Amelia Island Potpourri

Evelyn C. McDonald
Arts & Culture Reporter
April 27, 2017 12:00 p.m.

Every so often, I like to look ahead to what’s being offered in arts and culture in our community. I usually do this by walking around town or reading emails from organizations. This week I had a thought. I wondered what visitors to our island were being told; what suggestions were being made for their enjoyment. So this week, I visited the Tourist Development Council’s (TDC) website – www.ameliaisland.com/things-to-do.

I checked their calendar first and found a half dozen events listed for next week plus the Shrimp Festival. There’s Art on 8th, featuring Magpie Arts, Big Oak Art Gallery, Shady Ladies, and The Mermaid Walk. That takes place on 8th Street next Thursday, May 4. Gilbert’s Underground Kitchen is featuring an arts special and Redbones Dog Bakery will be displaying its wares at BuyGO.

The Amelia Island Museum has their regular pub crawl next Thursday and ghost tour next Friday. Also on Friday, Tom Raymond will give a talk on the island’s many historical markers and their relationship to island history at the Museum’s Brown Bag lunch.

Moving on from the TDC calendar, the TDC site’s listing of Culture and Tours includes the American Beach Museum at 1600 Julia Street in American Beach. It tells the story of American Beach and the people who made it possible and supported it. The museum is open weekends Friday – Sunday. The website is www.americanbeachmuseum.org
Did you know that there is a Fernandina Beach Pinball museum? It’s on Sadler next to Tuesday Morning. Well, the TDC Culture and Tours pages made me aware of that. You can go and look at pinball machines and also play.

Meanwhile at the Amelia Musical Playhouse, Sinda Nichols’ acting classes continue. Topics covered include monologues and storytelling for beginners and scene study for more experienced actors.

Amelia Community Theatre has a fun video on their website announcing the plays that will be featured next season. Friday, Awkward Silence Jax is doing “Fantastic Breasts – and where to find them.” This Sunday is a one night performance by Chloe Agnew, one of the original and youngest singers in the group Celtic Woman.
This Friday, Live Ink Theatre members Sinda Nichols, Fran Hindsley, and Ron Kurtz give readings from a new play at a book signing reception for Margaret Rose Gladney’s new book, Lillian, Paula, Carson, at the Book Loft. Call 261-8991 to RSVP.
For a small town, that’s an amazing array of activities. Check out one of them and see what our island has to offer.

Evelyn McDonald moved to Fernandina Beach from the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 2006. She is a chair of Arts & Culture Nassau, a city commission charged with support of the arts in Nassau County. She serves on FSCJ’s Curriculum Committee for the Center for Lifelong Learning. She is also the chair of the Dean’s Council for the Carpenter Library at the UNF. Ms. McDonald has MS in Technology Management from the University of Maryland’s University College and a BA in Spanish from the University of Michigan.