi. We had delicious dumplings, watched the ceremonies on their Chinese TV channel, and had a lovely evening. I also got to talk to Lina, my boss from Number One China back home where I worked for years. :) 


The Chapel Bells at Wake Forest


Last night I was headed over to the WF Wesley Foundation services. If you've read some of my other earlier posts you know that I've been struggling with finding a "church home" up here and wasn't really sure about how I felt about Wesley Foundation. I really do want to build connections and friendships with people by own age, but the services haven't really been that great for me. In fact, last nights service wasn't even the reason I walked away feeling so happy, blessed, and fulfilled. It was the chapel we had the service in.


I left work at around 5, parked on campus across from Wait Chapel, and as I was about to call my mom (I had a little while till the service started),  I heard the bells in the chapel ringing. I rolled down my window, letting the freezing air hit my face, and was greeted by the beautiful, complex music of the bells in the tower. I listened for a little while with that nagging feeling of "I know this song" until I realized that it was "Here Comes The Sun" by the Beatles. This has always been one of my favorite songs and I recently had been listening to it a lot because it reminds me of home, my mama, and just feeling happy and warm and sunny. It was so exciting and heart-warming that I had to call my family and hold the phone up for Mel to listen. And then.......another song came on after I got off the phone with them. The tune? "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" from the Lion King, which of course was a sign that I had to call my best friend Lisa! I hadn't talked to her in a little while since we're both sooooo busy with internships (and she's had 5 o'clock am shifts!), but I held the phone up for her to listen and we had a really great conversation catching up about our visits home in the past weekend, internship adventures, and how life was going. :) (I also have to make note that the Lion King was also one of our bus movies for Redcoats this year and the song reminded me of all my sousa and flagline family, who I miss dearly. One love!) 


I know it sounds a little bit crazy, but hearing these two songs sitting in the parking lot while talking to some of the people that make me feel more like myself after just hearing their voice really made my day/night/rest of the week. I'm still in awe how little things like this can make such a huge impact. This experience reminded my of one of my favorite quotes from John Muir: "when one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world." No matter how overwhelmed we get with how big the world seems, we are each an important strand in the beautiful tapestry of life. 


Valentine's Cards


I <3 <3 <3 them! 'nuff said. :)