Fine arts will be a focus of the Old Oak Festival this weekend at Tusculum College with the art gallery exhibit, literary readings, workshops for young writers and an acoustic jam session.
“Under the Old Oak,” an exhibit featuring selections from the Tusculum College Print Collection, will be open 4 – 6 p.m. on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, at the Allison Gallery in the Rankin House on campus (located behind Three Blind Mice).
The exhibit features selections from some of the best known contemporary printmakers in the world, such as Gabor Peterdi, Peter Milton, Leonard Baskin, Harvey Breverman, Misch Kohn, Frank Eckmair, Frederico Castellon, Dame Elizabeth Frink and Stanley William Hayter. Art professor Clem Allison compiled the collection of prints during his tenure at the college. Most were printed by small private English presses working with the artists, and the edition sizes were typically less than 300. The prints were rediscovered in the college’s printmaking studio by Dr. Deborah Bryan, associate professor of art, and then cataloged. A closing reception will be held from 4 – 6 p.m. on Saturday.
Works by well-known contemporary printmakers are on display at the Allison Gallery on the Tusculum College campus. Above are excerpts from Harvey Breverman’s “Dubious Honor III,” Al Park’s “Chambered Nautilus” and Leonard Baskin’s “Walt Whitman.”
On Thursday at 7 p.m. in the Shulman Cente Atruim, Wayne Lee Thomas, chair of the Fine Arts Department and associate professor of English, will read from his novel-in-progress, “Birth of the Okefenokees,” for which he won the 2014 Baltic Writing Residency. Thomas, who serves as coordinator of the creative writing program and editor of The Tusculum Review, writes and publishes fiction, plays and essays.
Joining Thomas will be Joseph Borden, senior creative writing major at Tusculum from Lyles. Borden is the winner of this year’s Curtis Owens Literary Awards for poetry, fiction and script writing.
Poet Richard Greenfield will be featured at a reading at 4 p.m. on Friday in the Shulman Center Atrium. Greenfield, who taught in the English Department at Tusculum from 2005-08, is the author of two poetry collections, “A Carnage in the Lovetrees” and “Tracer.” Greenfield, who is a former editor of The Tusculum Review, now teaches creative writing at New Mexico State University. He will be joined by Britany Menken, a senior creative writing major from Maryville. Menken is this year’s Curtis Owens Literary Award winner for non-fiction.
A number of local and regional writers, including Barry Blair, Emory Rhea Raxter, Joe Tennis, Keith Bartlett, Matilda Green and Peggy Dorris, will be at the festival, located in the Pioneer Arena lobby inside Niswonger Commons.
Two workshops for young writers will be held on Friday morning from 9 – 11 in the Hurley Room, which is inside the cafeteria in the Niswonger Commons. A flash fiction workshop will be conducted by Jan Matthews, visiting assistant professor of English. Clay Matthews, assistant professor of English, will lead a contemporary poetry workshop.
On Saturday evening at about 6:30, an acoustic music jam is scheduled in the atrium in the Shulman Center. Students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to bring their acoustic instruments for the informal jam session.
The 2014 Old Oak Festival will feature fine arts and crafts from more than 80 vendors as the revived festival makes its return to the Tusculum College campus on April 25-27. The arts and music festival will span three days and will feature something for everyone including liuve music, art, theater and creative writing, as well as gallery and museum exhibits.