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“Raising Renee” on HBO 2

Raising Renee

Painter and Penland instructor Beverly McIver (“Contemporary Portrait Painting,” drawing and painting, summer session 3) and her family are the subjects of a new documentary film, Raising Renee, which premieres Wednesday, February 22nd on HBO 2.

Filmed over 6 years by Oscar nominees Jeanne Jordan and Steven Ascher, Raising Renee tells Beverly’s story as an artist, and the story of her promise to take care of her sister Renee (who is mentally disabled) after their mother’s death — a promise that came due just as Beverly’s career was taking off.

Click here to find out more about Beverly McIver and see images of her work by visiting her website.

Click here for more information about the film Raising Renee.

Click here to read a recent article about Beverly and Renee in The New York Times.

 

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Paper and civilization

Timothy Barrett, photo by Samantha Contis for the New York Times
Photo by Samantha Contis for the New York Times

We highly recommend Mark Levine’s article in the Sunday New York Times Magazine about Timothy Barrett, a specialist in historic sheet paper materials and techniques. Barrett is a research scientist and adjunct professor at the University of Iowa Center for the Book and a Macarthur fellow. He is a dedicated researcher and a consummate craftsman–his papers have been used to repair musical scores of Mozart and as a backdrop on which to display the parchment originals of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

“Sometimes I worry about what a weird thing it is to be preoccupied with paper when there’s so much trouble in the world,” he says, “but then I think of how our whole culture is knitted together by paper, and it makes a kind of sense.”

Read the whole article here, and don’t miss the excellent slide show that goes with it.