Stories From a Big Chair: “Emerging”

Stories From a Big Chair: “Emerging” Thursday, Dec 16, 6:00-8:00pm This fall at Aiken Center for the Arts, we will be telling stories from a big chair…and you are invited. Join us as we share perspectives, build points of connection, and unearth the wisdom and inspiration amongst us. Each evening, storytelling will be accompanied by wine paired with the theme of the evening as host Gary Finnan guides us through an evening of storytelling. Wine courtesy of Solovino. “Emerging” This night focuses on forging and the craft of building our lives from the heat of change. In sync, metalwork from the Athens Metal Arts Guild as well as the Metal Arts Guild of Georgia will be on exhibition in the main gallery, stimulating our creative engagement with what it truly means to forge from flame. Hosted by Gary Finnan. Storytellers for the evening include: Mary Sopko and Tom Keran, artists of the Athens Metal Arts Guild. Tom and Mary met in 1976 near Washington D.C. in the living room of a great friend, Registered Clown and notable physician. Outside, a private art exhibition was taking place which included some of Tom’s photographic prints of his extended family. The prints caught Mary’s eye and for the next 40 years they worked together throughout their professional careers and as artists in printmaking, bookbinding and leather, metal fabrication, stone cutting, beading, and music; Karen Brown retired Dance Theatre of Harlem ballerina and Augusta native. Currently an Assistant Professor of Ballet at the University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory, Karen Brown also has experience as a professional ballerina with the Dance Theatre of Harlem and a teaching and directing career that spans the globe; Gary Finnan, award-winning inspirational author, designer, entrepreneur, and creative expression mentor; Mystery Speaker, TBA