The Harvey B. Gantt Center launched a free lecture series, Conversations @ Gantt, with a two-hour discussion led by fine art consultant, B. E. Noel on November 18, 2010. Noel – as she is known throughout the arts community – ran her namesake gallery in Charlotte for nearly 20 years before moving to New York City. The conversation was organized to augment one of three exhibitions currently showing at the Center.

On loan from eleven private collections, Charlotte Collects African-American Art, is a sampling of the quality and range of art by African American artists found in private homes in the city. Congressman and Mrs. Melvin Watt; Suzanne Fetscher—who leads the McColl Center for Visual Art and husband Elmar; and local dentist Raleigh Bynum and his wife, Thelmetia, are among the collectors represented. The exhibition includes works from Harlem Renaissance-era painters such as Jacob Lawrence to adventurous 21st-century artists like Willie Little, Radcliffe Bailey and Danny Simmons.

Those who frequented Noel’s Charlotte gallery remembered it as a welcoming haven filled with captivating images and objects. It served as an art library and, for some, a master class in American artists of African and Latin descent. In Charlotte, speaking before former clients, art enthusiasts, the inquisitive, and first-time Gantt Center visitors, Noel shared her thoughts on what’s hot around the globe – artists of color – and techniques for immersing one’s self in the local art community and acquiring fine art. She encouraged audience members to visit all of the area museums regularly; to find and develop relationships with young artists of various disciplines; and to seek out other creatives.

One of the city’s not-so-secret secrets is the thrice-yearly production, PechaKucha Night. When asked, less than a quarter of the Gantt Center audience was aware of the event. (For the uninitiated, PechaKucha started in Tokyo in 2003 and draws its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat.” Presenters are allowed 20 images for 20 seconds each. Anyone can present, anything. Artists might show their work; Peace Corps volunteers have shown photos from their assignments. There’s poetry, short stories, performance art. Really, anything.)

Noel awarded a free one-year membership to a first-time Gantt Center visitor and provided a book on pottery to another in the audience. Taking full advantage of each of the institutions in the newly named Levine Center for the Arts to fine-tune your eye and developing relationships with artists and other like-minded souls were two of the first, low-cost steps toward building artistic confidence and a collection, Noel concluded.

Our next Conversations @ Gantt will feature Gantt Center Consulting Curator, Dr. Michael D. Harris, on Friday, January 21, 2011. The exhibition, Charlotte Collects African-American Art, will be on display through January 23rd.