The Craik-Patton House will have a Holiday Open House 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Dec. 3 from 10-4 and noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 4.

Area floral designers will decorate the historic house with holiday decorations. Santa will visit the children from 1-3 p.m. Saturday. Refreshments will be served and admission is free.

James Craik, whose grandfather was George Washington's friend and personal physician, owned the Craik-Patton House. It was built in 1834 in the Greek revival style. Col. George Patton, grandfather of the well-known WWII general, later owned the home. The house originally was located on Virginia Street, but moved to its present site near Daniel Boone Park in 1973 to save it from demolition. It was restored and preserved for the public by the Colonial Dames of America and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.

Craik-Patton House, 2809 Kanawha Blvd. E. Call 304-925-5341.

Holiday Open House

The West Virginia Humanities Council will host a Holiday Open House in honor of the 175th birthday of its headquarters, the MacFarland Hubbard House, from 4 to 6 p.m. Dec. 9. The house is located at 1310 Kanawha Blvd.E., and the reception is open to the public.

Light refreshments will be served. Call 304-346-8500.

Scholarship benefit

Kanawha United Presbyterian Church will host its annual Choral Scholarship Benefit on Thursday.

Dinner is served at 6:30 p.m. in the fellowship hall and will include a silent auction of art works by Roger Lucas, Betsy Johnson, Lynn Payne and Steve Payne. The concert, at 7:30 p.m. in the sanctuary, features Shauna McQuerrey and Madeline Southall, sopranos, Dakota Burdette, tenor, and Adam Fisher, baritone.

A $20 donation is requested for both the dinner and the concert; $10 concert only.

Kanawha United Presbyterian Church, 1009 Virginia St.E. Call 304-342-6558 for reservations or purchase tickets in advance at the church office.

River Arts Show

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation will hold the annual River Arts Sale and Showcase 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Dec. 2 and 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 3 at 520 Kanawha Blvd.W.

The juried show features fine art by leading edge artists from throughout West Virginia, as well as jewelry, greeting cards, Christmas wreaths and other unique and affordable handmade gifts.

There will be live music and a raffle of donated art pieces. A gourmet lunch is available Saturday, and gift certificates are available.

Visit http://myplace.frontier .com/~amy.weintraub/riverarts/ index.htm or call 304-345-5042. Admission is free.

Reflections

"Reflections: Homage to Dunkard Creek" will be shown Dec. 15 through Jan. 25, 2012, at the University of Charleston's Frankenberger Art Gallery.

The traveling exhibition, two years in the making, features 90 artists from eight states who express their personal experiences and connections to Dunkard Creek. On Sept. 20, 2009, Dunkard Creek, a 43-mile Pennsylvania and West Virginia creek that flows into the Monongahela Watershed, suffered a large scale Golden Algae bloom that devastated the area and its animal life.

After witnessing this event firsthand, Ann Payne, an alumnus of Morris Harvey (UC), felt the need to express what she saw and experienced that day. Over the next two years, she invited other artists who shared a tie to the Dunkard Creek area to collaborate in this exhibition. Each artist was assigned one of the 90 species lost during the algae bloom and given a panel to create a work about that specific species. This exhibition is the product of their collaboration.

An opening reception will be held at 6 p.m. Dec. 15 and is free and open to the public.

University of Charleston, Frankenberger Art Gallery, second floor of the Student Union building, 2300 MacCorkle Ave., S.E. Charleston. Call Ray Yeager at 304-357-4387.

Shop-to-stop lung disease

By crafts, jewelry and beauty products at Shop-to-Stop Lung Disease from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 3 Shop-to-Stop Lung Disease American Legion Post #20, 415 Dickinson St.

The American Lung Association in West Virginia is hosting the event that will include in-home sale vendors: Arbonne, Beauti Control, Lia-Sophia, Tastefully Simple, Longaberger, My Thirty One, Willow House, Avon, Scentsy and Silpada. Plenty of parking will be available.

A portion of the funds raised will be used to fight lung disease, the third leading cause of death in the country.

Tamarack holidays

BECKLEY -- St. Nick, artisan demonstrations, specialty foods and authors will all be featured at Tamarack this month.

Nov. 27, toymaker Andy Sheetz and milliner Tatiana Rakhmanina will demonstrate their crafts. Several of Tamarack's resident artisans will be working as well, including glass blower John Desmeules.

Blue Smoke Salsa returns today with samples of its wide variety of products now only available at Tamarack and online. Author Patricia Ware, who wrote "Morning Moon," will sign copies of her book.

St. Nicholas will be at Tamarack from noon to 4 p.m. every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday through Dec. 23.

Banjo player Brandon Green performs for Sun...@Two. Admission is free; tickets are required due to limited seating and are available at the Information Desk after 10 a.m. on the morning of the 2 p.m. performance.

WVU galleries

MORGANTOWN -- West Virginia University Master of Fine Arts candidate Bangmin Nong will present his thesis exhibition at the Zenclay Studio Gallery through Jan 28.

A reception will be held 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Dec. 3.

The artist is from Nanning Shi, Guangxi, China, and studied at Guangxi Arts Institute prior to coming to WVU. His exhibition is titled "Human·Architecture."

Zenclay Studio Gallery hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, or by appointment. 2862 University Ave., Morgantown. Call 304-599-7687 or visit www.Zenclay.com.

Additionally, at the Laura Mesaros Gallery, "DICHOtomic" by Shoji Satake assistant professor and head of the ceramics program at WVU, runs through Dec. 8. Visit www.shojisatake.com/

At the Paul Mesaros Gallery, "From the Dragon's Fire," an exhibition of contemporary ceramics by renowned artists from China, through Dec. 8.

Mesaros Galleries, College of Creative Arts, West Virginia University, Morgantown. All events are free and open to the public. Gallery hours: noon to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, closed Sundays and University holidays. Special individual or group viewing times may be arranged upon request. Call Robert Bridges, curator, at 304-293-2312.

A Holiday Ceramics Sale will be held 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 9-10 and noon to 4 p.m. Dec. 11 at the Douglas O. Blaney Lobby.

Independence Hall

WHEELING -- Visitors to West Virginia Independence Hall can now learn about West Virginia's birth as the nation's 35th state through the eyes of the wife of a newspaper editor and postmaster who supported the Union during the Civil War or the wife of a doctor who supported the Confederacy.  

Visitors also may choose to hear from the father of West Virginia, Francis Pierpont, his widowed cousin or a free woman of color as part of the "Faces of Wheeling" tours.

Originally built as a federal customhouse in 1859, West Virginia Independence Hall served as the home of the pro-Union state conventions of Virginia during the spring and summer of 1861 and as the capitol of loyal Virginia from June 1861 to June 1863. It also was the site of the first constitutional convention for West Virginia, which is the only state born of the Civil War.

The first-person character tours will offer perspectives of Wheeling residents during the early years of the Civil War and West Virginia's statehood.

The historic characters are available for free to all school programs and tours. For community presentations, bus tours or other groups of 10 or more, a guided tour can be scheduled at a cost of $3 per person. The fees help to defray the cost of the characters and related expenses. Call 304-238-1300.

The museum, located on the corner of 16th and Market streets in Wheeling, is open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through

Sara Busse

To have your announcement included in Arts Notes, email sara.bu...@wvgazette.com or send it to Arts Notes, The Charleston Gazette, 1001 Virginia St. E., Charleston, WV 25301. Artwork can be submitted electronically or by mail. Deadline for inclusion in the Sunday Gazette-Mail is the Tuesday before Sunday publication.