THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 17, 1995 TAG: 9512140179
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Mary Ellen Riddle
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
There's not much happening in Columbia, N.C., population about 802.
At least not by 1990s standards.
There is no movie theater, no concert hall, no stadium.
In Columbia there is swamp and folk and poverty and Feather Phillips.
And now, because of Phillips, there is Pocosin Arts.
Standing solidly on Main and Water streets in downtown Columbia is the tall building that houses the art and environment educational center that opened in October, fulfilling Phillips' 10-year vision.
The red brick structure rises amidst the poor, rural community, and a creative spirit thrives within as solid as the red rock that frames it.
A long staircase climbs the exterior to the loft that houses 3,500 square feet of activity. Inside is a large green blackboard covered with a wish list of items needed for the center. Already several items, including a kiln and potter's wheel that share a corner of the studio, are checked off with ``thank you'' written beside them in chalk.
From the glowing stove across the loft, the door is visible. It opens all day long as artists and town folk, friends and relatives cross the wide room to sit by the fire and chat.
Some bear gifts like a bag of mistletoe sprigs to sell. Hopefully, the holiday plant will help raise funds for the rest of the wish list.
The phone rings, and Phillips consoles a friend whose pet just died. Sure, says Phillips, you can bury the pet on our property. We're never leaving, she assures the caller.
Never leaving. A solid sentiment that echoes Phillips' ideology on art. She believes that art is an inherent part of all human beings and integrally tied to the environment we create in.
At Pocosin Arts, you cannot separate the two.
Phillips makes the connection easy for visitors, with an educational gallery displaying art and its natural sources. Cotton plants stand beside woven cotton cloth. Clay pots represent three kinds of earth found in the ``pocosin'' area.
Pocosin is the Algonquian word for ``swamp on hill.'' Tyrrell County and five neighboring counties have the largest concentration of pocosins on the whole East Coast, Phillips says.
At Pocosin Arts, a gallery flyer says, Phillips works to ``expand understanding of the relationship between people and place, culture and environment through the production of the traditional arts of the people who have lived or who now live in the pocosin environment of Eastern North Carolina.''
Phillips came to this environment to be close to the Alligator River. Her husband, Willy, is a crabber who selected the rural area as one that would be productive to his trade, and possibly some day to their son Jake's.
Originally from Pennsylvania and formerly in public television, Phillips dreamed for 10 years of opening such a center.
In the meantime, she taught in the community's school and nursed her dream.
``I could talk to you about art for the rest of my life,'' she said. ``It's my passion.''
Grants from the Z. Smith Reynolds and the Bryan Family foundations allowed her to open the art center this October.
On hand for the gala occasion were Gov. Jim Hunt and state Sen. Marc Basnight.
At Pocosin Arts, Phillips offers a combination of field, studio and gallery experiences that include Native American pottery of Lake Phelps, the Somerset basket, carved walking sticks and make your own totem.
Visitors can view the work of African American folk artist William Baxton, who expresses himself by carving wood figures and hand-carved walking sticks. Quilts are on display along with paintings, a huge welded metal chair, masks, clothing, nature greeting cards and pottery.
Those signed up for a pottery seminar will have the chance to identify the clay, dig it up out of the ground and work it by hand or wheel.
Phillips has already tasted success in a program where artists and scientists collaborated on such a project.
``It's always been my dream to lock scientists and artists in the same room and not let them out until they understood each other,'' she says.
New definitions of art and creativity are formed, barriers vanish, and bonds are forged with her interdisciplinary methods.
To bring such programs together, Pocosin Arts collaborates with schools and universities, environmental organizations, historic sites, artists and regional wildlife refuges.
The center also will offer special workshops for teachers in conjunction with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. These workshops focus on tying together culture and environment through art.
At Pocosin Arts, you can celebrate life in its entirety, life and art that springs from field and river, from home and heart and from the indomitable spirit of founder and executive director Feather Phillips. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by MARY ELLEN RIDDLE
Feather Phillips fulfilled a dream with the opening of Pocosin Arts,
an art and environment educational center.
by CNB