Greensboro Daily Photo

Cultural Arts Center

Last night, the Greensboro Cultural  Center on Davie Street downtown was a hotbed of activity on First Friday. Galleries and hallways were filled with performing and visual arts. The above photo features the Greensboro Grow Residency Room in the center. Currently in residence is musician Jackie Spade and the room was hopping. Greensboro Grow residencies are available from one to four weeks and, once accepted, use of the space if free to the performing or visual artist. It can be considered an incubator space, or a place to interact and get feedback and publicity for one's craft. 

We serendipitously stumbled on Jackie Spade's performance last night. Sometimes, we research First Friday events and other times, we like just to see what we can see and learn as we go. Thanks to YES! Weekly, we learned that Jackies's Greensboro Grow residency was centered around his new album "Ugly Rose" and the immersive experience is entitled, "Ugly Rose: An Immersive Experience."  The themes of the experience, through the music, were beauty, pain, and personal growth.  If you want to see it for yourself, Jackie's residency continues for two more days. (Read YES! Weekly article here). We are so appreciative of local journalism and want to hold on to every opportunity to learn about local events. So thank you, Yes! Weekly. And, thank you to the City of Greensboro for making Grow Greensboro and Creative Greensboro possible. When these artistic initiatives are brought to the community, people come together and learn about each other and have fun. February's First Friday was so much fun and did not cost a dime!  We wonder what March 7th will bring.

Happy Saturday!

Great Instruction Happening at the Weatherspoon Art Museum

We love to go to the Weatherspoon Art Museum on UNCGs campus. It is free, open to the public, and has free parking behind the building for museum visitors. We went earlier this week and noticed several students in the galleries drawing on sketch pads. As they finished up and the museum was closing, they met outside with their instructor. They were debriefing on the experience and he was asking questions getting them to reflect on their experience. The instructor noticed that some of the student-artists were listening to music while drawing and he wanted to know how that impacted their experience.

When students are all-in, or locked-in as kids say today, learning can be magical. Society is very focused on school to work and the STEM courses and careers. However, we have even seen medical students in art museums completing assignments. One assignment was to try to determine if a person in a painting was likely suffering from any illnesses based on their position and appearance. If you haven't been to an art gallery lately, most of our local college campuses have artwork available for the public to see. Also, we have many fine art galleries in Greensboro that are an opportunity to view art. Today is First Friday, so head downtown and try to find some art that touches your heart. Next week is Valentines Day. You just might find something for a special someone. (The Weatherspoon closes at 5:00 pm on Fridays).

Happy First Friday!

Resco Products Refractory Manufacture

Today's photo is part of the Resco Products manufacturing plant in Greensboro. Their address is 3514 West Wendover Avenue, but we took the photo from Spring Garden Street near Pomona Drive. They make "cashable" products; materials that can be mixed with liquid and poured into a mold or to a surface to make a desired shape. Castable refractory mixtures are heat resistant. Examples of castables include the cement used in high-temperature furnaces and kilns. They also make specialty bricks and ceramic anchors. If you look on the property around the building, the white chunks of what appear to be cinder blocks, anchors, or tiles are as powdery white as the above stacks. Perhaps they are cast offs of the castings.

The company was founded on July 26, 1946 in Philadelphia, Pa and is now headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA. We're not sure when the Greensboro branch opened, but at sunrise and sunset, these stacks look other-worldly. We've never noticed anyone working around on the back end of the facility. Perhaps this weekend, we'll try to find the entrance to the building. It seems like one of those places that you don't know about, unless you need to know about it. To be sure, the facility would make a good movie-set location. We would like to thank our friend Alex Seymour for getting us the name of the facility. All it takes is  a little sleuthing and some really smart friends.

Happy Thursday!

The Corner of Golden Gate & State Street at Twilight

State Street seems to be experiencing a rebirth before our eyes. It is the one street in Greensboro that has the feel of a small, beachside town. It is quaint, full of local businesses, and unique shops. The above photo is of the building that used to house a business very dear to our heart. The Saltbox. an original folk art and handmade lighting store, owned by Nancy Moore, opened in the above building in 1974 and closed 37 years later in 2011. Currently, the building has been rebranded as "The District" with six, cute  businesses inside, selling an array of items for the home, clothing, and accessories. We are struck at how beautiful the building looks at night. The landscaping is looking good, too.

