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<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>Catawba
Indian Pottery Lecture and Display at Pickens County Museum<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><b><font size=2
face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;font-weight:bold'>Saturday,
November 8<o:p></o:p></span></font></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> The public
is invited to this free program on Saturday, November 8, 2008, 1:00 p.m. to
3:00 p.m. Well known authority and author on Catawba Pottery, Thomas J. Blumer,
Ph.D., from Lancaster, South Carolina, will present a lecture and slide
presentation on “Catawba Indian Pottery and its Influence on Cherokee
Pottery”. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> To further
enhance this presentation, a selected exhibit of exquisite Catawba Pottery will
be on display in the LaVonne Nalley Piper Auditorium for the month of November.
This exhibit can be enjoyed during normal museum business hours – don’t
miss it.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> The Catawba
Nation, located 8 miles east of Rock Hill, South Carolina, has great historical
and cultural importance. Whoever looks at a Catawba vessel in a museum and sees
its gentle reds, browns, black and gray tones has just experienced a miracle of
survival. By all reasonable standards, Catawba pottery should not be made
today. Passed on within the Nation, the pottery tradition has survived contact
with Europeans, wars, centuries of economic and cultural stress and contact
with modern technology. Catawba pottery tradition endures as a tribal
possession and remains one of the purest art forms of its kind.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> Thomas J. Blumer,
author of the book “The Catawba Indian Nation of the Carolinas”,
was fascinated with Indian Culture by the age of 15. He studied Chichen Itza
for years and later moved on to the study of Plains Indians. In 1956, he joined
the United States Navy and as luck would have it, attended a school in
Oklahoma. All of his Navel bases were located in Dixie and here Thomas says he
became a “Born Again Southerner instantly”. Upon discharge he met a
lovely Indian girl; they married and had four children. In three years he
obtained both a BA and an MA in English and became a teacher in Virginia. In
1972 Thomas left Virginia for the University of South Carolina and received his
Ph.D. Here he discovered the Catawba in the person of master potter Doris Blue
and the Catawba became his extended family. Today, Dr. Blumer’s pottery
collection contains well over 1,000 vessels and is in the control of the
Catawba Valley Land Trust in Lancaster. The papers which he collected from 1970
to the present are in the Thomas J. Blumer Catawba Archives in the Medlin
Library at the University of South Carolina, Lancaster. In 1993, he shifted
over to serve the Catawba Indian Nation as their official tribal historian. As
an experienced lecturer, Thomas Blumer shows his love of pottery and history
which he enjoys sharing with audiences across the country.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> This program is part of
the museum’s continuing effort to provide a variety of entertaining and
educational programming for the community and is funded in part by a donation
from Reliable Automatic Sprinkler Co., Inc. The Pickens County Museum of Art &
History is funded in part by Pickens County, members and friends of the museum
and a grant from the South Carolina Arts Commission, which receives support
from the National Endowment for the Arts.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'> The Pickens County
Museum of Art & History is located at 307 Johnson Street in
Pickens. Museum hours are Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday 9a-5p, Thursday
9a-7:30p, and Saturday 9a-4:30p. For additional information call
864.898.5963.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><font size=2 face=Arial><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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