news-record.com

Charleston, S.C., has its annual Spoleto Festival USA, one of the country’s top performing arts festivals.

Now Greensboro will present 17 Days, an annual fall festival that organizers envision bringing regional and national attention to this city’s arts and culture.

For 17 days, from Sept. 22 to Oct. 8, arts organizations will present more than 85 concerts, plays, dance performances, art displays and other entertainment, in venues across the city.

“We want to create an opportunity to let Greensboro play host to the region and showcase our wonderful arts, entertainment and cultural assets,” said Tom Philion,  president and CEO of the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, the festival’s coordinator.

“We have high aspirations of drawing cultural tourists to Greensboro in the way that Spoleto draws cultural tourists to Charleston.”

Philion will formally unveil preliminary plans at the council’s annual meeting on Wednesday at the Carolina Theatre.

The festival took root in 2008 as ArtBeat  Greensboro. For several days each spring, arts groups planned their own events and promoted them as a festival.

Organizers asked the arts council to take over coordination. It moved ArtBeat to the fall with the new name — 17 Days — to reflect its expanded dates during the busy fall arts season. The timing also encourages more participation by the city’s 30,000 college students.

Philion envisions creating an annual festival that can draw more than 100,000 people and help local arts presenters raise the profile of their events and sell more tickets.

“It’s an opportunity for this community to play host through the arts to regional audiences in the way that some sporting events do, and for the arts to have a greater economic impact on this community,” he said.

The News & Record is the primary print media partner.

The schedule, still in the works, features previously planned events as well as unveilings of new music and new art.

The opening event will spotlight the legendary 18th century pirate Blackbeard and the recovery of artifacts from a ship in Beaufort Inlet that may be his flagship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge.

Grammy Award-winning fiddler and composer Mark O’Connor  has been commissioned to write a new orchestral work,  “Queen Anne’s Revenge,” thanks to a grant from American Express.

The Greensboro Symphony Orchestra will premiere the work on Sept. 22 and 24. O’Connor will attend opening night.

“It’s a great chance to introduce his music to GSO audiences and an exciting collaboration between the festival and the GSO,” said symphony Music Director Dmitry Sit­kovetsky.

“The subject is full of suspense and mystery, and I am sure that Mark will make it an exciting and colorful composition.”

Although details aren’t final, the arts council aims to bring an exhibit of the ship’s artifacts, Philion said.

Philion sees 17 Days as a way to help the city shake off the doldrums of lingering recession and celebrate the city’s vitality.

“All across the South, we are going through this economic recession of the last couple of years and a transition in the economy,” Philion said. “I see an opportunity with a festival like this to give the community a shot in the arm of pride and enthusiasm.”

Contact Dawn DeCwikiel-Kane at 373-5204 or dawn.kane@news-record.com