Pig Roast 2012!

We’ve been so busy preparing for this Saturday’s festivities that we forgot to make a big post and let you all know that Pig Roast is THIS SATURDAY (May 5th). Come join us! Here is the schedule:

8:30 - 9am // breakfast @ Morrisette House

9:30 - 10:10 // 20K v11 in Faunsdale

10:40 - 11 // Jones Valley Teaching Farm @ Morrisette House

11 - 11:50 // RS Farm Solar Greenhouse @ Morrisette House

11:50 - 12:50pm // lunch @ Morrisette House

1 - 1:20 // Newbern Town Hall @ red brick barn

1:45 - 2:15 // watercolor, chair & drawing classes @ Elena’s Greensboro studio

2:35 - 3:20 // Lions Park @ Fisheries Building

3:20 - 4 // LP Scouts @ Fisheries Building

4:20 - 5 // Greensboro Boys & Girls Club @ GRC

5:30 // dinner @ Bodark Ampitheatre

6:30 - 8:30 // Valediction Ceremony @ Bodark Ampitheatre

8:30 - ? // music by Alabama Blues Project and The Bear

Avant-Garde in Alabama 

Wall Street Journal has featured Rural Studio in an article in their Travel section. Check it out by clicking the link above.

Cameron Acheson to lecture at Williams College

This coming Monday (April 16), our very own Cameron Acheson will be lecturing at Williams College in Williamstown, MA. She will be speaking about Rural Studio, and will probably spend some time talking about the Lions Park Playscape (which she and her teammates completed back in September, and which was recently featured in this magazine).

We received a large shipment of wood building materials from Great Southern Wood yesterday. A big THANK YOU and WAR EAGLE to the Yella Fella and the folks at Great Southern Wood.

We recently worked with Hatch Show Print out of Nashville to create our first ever Outreach promotional poster. Hopefully, this will be the first of many future collaborations with them. As the poster says, we are looking for applicants to our Outreach program. We’re still accepting applications for the 2012-2013 school year, so apply today!

Today marks the anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March, a pivotal point in the civil rights movement. The march was a peaceful demonstration to promote equal voting rights for all Americans. An image from the march is now commemorated on the glass walkway at Safe House Museum in Greensboro. We at Rural Studio are proud to help our community preserve and protect their history and heritage.

Gorilla(s) in Newbern? Probably not.

Over the past few days, the Rural Studio staff and students have received multiple emails and phone calls after a news story came out alleging that there was a rogue gorilla (or gorillas) in Newbern. (You can see other accounts here and here.) After a couple of day of reports, it seems that there have been no further advancements in the case, and the Hale County Sheriff’s Office is considering the matter to be unfounded. However, if you’re interested in more of “Gorillamania 2012,” you can see half of the Newbern Town Hall team (who has been working through Spring Break) in this video about the gorilla siting.

UPDATE! No gorillas have been sited in Newbern, but that doesn’t stop Stephen Colbert from joining in on the fun that is Gorillamania 2012. See his report here, but be forewarned, you might be offended if you are an Alabamian, republican, and/or money.

Our very dear friend, Timothy Hursley, has recently been published in Oxford American.  Click here to take a look at the article on his Grain Silo Project, and here to see Time-Lapse of the Silo itself!

Congrats Tim!

Lions Park Playscape in Architectural Record
We’re overjoyed that Lions Park has received so much media coverage lately. This week, we were thrilled to find out that the recently competed Lions Park Playscape made the cover of Architectural Record! See the online article, or go pick up the issue at your local newsstand. Congratulations to Bill, Cameron, Courtney, and Jamie!

Lions Park Playscape in Architectural Record

We’re overjoyed that Lions Park has received so much media coverage lately. This week, we were thrilled to find out that the recently competed Lions Park Playscape made the cover of Architectural Record! See the online article, or go pick up the issue at your local newsstand. Congratulations to Bill, Cameron, Courtney, and Jamie!

A group of folks from Regions Bank in Birmingham came out to visit us in Hale County yesterday. It was a dreary, muddy day, but thankfully they were prepared and took it all in stride. Regions has been so kind as to support our efforts on the 20K House project, which we greatly appreciate. We are thankful that they came for a visit!