Spring 2025
Join the Arts Council for another arts lecture series that will dive into art and the lives of the best artists in history, in addition to other artistically interesting topics.
DRAWN TO NATURE: Beatrix Potter as Gardener, Artist, Author, & Naturalist
DATE CHOICES: April 9, 2025 (5:30p) OR April 10, 2025 (10a)
Familiar to most of us as the author of the beloved The Tales of Peter Rabbit, Beatrix Potter was also an avid gardener, mycologist, and naturalist. As a small child in Victorian London, her first gardening tools were a pencil and paintbrush creating sketches of the flowers she saw in the public gardens. It was on family holidays to England’s lakes district that her passion for nature and gardening blossomed. A careful observer, Beatrix started keeping sketchbook journals as a child recording what she noticed in the gardens; the plants, insects, and animals that inhabited both her actual and fantasy life. As a teenager, she was introduced to the concept of land preservation, which remained a driving force throughout her life. Join us as we explore the life of this remarkable woman from the cautionary tales of the Flopsy Bunnies, her studies of English wildflowers, botanical illustrations of fungi, and the preservation of her beloved Hill Top Farm, as much her legacy as her literary works.
LECTURER: Ellen Burke is an arts educator with 37 years of experience as a studio art instructor and fine and performing arts administrator. In addition to teaching in Massachusetts, she was an adjunct instructor in art education at the New Hampshire Art Institute. Since moving to Pinehurst, she has presented art lectures at local galleries and teaches small group art lessons to children and adults.
ROSE VALLAND: France’s Answer to The Monuments Men
DATE CHOICES: April 24, 2025 (5:30p) OR April 25, 2025 (10a)
The publication of The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History brought attention to the efforts of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section Unit to locate and protect the art, archives, and books stolen by the Nazis during WWII. This book has spawned other books, a film, and a foundation dedicated to locating still missing art. Long before the unit’s creation in 1943, there was a French woman at Jeu de Paume quietly, and at the risk of her own life, assembling information as to the artworks the Nazis were stealing and where it was being sent. Her records were invaluable in locating those works at the conclusion of the war. This talk will discuss the efforts of Rose Valland during and after the war to return stolen art.
LECTURER: Abbe Allen is a professor of history, political science, and art history at Sandhills Community College. Prior to moving to Whispering Pines, she was an adjunct instructor in the humanities at Columbus State Community College and a docent at the Columbus Museum of Art. Abbe earned her Bachelor of Arts from Miami University. She earned two Master of Arts degrees from The Ohio State University and one Master of Arts from Ohio University.
COST PER LECTURE: $26 for Arts Council Members | $32 for Nonmembers
Space is limited. All lectures will be presented in Arts Council Galleries
at Campbell House (482 East Connecticut Ave., Southern Pines)
Reserve your space now with full payment at the Arts Council or call 910-692-2787