This mother is happy her children are in a new neighborhood, with a different peer group. She wants to get her GED and eventually, a nursing degree. She told me recently “when I get knocked down, I always gets back up. That’s what I’m going to do now.” After spending some time with her, I believe that. She plans to meet with a life counselor and map out her future, to set goals and devise strategies to achieve those goals. OpenDoors will help her do that.

In the meantime, we’ll help her children with after-school care, fees and transportation to extracurricular activities, and whatever they need to succeed in school. We don’t think this mom should have to chose between caring for her children and working to make their future more secure. We can help her do both. This support breaks the cycle of poverty.

Stay tuned for information about our spring concert event…

Titcus and Dan

Titcus grew up in public housing in Winston-Salem. When he was 11 years old he met met Dan Scannell through an IBM program called Big Blue’s Adopt-A-School. The relationship was fragile at first. Titcus had a hard time listening to any man who wasn’t his father, who left when Titcus was two. But Dan was consistent, meeting with Titcus almost every day to play basketball, to meet with teachers, to be an advocate for him and to call him out when he was being “difficult.”

Dan asked Titcus what he wanted to do with his life. Titcus didn’t know how to answer at first. Dan asked again, “If you could do anything in this life, anything, what would it be?” Titcus said he wanted to play both professional basketball and professional football. It was a lofty ambition. Dan helped him set goals, stressed to Titcus that he had to work, not only on the court, and on the field, but in the classroom too. “You can’t be on a team if you don’t have the grades.”

“It was hard,” said Titcus. Dan would pick him up and take him into what Titcus calls “the light” and then drop him back off into the darkness, a world of dealers and gangs. Titcus said there’s no sense in showing someone a better life if you don’t let them know they can have it for themselves. Dan showed him he could indeed have it if he worked hard and remained true to his dreams. Dan reminded him constantly. That’s what mentors do.

There was a time when Dan didn’t drop him off and instead got out of the car to play basketball with the neighborhood boys. “It was risky,” said Titcus. But it worked. Things changed after that. He knew Dan wasn’t some guy coming to do his duties to the IBM program. He knew Dan was there to stay.

In high school, Titcus graced the cover of USA TODAY as the wide receiver of the year. After graduation, Titcus went on to play both basketball and football for Penn State. Then he played safety for the San Diego Chargers.

Dan and Titcus called each other often. Titcus was a groomsman in Dan’s wedding. Dan returned the favor when Titcus married. That’s what friends do.

Titcus Pettigrew now lives in Lisle, Illinois, with wife Bonnie and their three children. They own a business together called Next Level Athletes that trains over 600 hundred kids a year to excel at—sports, basketball, football, volleyball, soccer. More importantly, Titcus says, he lets kids know they can have their dreams. He shows him how hard work can make them better athletes, and make them better people. He learned that from Dan.

Dan Scannell is now Managing Director for Oppenheimer & Co. in Asheville.

Titcus Pettigrew and Dan Scannell will tell their story at the OpenDoors Benefit and Art Auction event on Feb. 20, 2010 at the YMI Cultural Center.

Come to OpenDoors of Asheville’s inaugural benefit and art auction. It’s on Saturday, Feb. 20th, from 7-10pm at the YMI Cultural Center. We have over 20 pieces of art: paintings, textiles, pottery and commercial foil. Contributing to OpenDoors are artists whose work is in collections at Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, the High Museum in Atlanta and the Renwick Museum of American Art in Washington D.C. Whether you’re adding to your collection or just starting one, taking home a beautiful painting or piece of pottery helps support children and their families break the cycle of poverty. All work is donated and 100 percent of proceeds help fund OpenDoors programs.

Click here to see donated artwork.

"Mosaique 08"

“Mosaique 08″ (2001)

Dimensions: 12′ x 12′
Media: pastel, charcoal on paper, pasted on paper
Fair Market Value: $750
Minimum Bid Amount:  $500
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Artist Bio:

Born in Lake Charles, LA, Kenn Kotara’s visual nature and artistic talent emerged early on, influenced by the rich environment of the Deep South. Encouraged to put his talent to practical use, he studied architecture at Louisiana Tech University for nearly four years before earning a BFA in Graphic Design and later his MFA in Studio Art.

Kotara’s first interest was in representational work, copying the styles of the masters; however, his expressive leanings and insatiable curiosity led him to become an abstract painter. Continuing to draw from his southern roots, his abstract paintings reflect natural patterns based in mathematics as well as the natural and life sciences, striking a unique balance between order and chaos.

Subsequently, Kotara’s imagination has driven him to further explore the breadth and depth of those patterns, leading him to create his Barbe espagnole, or Spanish moss, series on canvas, paper and suspended screens. His work continues to evolve, both two- and three-dimensionally, including pieces on shaped canvasses and works created in various media including wood, steel, and ceramics.

The patterns and colors featured in Kotara’s works give them a universal appeal, and many of his pieces have become part of corporate and public collections including the Asheville Art Museum, Louisiana State Museum, Masur Museum, U.S. Embassy (Jamaica), Bellagio (Las Vegas), Sumisho (Tokyo), and Western Asset Management (Sao Paulo). Some of the many venues that have exhibited Kotara’s work include Sandler Hudson Gallery (Atlanta), Thomas Werner Gallery (New York), Knoxville Museum of Art, Urban Institute of Contemporary Art (Grand Rapids), Weatherspoon Museum of Art, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien (Berlin), and Gallery Meepyung (Seoul).

"Carter County, TN"

“Unicoi County, TN” (2006)

Dimensions: 26″ x 21″
Media: Photograph
Fair Market Value: $2,500
Minimum Bid Amount: $1,000
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“Regarding the “Open Minds, Open Doors” theme, I will say, again, as a professor of art for 29 years, those very words define the nature of the educational world I live in daily. I have seen many young men and women come to ETSU, whose parents never had the opportunity to go to college, and thrive on the chance to grow and learn from new experiences. Most dramitally it happens when they have an opportunity to see art first hand in a museum such as the Metropolitan or MoMA. Books are wonderful but, in the world of art, seeing the original works, in person, has the greatest potential impact. That experience most often opens minds and, later, many doors.”
- Mike Smith

Artist Bio:

(American, born Germany, 1951 – )

Mike Smith photographs the rural American Southeast in large-format color photography, exposing the unique beauty of the region and the people who call it home. Born in Germany, Mike Smith received his B.F.A. from the Massachusetts College of Art and his M.F.A. from Yale University School of Art. He has been a Professor of Photography at East Tennessee State University since 1981. Mike Smith’s photography is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Art Institute of Chicago. He was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship and was a 2000 finalist for the Alfred Eisenstadt/LIFE Magazine.

"Times Square"

“Times Sqare”

Dimensions: 16″ x 24″
Media :Slide print scanned digitally and made into Iris print
Fair Market Value: $500
Minimum Bid Amount: $250
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Artist Bio:

With a BFA in photography, and a career as an editorial photojournalist, Rebecca D’Angelo brings an edge and intimacy to her work that you don’t find in most photographers.  Her work is thoughtful, and she has an ability to capture the ever elusive “decisive moment”.   She was with the Washington Post photographing the Society Beat for 10 years, and her work has appeared in numerous local and national publications, including the New York Times, Ebony, WNC, Imbibe, and National Geographic Traveller.    Her art work has been shown in NYC, Washington DC, Richmond, VA, Alburqueerque, NM and Asheville, NC.