Kinston's Art Scene

Clip: Season 20 Episode 29 | 5m 16sVideo has Closed Captions

Come along for a tour of Kinston’s public art offerings.

The town of Kinston is full of public art, an arts incubator, and a gallery filled with diverse works of art.

Aired 07/27/2023 | Rating NR

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[upbeat music] - Welcome to Kinston, a former tobacco town currently experiencing a creative renaissance.

It's a colorful city, ripe with talent and filled with many artists.

In fact, this little city of Kinston has the largest public art trail in North Carolina.

Join me on a little art tour of my home.

- This is the smART Gallery, which is the hub for the smART Artists who are a part of the smART Kinston City Project.

- smART Kinston is also a creative haven in the Arts & Cultural District of Kinston.

The program recruits artists from all over the nation.

[upbeat music] - Just to have a community that wants artists to come and live, work, to do what they love, as an artist, you can't ask for anything better.

- We are helping to revitalize the arts by painting on fences, streets.

We really look forward to having people come in so we can show them around.

[spray can hissing] [birds singing] - [Seraphim] My friend, Jamil, is a smART Artist, and he is helping to beautify the Kinston Music Park.

- I got started back in Newark, New Jersey, when I was a kid, my grandmother, she would draw animals and farm animals and dogs and cats, and she would have me to copy them.

And then she would critique 'em, and then I had to go back and copy 'em again until I got a little better.

So early on, I got the repetition process down.

[upbeat music] [spray can rattling] - [Seraphim] Our murals speak to who we are, such as our farm-to-table notoriety, a monarch butterfly for the King city.

Our NBA players are known all over the world.

And funk music, yes, funk, was born right here in Kinston.

- This is one of the great murals that we have here in Kinston.

So Kinston is a leader in civil rights, not just for our state and our region, but also for our nation.

And there's so much history to learn from these murals and the fact that coming to Kinston for cultural tourism is the right thing to do.

[upbeat music] ♪ - In downtown, on Blount Street, you'll find many of our creative agencies.

At the Kinston Community Center for the Arts, one can peruse their galleries, but they also have many classes, especially for children.

- I need red.

I want red.

- We offer children's art classes that range from pottery, mixed media, painting, cooking.

- Marshmallow cream.

- [Abbye] It's all in this community and we're so happy to do it.

[bright music] - [Seraphim] If you walk just over the railroad tracks, you'll find yourself at the Lenoir Council for the Aging, and I was told I needed to check out their art classes.

[artist faintly speaking] - What we feel like has happened here at the Council on Aging is the pottery class especially that's going on, there's so many that never have touched clay in their lives, and then they are now creating.

And to see them come alive, it's really amazing.

What we've noticed is the laughter in that pottery room.

[artists laughing] You'll hear 'em talking and giggling and laughing, but they're creating at the same time.

And it's just wonderful to see that life doesn't stop just because you get gray hair or get to 70, it should be beginning again.

- It's a blast being old, it's fun.

[laughing] - [Seraphim] Down the street, you'll find Art 105, which is a gallery and a place where artists are actually creating.

- Okay, here's what I'm doing.

I'm putting the second coat of lead.

And you do it on both sides, one side is to look as good as the other.

- [Seraphim] And here's some of my handiwork.

Master potter, Gail Kelly, recently came to us from Washington State.

We're so glad she chose to make Kinston her home.