Last Saturday night, artists, judges, and community members gathered to eat, dance, and sing at the Uproar Awards Celebration. Uproar staff announced several awards of the Orange County art festival, including a People’s Choice award.
Community members browsed tents selling art, ate at the food trucks, enjoyed the band, and mingled while waiting for the ceremony to begin at the Eno Arts Mill in Hillsborough. The artists lined up below the stage, hoping their name and piece would be announced as the winner. Sixty works by 60 different artists were entered into the festival and only a small handful received a prize. Katie Murray, the director of Orange County Arts Commission, announced the winner of the people’s choice award.
“[The] People’s Choice winner, with a final score of 9.33,” she said, “is ‘Return to Self’ in the Icons and Transformation series by Eryn Donnalley.”
Donnalley, from Hillsborough, won $10,000 and a print to commemorate her time in the Uproar Festival.
Katie Murray and Eryn Donnalley posing for a photo after Donnalley won the People’s Choice Award.
“It’s an incredible community event where the people came out and voted for their favorite piece,” she said. “And it’s just really incredible to be kind of feeling the love from the community. It’s really fabulous.”
Her piece “Return to Self” was voted on by community members more than any other piece of art in the festival. She spent five months building the intricate and detailed structure which looks similar to a maze and installed it at Carrboro Town Hall.
“It’s a five-foot mandala made out of wood and backlit mosaic glass, and it’s hanging from a 10 foot structure,” said Donnalley. “That is a Tory structure, which is from the Asian temples. It means you’re entering a sacred space. And it was an incredible piece of work. It really pushed my growth edges to build it.”
“Return to Self” by Eryn Donnalley earned the top prize voted by the public. It hung outside Carrboro Town Hall during the festival. (Photo via Steve Murray/Uproar Fest.)
Donnalley said the core of her work is about mental health, transformation, and taking action on one’s own behalf. She said she’s filled with gratitude for the love and support she’s received from the community. The $10,000 prize will go towards furthering her art.
Donnalley explained, “I had no idea what I was kind of getting myself into when I applied for Uproar. And the community’s been great. Being a part of the Uproar Art community has been fabulous. And the people came out and voted and that meant so much to hear their feedback about my work.”
Donnalley wasn’t the only winner at Uproar, as a panel of local artists also determined its favorites. The 1st place juror winner was Davis Erickson for his piece “New Money” which is a tribute to Harriet Tubman. His spray paint art hung on the brick wall of the Orange County jail. The 2nd place juror winner was Carin Walsh and Jenny Blazing for their piece “Changing Worlds Now” which hung at the Eno Arts Mill. And the 3rd place winner was Wayne Vaughn for his piece “Passage” which was installed at River Park in Hillsborough.
“New Money” by Davis Erickson hung at the Orange County Jail in Hillsborough. (Photo via Steve Murray/Uproar Fest.)
Uproar has been in the works for the last four years. Murray dedicated countless hours working to make this festival a reality.
“We’ve had some growing pains along the way, but ultimately we did it,” she said. “I hope I speak for everybody when I say that we’re really happy with how it turned out.”
Murray said she is also excited for the winners of the festival.
“The three jury winners represent the diversity of our artists [and] I’m really happy for Eryn Donnally, who won our people’s choice,” said Murray. “She worked so hard. She sat out by her piece on the lawn of the town hall in Carrboro every Saturday while Uproar was going on.”
Murray made sure to credit many staff members who came together to create and put on Uproar. Doris Friend, the vice chair of the Orange county Arts Alliance, is one of them. She helped with fundraising and artistic input into certain decisions. I asked her why she thought the community enjoyed the festival so much.
Friend said, “It’s unique. It’s the first time this has happened, this kind of event in North Carolina. So we’re hoping that maybe every other year this can be a signature event for us and for the communities.”
Photos via Uproar Awards Ceremony
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I sure do wish the photographer would move closer to the subjects (or zoom in). It would be nice to see more of the art/people and less of the surroundings.
Shouldn’t your article mention that “UPROAR FESTIVAL OF PUBLIC ART ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF PEOPLE’S CHOICE, JURY PRIZES TOTALING $29,000”?