The Holly Springs Garden Club will host its 65th annual pilgrimage April 11-13, 2003. Six historic antebellum homes will be open for tours, including Walter Place (1858-59), a blend of Gothic and Greek Revival styles, home of General and Mrs. U. S. Grant during the planning of the Vicksburg campaign, and Strawberry Plains (1851), a two-story Greek Revival home now, with its surrounding 2,000 acres, the Southeastern Headquarters of the National Audubon Society. Three antebellum churches, the Marshall County Historical Museum, the Ida B. Wells Art Gallery, and the Kate Freeman Clark Art Gallery will also be open for tours. On Saturday, April 12, a special evening tour of Athenia, one of the finest examples of Classic Greek Revival architecture in the South. For additional information, see www.visithollyspring.org or call 662-252-2515, 662-252-2943, 662-252-4530, or 662-252-3260.  

  Spring Hill College in Mobile, Alabama, will host a Summer Institute of Christian Spirituality comprised of biblical, historical, pastoral, and moral courses led by faculty from its division of philosophy and theology as well as visiting faculty. Session 1 will be held June1-7, and session 2 will be June 8-14. For more information contact the Office of Graduate Studies at 334-380-4672 or visit the Web site at www.shc.edu/Academics/Graduate. 

 The New Orleans International Ballet Conference will be held June 4-8, 2003, in honor of the Bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase. Titled “Dancing through History: The Roots of Dance in Louisiana,” the five-day celebration explores the history and performance of the dance art during the period 1750-1830. The conference is being staged under the auspices of the International Dance Council/UNESCO and CID/USA, with major funding from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, and is organized by Olga Smoak, a leader in dance-related events in New Orleans for nearly three decades. The Honorable Lindy Boggs, former Ambassador to the Vatican, is honorary chair of the event.

   The conference features international dance historians tracing the multinational/multicultural influences that shaped Louisiana’s dance heritage, rare dance films, lecture demonstrations, master classes, and a gala performance starring Joan Boada and Lorena Feijoo of the San Francisco Ballet.

   Package tickets and individual event passes are available. For information about the New Orleans International Ballet Conference, write NOIBC, P.O. Box 539, New Orleans, LA 70115; call 504-488-4276; fax 504-831-3191, e-mail NOBALLETNOIBC@aol.com, or visit the Web site www.noibc.org.