During March, the Sandhills Photography Club of Moore County and photographers from Newry, Northern Ireland, have been exhibiting photographs depicting “What We Love About Where We Live” in the Hastings Gallery at Sandhills Community College.

The public is invited to a closing reception Thursday, March 25, from 4 to 6 p.m. during the Palustris Festival. Refreshments will be served, and the SCC Choir will offer musical selections. The exhibit will close on March 31 and will then travel to Northern Ireland.

This photographic exhibit is the first joint venture between Southern Pines and Newry and Mourne, Northern Ireland, International Sister Cities, to celebrate and showcase their beautiful environments. Sister city programs lead their communities toward global integration, using new technologies and techniques to support trade, health care advancement, democratization and the environment. These programs are at the forefront of community development, working at the grassroots level to assist their partners abroad.

The two communities came together through a past international exchange with Denise Baker, an art professor at Sandhills Community College. Baker exchanged jobs, cars and homes with a professor from Newry, as well as an art installation called, “Postcards Crossing the Atlantic.” Baker’s postcard exhibit was showcased at the International Sister Cities Conference in Belfast this past August.

“This project provides a great opportunity to showcase the Newry and Mourne area and the diversity of our people, places and landscape,” said Councilor John Feehan, mayor of Newry and Mourne. “We realize we have wonderful resources across the district, and this provides an opportunity to provide a photographic image of what our area has to offer.”