An Auguring,” an exhibit by Aurora Pope, assistant professor of art at Tusculum, is on display through Nov. 4 at the Allison Gallery.
The works of two English professors and an art professor at Tusculum College will be featured in an event Tuesday, Nov. 1, at Tusculum College’s Allison Gallery.
Tusculum’s Humanities Division is presenting a Faculty Spotlight that will begin at 4 p.m. on the lawn of the Rankin House with readings by English professors Dr. Clay Matthews and Jan Matthews and then continue with a reception to mark the opening of a new exhibit in the Allison Gallery by Aurora Pope, assistant professor of art.
The Rankin House houses the Allison Gallery and is located to the rear of the parking area beside Three Blind Mice on Erwin Highway. The gallery is open from 4 -7 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Dr. Clay Matthews, assistant professor of English, will be reading works of his poetry. He is the author of two books, “RUNOFF” and “Superfecta” and has had poems published in more than 50 literary journals, including The American Poetry Review, Black Warrior Review, The Brooklyn Review, New Orleans Review, Pilot, RealPoeti and Verse Daily.
He has earned numerous honors for creative writing, including winning the the Academy of American Poets Prize in 2005 and the Marye Lynn Cummings Endowed Scholarship at Oklahoma State University in 2006. In addition to teaching at Tusculum, Dr. Matthews has taught at East Tennessee State University, Southeast Missouri State University and Oklahoma State. He earned a doctorate in English from Oklahoma State and master’s and bachelor’s degrees in English from Southeast Missouri State.
Jan Matthews, assistant professor of English, will be reading works of nonfiction. She joined the Tusculum faculty in the English Department this year. She has had numerous works of fiction and poetry published in various magazines and journals including the Tusculum Review. Matthews has received her Master of Fine Arts in creative writing as well as a Bachelor of Arts in English with honors from Southern Illinois University.
Following the readings, there will be a reception for Pope in the Allison Gallery. Pope’s exhibit, “An Auguring” will be on display through Friday, Nov. 4. In her artist statement about the exhibit, Pope notes that an auguring is an event that tells the future and the word “augur” is associated with the Latin word for bird, “avis,” as the activities of birds were believed to herald what was to come. In ancient Rome, an augur was the interpreter of omens. This idea inspired Pope to think about the need for time to stand still for moving events to be discerned, a “time in between time” that “lends itself beautifully to the picture plane” that captures a moment and sets the stage for an auguring.
Pope joined the Tusculum faculty full-time this year after spending time teaching as an adjunct professor both at Tusculum and at ETSU. She received a Master in Fine Arts in Studio Painting from ETSU, and Artium Baccalaureatus in Anthropology from the University of Georgia.