What We Accomplished

2024

2023

  • “The Lilies of the Field Screening” at Palmetto Theatre

  • Painting a Community Garden Events

  • Juneteenth Celebration

  • EPA Hearing, Chicago

  • Loss of David Hairston

  • “Love Your Mother” Book Release at Scuppernong Books, Greensboro, NC

  • No Nuclear at Belews Creek Petition and Campaign Begins

  • “Sacrifice Zone” at Palmetto Theatre

2022

2021

  • James Brown Basketball Mural at London Park

  • Labyrinth at Cove Square Blessing

  • Community Gardens Day Project

  • Labyrinth Installation at Cove Square

  • Juneteenth Celebration

  • 100th Anniversary of Walnut Cove Colored School

  • Presentation to Mendenhall Middle School2020

  • Walnut Cove Town Council Swearing In, January 2020

  • Shine The Light: Celebrating the Life of Danielle Bailey-Lash, January 10, 2020

  • News Story about the Basketball Court

  • DEQ Hearing at Walnut Cove Elementary School, February 2020

  • Film Release: “What Remains”

  • Peace Poles Workshop, ArtsPlace, Danbury, NC, Saturday, February 29th, 2020

  • Will’s Exhibit and Trip to Duke

  • Legacy March

  • Presentation to California Group

  • Artivate Presentation with Dr. Marie Garlock, NC School of Arts Program

2019

  • Residents for Coal Ash Cleanup Meeting, Sunday, January 6, 2019, Walnut Cove Public Library

  • New Year Vision Boards, Build Community Build Workshops, Monday, January 7, 2019, Walnut Cove Public Library

  • DEQ Hearing about Belews Creek Closure Plans, Thursday, January 10th, 2019, Walnut Cove Elementary School

  • Mural at Sid Lee Mental Health Association

  • Climate Reality Training, Atlanta, GA, March 2020

  • Excavation Celebration, Southeastern Stokes Middle School, Sunday, April 7th, 2020

  • Build Community Build Workshops as Walnut Cove Planning

  • Ordering of Coal Ash Encapsulated Hexagonal Shaped Posts

  • Gymnastics Show Event, Southeastern Stokes Middle School, Saturday, December 27th, 2020

  • Film Relase of Gymnastics Show Documentary

2018

Original information and goals
(January 2018)

An Overview of The Lilies Project

 

Site

Location: Walking Tour
Walnut Cove, NC
 

Programming period

January 1, 2018 - June 30, 2020

Installation Deadline

June 30th, 2020

Grant Advisory Team

Caroline Armijo
Amy Adams
David Hairston
Eddy McGee
Wade Brown

Through a generous grant with the National Creative Placemaking Fund by ArtPlace America, we hope to create a celebrated community space of renewal and offer a range of programming centered around the past, present and future. Using the polymer encapsulation technology developed at NC A&T State University, we will demonstrate the wide range of uses for local coal ash as a means of cleaning up this pollutant. Here the community can participate in performances, play and rest. They can share stories, create art and envision a new future that includes energy innovation. 

Read More about ArtPlace America's National Creative Placemaking Fund.

What is the NCPF Grant about?

Walnut Cove, NC is adjacent to Duke Energy’s Belews Creek Power Station, which houses 20 million tons of coal ash. Local mixed-media artist Caroline Armijo will partner with scientists from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University to create a series of sculptures that repurpose this hazardous waste material safely and that will become the centerpiece of a new public park. This project will also serve as a local pilot for environmental policy that will determine how coal ash is managed in the region. 

The Original Grant Proposal

What we intend to accomplish:

1.

Demonstrate A&T's polymer encapsulation process as a viable way to reuse coal ash in addition to the concrete industry. 

2.

Create art to be displayed in a public park in Walnut Cove and invite community members of Southeastern Stokes County to collaborate in the artistic process and participate in accompanying programming. 

3.

Recognize Jester Hairston, who was born in the Belews Creek community, as the most accomplished, world-renowned artist and composer. He was also a civil rights leader by inviting all Hairston's - both black and white - to dine with him at what was dubbed Jester's Table. The Lilies of the Field reference stems from the movie starring Sidney Poitier, in which Jester Hairston composed and sang the song, "Amen."

What is ArtPlace America? 

ArtPlace America (ArtPlace) is a ten-year collaboration among 16 partner foundations, along with 8 federal agencies and 6 financial institutions, that works to position arts and culture as a core sector of comprehensive community planning and development in order to help strengthen the social, physical, and economic fabric of communities. 

ArtPlace focuses its work on creative placemaking, projects in which art plays an intentional and integrated role in place-based community planning and development. This brings artists, arts organizations, and artistic activity into the suite of placemaking strategies pioneered by Jane Jacobs and her colleagues, who believed that community development must be locally informed, human-centric, and holistic.

What is Creative Placemaking? 

Creative Placemaking is an evolving field of practice that intentionally leverages the power of the arts, culture and creativity to serve a community’s interest while driving a broader agenda for change, growth and transformation in a way that also builds character and quality of place. Read more about Creative Placemaking.