2025 Events In The Courtyard
The Courtyard is a beautiful outdoor art space, located in downtown Manteo. Join us for one of our upcoming events, listed below.
Spring 2025 Installation: Aeronautical Sea Marks by artist Christina Lorena Weisner will be on display in The Courtyard Spring of 2025. The installation will open at 6pm on Friday, March 7 and remain on display through May. More info on this installation below.
First Friday, April 4: Live music by Stereo In Words in The Courtyard from 6pm to 8pm.
First Friday, May 2: Saakumu Dance Troupe in The Courtyard from 6pm to 8pm.
First Friday, June 6: The Story Weavers in The Courtyard from 6pm to 8pm.
All of The Courtyard events are free, family-friendly and open to the public.
Spring 2025 Courtyard Installation
Aeronautical Sea Marks by artist Christina Lorena Weisner will be on display in The Courtyard Spring of 2025.
About the Art: This outdoor installation features several geometric structures made from lightweight, weather-resistant PVC pipe and deconstructed fabric from discarded beach umbrellas collected from local beaches by the artist. The cube-like structures vary in size, with some reaching up to eight feet. Their arrangement encourages viewers to move around and in between them, providing a dynamic experience of changing perspectives and spatial relationships within the courtyard. Structurally, the sculptures in the installation reference early kite designs including those used by the Wright brothers and Alexander Graham Bell to explore the principles of aerodynamics and to test their ideas about lift and control as it relates to flight. The installation is site-specific addressing both the historical significance of early flight experimentation and the unique environmental characteristics of the Outer Banks.
Artist Bio: Christina Lorena Weisner is a visual artist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts at the College of the Albemarle. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Sculpture and Bachelor of Arts (BA) in World Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University (2006) and a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Sculpture and Ceramics from University of Texas at Austin (2010). In 2013 – 2014, Weisner was awarded a Fulbright Grant for Sculpture and Installation Art to Germany, where she worked on a series of site-specific sculptures based on the Ries Meteorite Impact Crater. Weisner explores complex relationships between objects, humans, and the natural environment, from the organic to the technological, drawing parallels between the vast and the microscopic, the subjective and the objective. Her work invites the viewer to consider the deep geological time of water, rocks, and the landscape as well as the more fleeting existence of living beings through objects, technology, scientific instruments, and the process of discovery. Weisner’s work helps widen our gaze without, however, bludgeoning or delivering any final word. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally.
About The Courtyard
The Courtyard Project’s Groundbreaking Ceremony was hosted on Tuesday, March 3, 2020.
The project transformed the yard behind the 1904 Courthouse building into a multi-functional courtyard that enabled Dare Arts to expand its programming, serve additional segments of the community and showcase a broader range of creative endeavors including outdoor artwork, workshops and artist demonstrations.
To learn how to participate in the Courtyard, please email Jessica Sands at DareArtsInfo@gmail.com.
The Courtyard was designed by Ben Cahoon of Cahoon + Kasten Architects.
Courtyard Project Supporters
A special thank you to the Percy W. & Elizabeth G. Meekins Charitable Trust, Dare County Tourism Board, Outer Banks Community Foundation, The Cannon Foundation, The Camp-Younts Foundation, Dominion Energy, Southern Bank Foundation, Lowe’s, Walmart Giving, Ace Hardware, The McLaughlin Family Charitable Fund and generous community donors for supporting this project.
This project is funded in part by the Dare County Tourism Board.