We felt very comfortable walking around this past Friday night when several businesses, including The District, were open. The State Street Wine Company had a nice crowd and featured live music.  Cafe Pasta had some great specials. While the salon and personal service businesses attract people who have appointments to State Street, it is the retails shops that are encouraging them to stroll and linger a little longer. It will be fun to monitor the progression of State Street- on foot.

Happy Wednesday!

Construction on Highwoods Boulevard

They have made considerable progress on building townhomes on Highwoods Boulevard, between Hobbs Road and Jefferson Village.  One hundred thirty three and four bedroom townhomes are being installed. These homes will be convenient to Jefferson Elementary, Kernodle Middle, Kathleen Clay Edwards Branch Library and all of the shopping in the area. Here is the change from August. At this rate, they will be completed within six months. We wish we had a photo of the land when it belonged to Jefferson-Pilot; however, it changed hands in 1997, twelve years before we started Greensboro Daily Photo. For sure, this process will be archived in our "then and now" category. This particular property is a little over 16 acres. The community will be called Harmon Jefferson Village. We're wondering what the street names will be. Perhaps it is not too late to make suggestions. Stay tuned for the next installment. We would love to know if anyone found and Revolutionary War artifacts on this previously unimproved land. It is in the vicinity.

Happy Tuesday!

Stars and Planets in the Night Sky

This is a fabulous week for viewing planets in the night sky in NC. Saturday night, several planets were visible in the night sky, the air was calm and crisp. Cell phone photography is not the best for night photography; however, we felt the above photo provides an idea of what the sky looked like on Saturday night in the Piedmont region of North Carolina after that cleansing rain we had on Friday. We weren't as interested in seeing planets as we were marveling how well we could see the start. 

Here is a LINK to a website that tracks planets visible in the night sky in Greensboro and the times they will rise and the extent to which they will be visible. This last night,  here was the reading: Mercury, very difficult to see; Venus, great visibility, Mars, perfect visibility; Jupiter, perfect visibility; Saturn, average visibility; Uranus, average visibility; Neptune, very difficult to see. If you want to visit a planetarium,  UNCG, the Greensboro Science Center, Guilford College, GTTC Jamestown, and High Point University all have planetariums and most publish times when they are open to the public. If you keep your eye out, sometimes there are pop up events around town, too. We owe it to those ancient mariners to be able to look up in the sky and to at least identify some of the major constellations. 

Happy Monday and happy stargazing.

New Zion Missionary Baptist Church

The New Zion Missionary Baptist Church is a very large part of the footprint between Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive and East Gate City Boulevard (formerly Lee Street). The above photo features the Greensboro Fire Department Hose Company No 4, Southside, which the church now owns and uses for community outreach activities. The building appears to have been nicely restored and the sanctuary is located to the right of the above building. 

William F. Wright, Jr. is pastor and services are held Sunday mornings and evenings, and there is Wednesday Bible Study. The origins of the church date back to 1897 in the nearby Warnersville community. The church is known for working hard to meet the needs of the congregation and the needs of the surrounding community.  It is hard to believe that the multi-million dollar sanctuary (to the right), built in 2016 is already almost ten years old. In checking our archives, we see we featured it under construction in 2016. (see HERE).  It is fun to look back and see these changes to Greensboro over the years.

Happy Sunday!

February 1, Greensboro Sit Ins

February 1st is a big day in Greensboro, NC, and in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. It is the day that four students from NC A&T University walked from the university to the Woolworth store on South Elm Street in downtown Greensboro. * Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil,  Ezell Blair, Jr., and David Richmond were four college freshman when they last down at the "whites only" lunch counter at the 5 & dime and declared they would not leave until they were served a cup of coffee.

Now, we know, that day represented more than just a cup of coffee. The above photo features the A&T Four statue on campus on the day celebrating the event. The sculpture is the artwork of Greensboro artist and sculptor James Barnhill.  Head over and see it today. If you are at the Greensboro Curb Market on Yanceyville, you are just a block away!

Happy Saturday!

 

* See information HERE.