Two more of the artists on display include potter Devi Murray and Sampson recording artist, singer and songwriter Michael Daughtry.
Michael B. Hardison | Sampson Independent
A desire to showcase the diverse artistic culture in Sampson County had led to a massive displaying downtown Clinton highlighting local artists making their own mark here and beyond.
The highlighting of local artist has been on the rise in Sampson County and some of the many faces behind that talent are being displayed at 100 Fayetteville St.
The ‘Artist of Sampson’ display feature giant portraits of six different artists from around the county. Their photos were taken by local photographer Fred Beaujeu-Dufour who came up with the idea for the project because of his desire to showcase the diversity of talent.
“Some years ago, with Mary Rose, we put some portraits of people living in Sampson County on the building on Fayetteville Street,” Dufour said in a recent interview. “Since we did that, and there were all these big boards on the windows on the old building on the same street, I thought it would be nice to put some more pictures there. As I was thinking about what we could do, plus with the new art gallery opening downtown, I felt like this was a great idea.
“We have a very vibrant artist community, and I don’t think the people here know about it. I’m sure some of them are known but I thought it would be nice to take big prints of them to help promote our talent in Sampson County.”
This isn’t Dufour’s first time using his photography skills to promote the life of the people in Sampson County. Back in 2021, he offered a similar project, “Faces of Sampson,” as a way to highlight a cross section of local resident the photographer found interesting.
While the projects are similar in nature, this time around there’s an added attraction that makes the artwork even more appealing to those strolling by to have a look.
“Something new to the portraits on the buildings this time is that they’re displayed with the name and there’s a QR code for each,” Dufour pointed out.
“If you go there and tap on the QR code, it will take you to whatever social media that artist wants you to go to, to see their art. Also on the portrait is their name, and you‘ve got their specialty. We have a musician, a guitar player, we have a painter, we have a clay potter and more. And, of course, we had limited space so what we did, we just took the first few that really wanted to do it, and we went with that. Now I’m hoping we can do some more.”
While Dufour partnered with Rose, planning director for the city of Clinton and head of its Main Street program, for the previous portrait project, this go-round the city had no part in the display. That was all Dufour, along with the Sampson County Arts Council.
But Rose was quick to point out that she was excited about the project and its draw for the downtown.
“The Clinton Main Street program is so appreciative of the Arts Council and Mr. Dufour for working together to make that exhibit happen,” Rose said. “We’re just thrilled because, really, they did this independent of us, this wasn’t a downtown Clinton exhibit, they did it. That said, we look forward to finding more opportunities for exhibits such as that to happen in downtown, for our buildings and spaces that are underutilized.”
The Arts Council helped fund the first series of artist portraits and executive director Kara Donatelli said it was a partnership they were more than excited to have played a role.
“The Arts Council was excited to partner with Fred on this project, and we were able to fund this first round of photos through the Arts Council as a public art project,” she remarked. “Fred’s just so talented; he came to us with the idea and proposed it to the board and we were excited to be able to help feature some local artists in this first round of photography. We hope that more will be interested in participating.”
While Dufour and Donatellis would like to do more portraits on buildings across downtown, Donatelli said progress on that front hasn’t begun yet.
“We have not yet started planning the next series of photos yet,” she said. “We had talked about reaching out to some other local businesses to see, even it’s just them letting us use one window, as some of them may not have that much space. That way a local businesses could, maybe, put up one artist photo, hopefully, that’ll work out in the future but we just haven’t moved with that yet.”
The ‘Artist of Sampson’ exhibit is located on 100 Fayetteville St. next to where construction for the new brewing company is under way.
