CAM Community Day: Echoes of Us
Public Exhibition Opening: Echoes of Us: North Carolina Storykeepers
Saturday, October 24 | 10 am-5 pm
Reception Hall, Galleries and Grounds
Free Admission and Activities
Spend the day discovering our newest exhibition, Echoes of Us, and the storykeepers uplifting the voices of communities across our state. Enjoy a full day of free admission for you and your family, with art activities, demonstrations, storytelling, music, and exhibition tours. This CAM Community Day celebrates the opening of Echoes of Us: North Carolina Storykeepers.
10 am-12 pm (Reception Hall & Sculpture Garden): Kids@CAM. Celebrate Cherokee traditions, stories, and art with Kids@CAM. This family-friendly program explores how stories can be shared through symbols, patterns, color, and objects, with Cherokee storytelling by Nancy Pheasant at 11 AM.
10:30 am (Boundless sculpture): The celebrations open at Boundless with a grounding ceremony by gospel artist Mary D. Williams.
11 am and 2 pm (Sculpture Garden): Learn more about Cherokee life and culture through engaging storytelling with Cherokee artist Nancy Pheasant. An ASL interpreter will be present for the 11 am storytelling.
11 am-1 pm (Pancoe – Museum School): Enjoy a live stone-carving demonstration by Paris Alexander, exploring themes of nature, human emotion, and the passage of time.
12 pm (Hughes Wing): Join guest curator Brenda Miller Holmes for a guided tour of the exhibition.
Stop by CAM Café and enjoy brunch from 11 am-2 pm. A selection of warm and savory Southern favorites will be available for purchase.
Echoes of Us: North Carolina Storykeepers is presented to the community by the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation’s Inclusive Public Art Initiative.
Additional support provided by Alan and Mebane Boyd, Dr. Michael A. Freeze II, and Mx. L.S. “Bo” Dean, Jr.
About the artists:
Mary D. Williams is an accomplished gospel singer, performer, educator, historian, and scholar whose work explores the music, history, and cultural traditions of the Black South. She has performed at many colleges, universities, schools, churches, libraries, and cultural institutions, including the United States Congress and the North Carolina State Capitol, as well as venues throughout the United States and abroad. Mary has appeared in film, television, and theater, including Blood Done Sign My Name, The Wronged Man, and The Fire of Freedom: Abraham Galloway. Through performance, teaching, and storytelling, Mary brings generations of voices and traditions to life for her audiences. She has received numerous honors and awards and is currently writing her first book about gospel legend Mahalia Jackson.
Nancy Pheasant is an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians and a multimedia Indigenous artist who resides in the Wolftown community of the Qualla boundary in Cherokee, NC. Specializing in shell carving, Nancy creates intricate, museum-quality gorgets and jewelry while preserving the traditional art form. She has also received recognition and blue ribbons for first place and best of show in the Cherokee fall festival art competition in 2013 and 2019. While passionate about sharing her culture through presentations, demonstrations, and traditional storytelling, Nancy also creates beadwork, gemstone jewelry, and traditional Indigenous clothing and textiles. After retiring from a career as a North Carolina EMS paramedic, Nancy now focuses on preserving traditional shell carving and sharing Cherokee culture through art, demonstrations, presentations, and storytelling.
Paris Alexander’s work uniquely blends realism and abstraction, exploring themes of nature, human emotion, and the passage of time. While working with materials such as clay and stone, Paris creates pieces that engage with their surroundings. The human form has remained a central part of his work throughout his career, allowing him to explore movement, expression, and the human experience. With more than 35 years as a professional artist, Paris has exhibited his work nationally and internationally, completing numerous private commissions and public art projects. His practice continues to evolve through experimentation with new materials, techniques, and approaches to form.
About the guest curator:
Brenda Miller Holmes is a Durham-based public art consultant, curator and creator with a participatory creative focus. Trained in an artistic approach that mirrors the principles of popular education, her practice is rooted in community engagement and place-based storytelling. She is dedicated to public art as a catalyst for civic dialogue, collective healing and social change. Leveraging more than twenty years of experience as a public artist, administrator and educator, her consulting work centers on equity-based initiatives, guiding public art strategy, and building capacity for emerging artists to shape the spaces we share.
About the exhibition:
Echoes of Us: North Carolina Storykeepers is a celebration of NC-based artists who work in service to the collective by lifting up the voices of NC communities through public art. From the Qualla Boundary to the Outer Banks, this exhibition traces a throughline between individual artist practices and the role of artists as community storykeepers. Learn more about the exhibition.
Presented to the community by Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation’s Inclusive Public Art Initiative
