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Chapel Hill's Newest Work Of Art
by Charly Mann
Chapel Hill became a town because General William Davie considered the place he found to build the university and its accompanying community the most beautiful spot he had ever encountered. Since that time generations of architects, artists, and landscapers have added to this magnificence. William Meade Prince, Chapel Hill's most beloved and inspiring artist, called the town the Southern Part of Heaven, and helped create a theme of life affirmation and joy that has endured for more than sixty years.
William Meade Prince painting in Chapel Hill
Carl Boettcher carving the Circus Parade in 1948 from William Meade Prince illustration
In 1948 Prince decided to create a permanent piece of art for Chapel Hill that would capture forever the magic and spectacle of the circus. After sketching out the idea in a pen and ink drawing, his friend and fellow Chapel Hillian, master wood carver Carl Boettcher took his design and carved The Circus Parade and the accompanying circus animals. If you have not seen it, you owe it to yourself to go the UNC Alumni Center on Stadium Drive next to Kenan Stadium to view this work of art in person.
Part of the PARADE mural by Michael Brown on the wall of the Carolina Coffee Shop in Porthole Alley
This is a typical William Meade Prince painting. Like his friend Norman Rockwell, he did many magazine covers in the 1930s and 1940s.
Michael Brown, a UNC art school graduate, has continued the tradition of these two men in recent decades by painting whimsical murals on the sides of buildings throughout both Chapel Hill and Carrboro. His best mural is on Porthole Alley and is called Parade. It was directly inspired by the piece of art that Prince and Boettcher created.
This is Circus Parade Animals Under the Big Top by Kathryn Mann from 2009.
This week my favorite artist, who coincidently happens to be my daughter, has completed the next chapter in the saga of the Circus Parade. After hearing from me for years about how much I loved this work, she has created a new piece of art which takes the original designs of Prince's animals and has placed them into a circus tent with yours truly as the ringmaster. Since Prince did not color his original sketch she has finished that job for him as well.
Comments:
Cherry Morton
11:30 AM Wed 11/25/2009
I love your daughter's painting. How large is it, and where is it displayed?
Check out our other website:
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Investment strategies and advice about Apple Inc. and related technology companies by Charly Mann. www.appleinvesting.com
Chapel Hill is located on a hill whose only distinguishing feature in the 18th century was a small chapel on top called New Hope Chapel. This church was built in 1752 and is currently the location of The Carolina Inn. The town was founded in 1819, and chartered in 1851.
What is it that binds us to this place as to no other? It is not the well or the bell or the stone walls. or the crisp October nights. No, our love for this place is based upon the fact that it is as it was meant to be, The University of the People.
-- Charles Kuralt
Dark Side of the Hill -- Pink Floyd, the creators of the most popular album in history, Dark Side of the Moon, took the second half of their name from Floyd Council, a Chapel Hill native, and great blues singer and guitarist. He once belonged to a group called "The Chapel Hillbillies".
Check out Charly Mann's other website:
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
Oklahoma Birds and Butterflies
http://oklahomabirdsandbutterflies.com
There would probably be no Chapel Hill if the University of North Carolina Board of Trustees in 1793 had not chosen land across from New Hope Chapel for the location of the university. By 1800 there were about 100 people living in thirty houses surrounding the campus.
The University North Carolina's first student was Hinton James, who enrolled in February, 1795. There is now a dormitory on the campus named in his honor.
The University of North Carolina was closed from 1870 to 1875 because of lack of state funding.
William Ackland left his art collection and $1.25 million to Duke University in 1940 on the condition that he would be buried in the art museum that the University was to build with his bequest. Duke rejected this condition even though members of the Duke Family are buried in Duke Chapel. What followed was a long and acrimonious legal battle between Ackland relatives who now wanted the inheritance, Rollins College, and the University of North Carolina, each attempting to receive the funds. The case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court, and in 1949 UNC was awarded the money for the museum. Ackland is buried near the museum's entrance. When the museum first opened, in the early sixties, there were rumors that his remains were leaking out of the mausoleum.
The official name of the Arboretum on the University of North Carolina campus is the Coker Arboretum. It is named after Dr. William Cocker, the University's first botany professor. It occupies a little more than five acres. It was founded in 1903.
Chapel Hill's main street has always been called Franklin Street. It was named after Benjamin Franklin in the early 1790s.
Chapel Hill High School and Chapel Hill Junior High were on Franklin Street in the same location as University Square until the mid 1960s.
The Colonial Drug Store at 450 West Franklin Street was owned and operated by John Carswell. It was famous for a fresh-squeezed carbonated orange beverage called a "Big O". In the early 1970s, I managed the Record and Tape Center next door, and must have had over 100 of those drinks. The Colonial Drug Store closed in 1996.
Sutton's Drugstore, which opened in 1923, has one of the last soda fountains in the South. It is one of the few businesses remaining on Franklin Street that was in operation when I was growing up in the 1950s.
Future President Gerald Ford lived in Chapel Hill twice. First when he was 24, in 1938, he took a law couse in summer school at UNC. He lived in the Carr Building, which was a law school dormitory. At the same time, Richard Nixon, the man he served under as Vice President, was attending law school at Duke. In 1942, Ford returned to Chapel Hill to attend the U.S. Navy's Pre-Flight School training program. He lived in a rental house on Hidden Hills Drive.
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It is fairly large, 42 inches by 24. She just hung it in her dining room.