AMERICUS — Editor’s Note: Every Thursday a list of local and area upcoming entertainment and cultural events will be published on the Steppin’ Out page in the Times-Recorder. To submit information for this listing, please send to Steppin’ Out, c/o Americus Times-Recorder, P.O. Box 1247, Americus GA 31709, or fax to 928-6344 or e-mail to beth.alston@gaflnews.com



Americus

Advent Concert

Calvary Episcopal Church presents an Advent Concert at 6 p.m. Dec. 12 featuring the organ. The concert is free, with donations accepted for the Organ and Music Fund. Performers include the Calvary Church Choir; Julie Megginson, soprano; Alex Anishchenko, organ; and special guest, Josh Duncan, organ. A wine and cheese reception will follow the concert in the Parish Hall.



Chamber Concert Series

Georgia Southwestern State University (GSW) has announced its 2012-2013 Chamber Concert Series: 7:30 p.m. Jan. 29 – Manhattan Piano Trio; Feb. 12 – Graffe String Quartet with Michiko Otaki, piano and April 8 – Sima Trio. All performances will take place at 7:30 p.m. in GSW’s Jackson Performance Hall, unless otherwise noted. Tickets available and can be purchased at the door. For information or tickets, call 931-2204.



Montezuma

Museum Hours

The Macon County Historical Museum is open from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday and by appointment. Call the Montezuma Downtown Development Authority at 478-472-4777 for more information.



Birmingham, Ala.

Birmingham Museum of Art

2000 Rev. Abraham Welch Woods Jr. Blvd.

Norman Rockwell's America

Through Jan. 6, 2013

FREE for members/$15 for non-members

www.artsbma.org

205-254-2565

 The Birmingham Museum of Art is proud to present an exhibition of more than 370 works by America's greatest illustrator, the legendary Norman Rockwell.





Atlanta

The High Museum of Art

1280 Peachtree St. N.E.

Ongoing

Although many people became familiar with the Reverend Howard Finster through his 40,000 late-20th century paintings, the centerpiece of his work was Paradise Garden. This outdoor museum was built to celebrate all the inventions of mankind, but dedicated to the glory of God. His oeuvre is best considered as an installation and performance piece, of which the paintings are the extant artifacts.

In the early 1960s, Finster bought a parcel of swampy land, which he cleared and drained by hand. For the enjoyment of visitors, he planted edible and ornamental plants and began to construct concrete walkways, walls, and miniature mountains encrusted with thousands of found objects–everything from glass marbles to a jar containing a neighbor's tonsils.

Beside the walkways, he modeled figurative concrete sculptures; over the years, he built many structures, including a tall tower of bicycle parts and a chapel, the World's Folk Art Church. Through the 1980s, Paradise Garden flourished, bringing visitors from around the world to Pennville, Georgia, and international fame to its creator, who would preach to visitors and perform his own songs, accompanying himself on his banjo.

Today the High Museum owns the largest public collection of objects from Paradise Garden, many of which remain on permanent display in the Folk Art galleries. Among them are sidewalk slabs; concrete sculptures, including The Calf and the Young Lion and The Weaned Child on the Cockatrice's Den; Finster's Gospel Bike; and many signs and paintings that once adorned the garden.

• Civil Rights Photography, 1956-1968

Ongoing

 The High Museum of Art holds one of the most significant collections of photographs of the civil rights movement. The works on display are a small selection of the collection, which numbers more than 250 photographs that document the social protest movement, from Rosa Parks’s arrest to the Freedom Rides to the march on Washington, D.C. The city of Atlanta—the birthplace of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.—was a hub of civil rights activism and figures prominently in the collection. Visionary leaders such as Dr. King, Congressman John Lewis, and former mayor Ambassador Andrew Young are featured alongside countless unsung heroes.

The photographs in this collection capture the courage and perseverance of individuals who challenged the status quo, armed only with the philosophy of nonviolence and the strength of their convictions. The images were made by committed artists, activists, and journalists, who risked injury, arrest, and even death to document this critical moment of growth in our nation. The tenacity of these dedicated and gifted people — on both sides of the camera — continues to inspire social justice advocates today.

Civil Rights Photography 1956-1968 is an ongoing installation, and the photographs will be rotated every six months.

• Nellie Mae Rowe: At Night Things Come to Me

Ongoing

At Night Things Come to Me has been installed in the Nellie Mae Rowe Room. Rowe often portrayed beings that seem to come from another plane of existence. Some take the form of hybrid creatures, combining features of different animals. Rowe simply called them "varmints" or said they were "something that ain't been born yet." Others, which take humanoid shape, she identified as "haints" or spirits.

