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CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
..a serendipitous "adventure"

by Diana Wilkoc Patton

In April 2006 I went to Charlotte, North Carolina-okay, it was because my husband was going to a National Square Dance Callers' Convention, and I was going along for the ride, or in this case, flight. We also went to Myrtle Beach and the Ripley's (of Believe It or Not fame) Aquarium, but that's another story.

What a fantastic surprise Charlotte was! Would you believe that Charlotte has grown into the second largest financial capital in the country? Well, it has. Way back when, a small community of Scots-Irish started Charlotte, as it were, on the crossroads of two Native American trading paths. Charlotte was incorporated in 1768 and named in honor of the wife of King George III, the reigning English monarch. Local citizens also honored Queen Charlotte when they named their new county Mecklenburg after her German homeland. And that is why Charlotte is called the "Queen City".

Charlotte---a city of strange contrasts and infinite variety. I had no preconceptions-and no particular expectations-not a bad way to travel. But Charlotte is a beautiful city. It also happens to be a city with a fantastic Victorian houses section, an active art life, beautiful gardens, and more. And it also happened that I was there when the Dead Sea Scrolls were there.

Oh, yes. The Dead Sea Scrolls don't usually leave Israel. But some of them did, for an extremely limited USA visit and I happened to be in Charlotte when they were. Serendipitous? You bet! I always pick up the freebie brochures in any new-to-me area, and so I read that there was a special Dead Sea Scroll Exhibition at Discovery Place. Okay! Discovery Place is one of the top hands-on science museums in the nation-more than a half million people from all over the USA visit Discovery Place each year. In 2005 Discovery Place was selected by the Israel Antiquities Authority in Jerusalem to develop and present a major exhibition featuring the Dead Sea Scrolls. Later, as I found out with googling, I saw that this was the most successful exhibition the center has had in its 25 years, attracting more than 300,000 visitors. However, I went on a Monday, and unlike all the times I've been to the Metropolitan Museum of Art or MOMA in NYC, there was not a crowd (in my eyes) and it was easy to take it all in.

I never expected to ever see the Dead Sea Scrolls. Do they have to do with art? Well, if you feel as I do, that all cultures have an art, an importance that will enrich you, why, yes, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the story about them can be an art experience. I shall not give you the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls for you probably know something about it. I can only tell you that as a living art/culture experience, this was great. There were perhaps eight rooms leading up to the actual scrolls (only a few of them crossed the seas). These rooms told the story of how they were found, how they were preserved, and how the group of people lived who buried them in the caves. As an artist, I found it particularly interesting to discover that at first the scrolls, which were found in many sections, were actually taped together-and later, in the 1990s, it was discovered that the tape used was destroying them! Years were spent removing the tape and pinning the sections sort of together in (newly discovered) archival ways. By the time you arrived in the room with the actual scrolls, you felt you had traveled through the ages. And then you got to examine them, and found out ....well, you discovered a lot about the Bible you didn't know. And a whole culture of people... and the Dead Sea Scrolls aren't just the Bible, but much of what is written in the Dead Sea Scrolls is sectarian, day-to-day "ordinarieness".

Charlotte skyscrapers and houses

There's a lot to say for Charlotte, N.C.-luckily for you I'm only speaking on the Dead Sea Scroll Exhibition at Discovery Place (which had a lot more exhibits) and----

...the Fourth Ward. For as modern a city as Charlotte is, it is beautiful. Yes, it's a top banking city, and there are skyscrapers and world class restaurants, but you can walk it, walk it, walk it, and within a very few blocks of the skyscrapers is one of the loveliest, most charming sections of Victorian era houses and parks. Walk it I did, and an artist could spend days there, painting it. I was there in that most poignant time, SPRING. Oh, my! Imagine gardens and trees and cupolas and porches. Of course you have that in New Jersey, in spades, lovely Victorian houses in Cape May, and Somerville, and Plainfield, and many places. So I shall only speak of artful birdhouses here. What? Artful birdhouses?
 
 
 

Edwin Towers common garden and birdhouses Charlotte NC

Walking throughout the Fourth Ward and admiring the houses I noticed these really weird ceramic sculptures which seemed to be birdhouses, but they had flowers and animals all over them. They all had discreet labels saying they were created by Joan Bankemper. There were quite a few of these "birdhouses" in the Fourth Ward. I photographed them because they were different, colorful, and quite lovely. Then I came to a modern high rise (sort of, maybe 12 stories high) building. A miniature park and garden section, perhaps an acre, was in front of this. A few people wandered about or sat on benches in front of the building. No one was in the park. I entered. There were quite a few of the Joan Bankemper sculpture "birdhouses" and miniature garden plots of varied sizes and irregular shapes. The gardens were as small as 3' x 4' and as large as 5' x 9', and they might be bound by small rocks or shells or whatever. Most of them had names on rocks. I WAS SO CURIOUS.

Of course I went into the high-rise. Edwin Towers. The manager was out. No receptionist. But an elderly inhabitant-oh, I forgot to say that there were mostly senior citizens around-told me that yes, the garden plots were, as I suspected, owned by the inhabitants of Edwin Towers (senior citizens.)

I was very happy to hear this. My own garden is a total joy for me and I was glad to hear that the residents of Edwin Towers could each have their own mini-garden. And that these fantastical sculptures by Joan Bankemper further enhanced the garden/park.

Joan Bankemper birdhouses up close in Charlotte

What a lovely experience! What a lovely walk! I took so many photos and I felt good. At home much later I had to google Charlotte and the Fourth Ward and I found out that the Dovetail Garden, the name picked to emphasize the tight fit of two parts into a single whole, was created back about 2001, and it has ever since enabled those who live in tandem to come together in a beautiful place of flowers, vegetables, and herbs. Some of the mini-gardens belong to people in nearby homes-and so senior citizens get together with those of different ages. Common ground among beauty for all.

Dovetail Garden is also an example of how both the artists and the community benefit from each other. For it was in January 2001 that Artist in Residence (at the neighboring McColl Center for Visual Art) Joan Bankemper designed the community garden for Edwin Towers, a public housing facility for seniors in the historic Fourth Ward. It has become a very special place for the entire neighborhood to come together. The lovingly planted and cared-for mini gardens and the ceramic sculptures had touched me when I was there and I suspected what it all must mean. Now, having googled Charlotte and the Fourth Ward, I can see why I was so charmed and emotional about it when I was there.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Charlotte, North Carolina. A serendipitous "adventure".

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(02/05/14)