Art Exhibition
Hook & Line will host three group art exhibitions in Mebane during, leading up to the main festival weekend and continuing into November: Mebane Arts & Community Center, Mebane Public Library, and a Pop-Up Art Gallery on Clay Street hosted by Flight Tea Bar & Lounge.
The themes and imagery reference Odell and Joe Thompson, Old-Time and American Traditional Music, and Musical Performance. Many of the exhibitors are also practicing traditional musicians.
Additional details coming soon!
The curator for the Hook & Line group art exhibition, Michael Ananian, is a painter and Professor of Painting and Drawing at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (31 years). He is also a practicing Old-Time musician and banjoist. He has painted extensively about Old-Time Music, banjo history, and musical performance. Two of his large-scale oils, “Pumpkin Pie” and “Rya’s House,” are homages to Odell and Joe Thompson, the traditional musicians who inspired Hook & Line.
“As curator of this network of group art exhibitions, I want to show how Odell and Joe Thompson’s artistry and humanity enriched and bettered so many by bringing people together. Despite the racial inequality in America when they started playing, Odell and Joe were undeterred in their quest to share their love of traditional music with anyone who was interested.”
– Michael Ananian, 2025