Featured image for post: Barton Art Galleries Welcomes Sommelier Inez Ribustello for Wine Tasting and Lecture on October 23

Barton Art Galleries Welcomes Sommelier Inez Ribustello for Wine Tasting and Lecture on October 23

WILSON, N.C. — October 2, 2018 — In a toast to artist-in-residence Donald Martin, the Barton Art Galleries will host a wine tasting in Case Art Building on Tuesday, Oct. 23, from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m., featuring renowned sommelier Inez Ribustello, co-owner of On the Square restaurant and wine bar in historic downtown Tarboro.

Advance reservations for the wine tasting are required, and guests aged 21 and older are invited to attend. The cost is $25 per person, which may be paid by cash or check at the event. Non-alcoholic selections and food will also be served. This event is co-sponsored by the Barton College Friends of Visual Arts. For more information or to make reservations, please contact Maureen O’Neill, director of exhibitions and educational programming, Barton Art Galleries, at moneill@barton.edu or 252-399-6476.

Ribustello plans to feature the wines of Vision Cellars and Mouton Noir. Guests may enjoy samples of wine while viewing works from Martin’s latest exhibition, “Sanctuary,” which opens on Thursday, Oct. 11, and runs through Friday, Nov. 16. The artist will be present in the galleries during this event.

A native of Tarboro, Ribustello got her start in the world of food and wine by moving to New York City to pursue a career in cooking. After graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1998, Ribustello chose New York’s Institute of Culinary Education, where she began to learn about wine. Her wine career took a huge leap forward when she became an assistant cellar master at the famous World Trade Center restaurant Windows on the World. In a very short time, she was promoted to beverage director, putting her in the position as wine buyer for the largest-grossing restaurant in North America. It was at Windows on the World where she met her husband, Stephen.

Following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the couple returned to her hometown and, together, they opened their own restaurant, wine bar, and retail store. The wine list at On the Square holds the prestigious Best of Award of Excellence from Wine Spectator magazine. In 2009, Ribustello placed 2nd runner-up in the Best Sommelier in America competition held in New York City.

Artist-in-residence Don Martin is an artist/printmaker from Saint Augustine, Fla. During the last several years, he has worked, almost exclusively, in Relief and Monoprint printmaking with occasional detours into sculpture and book arts. It is the workman-like process and craft of printmaking, the pressure of ink on paper, that has been of enduring interest to him as an artist. During his long career, he has also been deeply involved with mural design and illustration.

The flora and fauna of his home are his primary subjects. Martin lives in an area of the country that is particularly consumed by over development and destruction of the natural environment, which has made the fragile natural environment particularly relevant to him and his work. His art work is a celebration of an environment that is not grand or picturesque but an environment that is intimate and fragile.

He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Florida State University. Martin is professor emeritus in the Department of Art and Design at Flagler College in St. Augustine, where he taught courses in printmaking, design, and drawing for 40 years.

For more information about this event and other programming in the Barton Art Galleries, please contact Maureen O’Neill, director of exhibitions and educational programming, Barton Art Galleries, at moneill@barton.edu or 252-399-6476.

END