Ocracoke Alive is seeking guest teachers and sponsors for its 2016 Arts Partnership with Ocracoke School.
While classroom art instruction was reinstated this school year, the nonprofit group is continuing the guest art instruction program it began last year in the wake of the entire school district having lost art instruction, said David Tweedie, Ocracoke Alive president.
This year, the partnership will again conduct 17 weeks of supplemental arts instruction, from the end of January to May, with the help of local and off-island visiting artists.
The group is seeking 30 artists to share their talents with Ocracoke students.
Instructors from the Ocracoke community will receive a stipend, and teachers from off Ocracoke will receive housing for themselves and up to three guests.
Last year’s classes included such offerings as painting, basket and soap making, photography, baking, paper construction, pottery, jewelry, tie-dye and more.
Tweedie said he would love for one of the sessions this year to be on gardening.
Teachers interested in applying to the program can do so through the Ocracoke Alive website at http://www.ocracokealive.org.
Ocracoke Alive relies upon financial contributions to support the $8,000 estimated cost of the program. Donations of housing for guest artists is also critical to the success of the Arts Partnership. Tax-deductible donations can be mailed to Ocracoke Alive, P.O. Box 604, Ocracoke, NC, 27960, and online credit card donations can be made through the Ocracoke Alive website at http://www.ocracokealive.org/ .
Ocracoke cottage owners can receive a tax letter from Ocracoke Alive for their donation of a week of housing for an instructor between January and May. For more information contact the group through its website, or call Tweedie at 252-921-0260.
In 2016, Ocracoke Alive will take a break from producing the show “A Tale of Blackbeard,” Tweedie said.
“We had a good two-year run,” he said, “but it takes so much volunteer energy and we want to be able to bring it back in 2018 (the 300th anniversary of Blackbeard’s demise).”
This year, the production played in the school gym and partnered with the PTA for concessions, which raised $2,000 for the PTA.
But for those wanting their Blackbeard activity, the group will mount a revue-type show Monday nights in Deepwater Theater.
It will be called “Blackbeard: an (historical/hysterical) Account.”
“It will be a ‘crazy pirate cabaret,’” he said.
In addition to the Ocrafolk Festival June 3 to 5, Ocracoke Alive is looking to create some programming to bring teachers and students to the island for week-long retreats that involve the whole island.
For information about the Arts Partnership Program and all of Ocracoke Alive’s activities, click here.
