Arts Scene: Summer ‘FUN-Raiser’ for the Flowertown Players will take attendees to Oz

Last year, vintage circuses were in vogue. This year, it’s apparently “The Wizard of Oz.”

The Flowertown Players are hosting their annual “Summer FUN-raiser” gala, An Evening in Oz, 7-11 p.m. Saturday, and guests are invited to follow the yellow brick road to the Emerald City. The gala will be held at Pinewood Preparatory School, 1114 Old Orangeburg Road in Summerville.

In October, the American College of the Building Arts will host its own annual fundraiser with a similar theme.

Monica Shows, president of the Flowertown Players, describes the gala as semiformal but not at all stuffy. Guests are encouraged but not required to dress in their best emerald and white, or dress as their favorite character and enter the costume contest.

“The event will feature characters and music from ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ the talents of Preston Smith and Joel Spears, party games, dancing and a silent auction,” Shows said. There will be a full dinner prepared by McNeil’s, and an auction with “Oz-mania”-themed items including hotel stays, golf packages, jewelry, original art, limo services and more.

There will be a limited number of tickets available. Tickets are $50, $85 for a couple, and are available for purchase at the Flowertown Players box office, 133 S. Main St., in Summerville or by phone at 875-9251.

“We need your support,” Shows said, “so mark this date, plan on dressing up and get your tickets before a twister sweeps them all away. See you in the Em-erald City for An Evening in Oz!”

New at the Gibbes

In 2011, the Gibbes Museum of Art exhibited a solo collection of works by famous environmental photographer J. Henry Fair. And his work is back in the Gibbes again — for good.

Fair recently gifted the museum one of his photographs called “Bacon, Warsaw, N.C.” This piece is part of the museum’s permanent collection and is on display in The Charleston Story exhibition.

“We are so pleased to have one of Fair’s large-scale aerial photographs in our collection. The 2011 exhibition “J. Henry Fair: Industrial Scars” evoked much conversation about his abstract images that are both aesthetically pleasing and unsettling in their depictions of the changing Southern landscape,” noted Gibbes Executive Director Angela Mack.

A Charleston native, Fair moved to New York in 1980 to pursue his photography career and has blossomed considerably since then.

“For decades, he enjoyed success making portraits of many of the world’s notable singers, musicians and performers. His clientele has ranged from Yo-Yo Ma to Emmylou Harris. However, his passion for the environment became a driving force in his career, and in 2000 he launched the ‘Industrial Scars’ project. Drawn to sites where the land has been drastically changed by the mining or manufacturing of coal, petroleum, fertilizer or paper pulp, Fair documents the effects of industrial processes on our landscapes,” explains Marla Loftus, communications director of the Gibbes.

The Gibbes is at 135 Meeting St. Call 722-2706 or go to www.gibbesmuseum.org.

Closing reception

Arthur Newman’s favorite parts of a painting are the complexities of human emotion and color. In his solo exhibition showing at the Real Estate Studio on King Street, Newman has an eclectic mixture of acrylics and watercolors.

“I like the idea of painting form; however, negative space is more important than the form itself to me. This abstract quality leads to mysticism,” Newman said.

Arts aficionado Colleen Deihl said of Newman’s work, “The images are refracted by deflecting light, simulating glass that diffuses the figures, making them difficult to see clearly. This creates a mystery, telling a story to convey the mood.”

And another, perhaps even more accurate description of his work is this quote from Douglas Ferrari, executive director of the Shore Institute of the Contemporary Arts: “Newman often varies the application of his pigment utilizing the degrees of luminosity achieved between soft washes and glazes. Recent years have witnessed a shift in Newman’s work towards the abstraction of the figurative base, often to the point of the figure being lost to the pure interplay of forms and shades.”

There will be a closing reception with the artist present 5-7 tonight at the Real Estate Studio, 214 King St. The exhibit will be on view through Tuesday. Call 722-5618 or email colleendeihl@gmail.com or tmagnus@dunesproperties.com.