Three for the Week, Feb. 5 - 11

Maura's curated culture for your weekly consumption, Feb. 5 - 11

Blink and you’ll miss it. If there’s one thing I’ve learned in a decade of local arts coverage, it’s how Herculean the task of sifting through the considerable cultural riches is for even the most organized arts lover.

With that in mind, I hereby launch my new highly curated heads-up for the week ahead. I’ll pinpoint three stellar offerings — and, at times when I’m too pained to whittle it as such, I’ll throw in a bonus, too. There’s just so much to see, y’all.

Culture vultures: Know of any events for future weeks? Email me at artsmaurahogan@gmail.com.

The Colour of Music Festival: Black History Month Concert Series

Various locations in downtown Charleston, Feb. 6 - 10

As always, I want a seat at pretty much everything the top-notch Colour of Music Festival has programmed—from its “All Female Virtuosi” performing works of Shirley J. Thompson and Claude Debussy to its forward thinking “Masterworks: The Grey Land Mono-Opera.” For those like me with a love of local roots, a must is the Composer Spotlight billed as “A Panel Discussion on Edmund Thornton Jenkins’ legacy with Tuffus Zimbabwe and Dr. Karen Chandler.” Incidentally, Zimbabwe, the grand-nephew of the legendary Charleston composer, is the keyboardist in the “Saturday Night Live” band, and spends off hours researching furthering his great-uncle’s tremendous legacy.

For tickets, visit colourofmusic.org.

At the Gibbes: Society 1858 Forum and Fete

Gibbes Museum of Art, 135 Meeting St., downtown Charleston, Feb. 9, from 12 to 2 p.m., and Feb. 10, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.

This week, Society 1858, the Gibbes Museum of Art’s member auxiliary group cultivating up-and-coming art patrons, gathers around its marquis effort: the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art. This year, it was awarded to North Carolina native Sherrill Roland, whose interdisciplinary practice deals with concepts of innocence, identity and community, reimagining their social and political implications in the context of the American criminal justice system.  On Feb. 8, the group hosts its splashy annual Winter Party raising funds for the prize. On Feb. 10 for the annual Amy P. Cohn Forum, the artist will give a presentation on his work.

For more information, visit gibbesmuseum.org.

Annex Dance Company February Concert

Sottile Theatre, 66 George St. in downtown Charleston, Feb. 10 at 7 p.m.

Yes, Charleston culture lovers, there is modern dance in town. The excellent, Annex Dance Company will alight the Sottile Theatre stage this weekend with the debuts of “The Path Taken” and “Salt in the Soil.” In addition, the company will share the stage area with high school and college students in the new work “Broken Crayons Still Color," and premiere “It's Not Yours to Keep.” It’s worth attending an Annex production for the always inspired music selections alone (I always mean to ask them for a playlist), but the uplifting, thoughtful, often reflective choreography is the main event.

Tickets can be purchased online at the George Street Box Office.

BONUS: Hosting with the Most: Classical Shindig

Charleston Library Society, 164 King St., downtown Charleston, Feb. 8 from 6-7 p.m.

This one caught my ear and eye. Two taste-making New Orleans hosts and concert pianists Michael and Quinn combine those talents in a sumptuous new tome: “Classical Shindig: Amateur Artistry from the Simple to the Sublime.” Sounds like an ideal reason to ascend the CLS’s dramatic sweep of entrance stairs to learn some new tricks and clink a few glasses with the two of them.

For tickets, visit charlestonlibrarysociety.org

Featured artwork by Roland Smith, winner of the Society 1858 Prize for Contemporary Art