In one vivid drawing, whose title gives this exhibition its name, she portrayed herself lying in bed being visited by otherworldly creatures of her imagination. You can visit them, too, in At Night Things Come to Me.

• American Encounters: Thomas Cole and the Narrative Landscape

Through Jan. 6

American Encounters is a result of a four-year collaboration among the High Museum of Art, the musée du Louvre, Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Terra Foundation for American Art. The collaboration focuses on installations of American and European art.

The exhibition explores the birth of American landscape painting through the works of Thomas Cole and Asher B. Durand. In addition, the installation includes an earlier painting by Pierre-Antoine Patel the Younger that inspired Cole’s work after Cole saw in Paris.

• Choose Me: Arthur Grace’s Portraits of a Presidential Race

Through Jan. 6

Arthur Grace (American, born 1947) is an award-winning photojournalist and documentary photographer who has covered stories for some of the most reputable news sources of our time. This installation highlights selections from a project Grace undertook for Newsweek magazine, which culminated in his book Choose Me: Portraits of a Presidential Race, featuring the candidates of the 1988 campaign, including George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, Jesse Jackson, Al Gore, and Michael Dukakis.

Grace traveled with the candidates for months, and the resulting work reflects a remarkable unguarded access that is virtually impossible to achieve today. His photographs are not the typical press shots of presidential hopefuls; made with a Rolleiflex square-format camera, these pictures portray the personalities of each candidate in a candid, intimate fashion outside of the public eye. The images highlight the strange but familiar activities that candidates repeat year after year, from adopting rallying postures at podiums to posing with wildlife. The work affords a look back at the 1988 election, focusing not on the political agendas of the day, but instead on the timeless theatrics of politics and the personalities at their center.

* Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913-2013

Through Jan. 20

Experience 100 years of radical artistic developments reflected by artworks drawn from the extraordinary collections of MoMA. The exhibition includes more than 130 works of painting, sculpture, graphic design, film and video and installation art by such luminaries as Matisse, Dali, O’Keeffe, and Koons. Fast Forward also presents work by three contemporary artists – Sarah Sze, Aaron Curry and Katharina Grosse.

• Susan Cofer: Draw Near

Through Jan. 27

This exhibition presents the first career survey of drawings by Atlanta-based artist Susan Cofer. For more than three decades, Cofer has been recognized in the Southeast for her painstakingly delicate, abstract drawings.



Night Life:

Americus

American Legion Post 558

Ga. Highway 30 West

Open 6-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday

7 p.m. Tuesday is Bingo Night

Wednesday is Games Night

Open 6 p.m.-2:30 a.m. weekends

Friday is Grown Folks Night Out, featuring dance party, karaoke, music video and disco lights show from 9 p.m.-2:30 a.m. Presented by Monster Screen Projections

Saturday is Oldies Goldies Night

Sunday is Members/Guests Night



Astro’s “The Dance Clubb”

153 Sunset Park Road

Entertainment for 21 and over

11 p.m.-until

Thursday: College and Ladies Night

Friday: Midnight Special

Saturday: Dress to Impress Live

I.D. required

Valid college student ID exempt



Floyd's Pub at BEST WESTERN PLUS Windsor Hotel

125 W. Lamar St.

Ladies Night: Tuesdays beginning at 5 p.m. Ladies only enjoy specials on

drinks.

Live Music:

Fridays beginning at 10 p.m. No cover, must be 21 and older with valid ID.

For more information, call 924-1555. Look for us on Facebook!



G.W.F. Phillips Lodge

The Lodge is open every Friday night with oldies from the ‘70s and ‘80s with Master TJ and Bronco Bill at the Elks Lodge. No teens allowed.



Pat’s Place

1526 S. Lee St. 924-0033

11 a.m.-11 p.m. Monday-Saturday

• Wednesdays, fresh oysters and shrimp through April



Quality Inn Lounge (Hillside Cafe)

1205 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Back by popular demand, South Georgia’s iconic MC/DJ Backdoor Man

Karaoke with dancing 9-11:30 p.m.

Non-stop dance music 11:30 a.m.-2 a.m.

Also featuring Vickie Craig on selected dates

Low drink prices and specials



Lake Blackshear

Booger Bottom

3077 Lamar Road

Cypress Grill at Lake Blackshear Resort and Golf Club

2459-H U.S. Highway 280 East

www.cypress-grill.com

South Georgia’s entertainment capital, combining the best in live music, unique casual dining and lakeside relaxation with the atmosphere of an upscale resort. Set in a natural environment on the shores of Lake Blackshear, the Cypress Grill is the perfect backdrop for outdoor dining on the patio, cocktails with friends or dancing the night away enjoying live music from well-known bands. Cordelia’s Restaurant and 88'S Lounge are open, as well, for great food, fun and live entertainment Friday and Saturday nights.