040 INAUGUARL ALUMNI SHOW FEATURES WORKS BY 24 ART GRADUATES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 28, 2006
CONTACT: Lon Nuell, gallery director, 615-898-2505


Variety of Media on Display by MTSU Alumni from 1960 through 2004

(MURFREESBORO, Tenn.)—For the first time ever, MTSU’s Department of Art will sponsor an exhibit featuring the works of 24 of its alumni, announced Lon Nuell, MTSU art professor and director of the university’s Todd Gallery.
Nuell said the upcoming exhibition is the first in an ongoing series designed to recognize art department graduates for their ongoing commitment to art making, sharing not only their work, but also the passion they have for their discipline.
The artists participating in the inaugural alumni show, which is free and open to the public, represent a range of years beginning with 1960 and ending with a more recent graduate of 2004.
“(The artists) are active educators in higher education, professionals in graphic design or independent artists,” Nuell observed. “Their works are seen across the country and internationally in galleries and museums, are found in private collections, and seen in regional and national publications.”
Opening Monday, Sept. 18, in the Todd Gallery on the MTSU campus, the show will run through Friday, Oct. 6, and include a closing reception for the artists from 4 to 7 p.m. in the gallery lobby.
Paintings, prints, clay work, sculpture and graphic design imagery will be among the media featured in the show, with each artist represented by at least three images.
The MTSU art department’s first graduate, Howard Hull, now a retired professor of art education living in Louisville, Tenn., will be among those whose works are presented as part of the alumni show, as will Jere Chumley, the art program’s second graduate and now a retired professor of fine arts, who resides in Cleveland, Tenn.
Regarding the art department’s beginnings, “Seventy years ago, in 1926, Hester Rogers Ray was hired to teach art education courses at Middle Tennessee State Teachers College to elementary education majors,” Nuell explained. “But it was not until 1960 that Howard Hull became the first graduate of the art department, receiving a B.S. in art education, with Jere Chumley following in the next year.
“Both (Hull and Chumley) studied with David LeDoux, retired professor of art, and the late Fred Reubens, who was chairman of the two-person department,” added Nuell, who notes that art has since grown to a faculty of 24, with more than 200 majors in three degree areas—namely, a bachelor of fine arts in the areas of painting, clay, printmaking, graphic design and sculpture; a bachelor of science in art education; and a bachelor of arts program in art history.
Since its first graduates, all of whom “passed through that famously unique Art Barn” until 2005, Nuell said, the Department of Art has undergone growth in not only faculty but facilities, with hundreds of students and graduates earning degrees in studio art, art education, graphic design, and most recently, art history.
Aside from 1960-61 graduates Hull and Chumley, the alumni show will feature works by ‘70s graduates Charles Massey Jr., printmaking professor at Ohio State University; photographer E.K. Waller of Los Angeles; Janet Gilmore-Bryant, an artist/teacher in Richmond, Va.; jewelry designer Margaret Ellis of Nashville; artist/teacher Vicky Randall; comics artist/author/teacher Carol Tyler of Cincinnati; Wayne White, a Los Angeles-based artist and video production designer; and the late Mary Stanley, a sculptor.
Artists who graduated from MTSU’s art program in the ‘80s who will participate in the alumni show are John Marshall, an art coordinator and painter residing in Meridian, Miss.; Julie Jack, professor of visual arts at Tennessee Wesleyan; and artist Janet McNutt of Cleveland, Tenn. Additionally, participating alumni who graduated during the ‘90s will include artist Steve Sanders; graphic designer; Kevin Leonard of Oak Park, Ill.; Knoxville-based artist Dawn Kunkel; painter Tim Hooper of Nashville; graphic designer Jeff Porter; and Aaron Grayum, a painter/writer/graphic designer residing in Nashville.
More recent art department alumni, all of whom graduated between 2000-2004, also will take part in the alumni show, including clay artist Dawn Perault of St. Paul, Minn.; printmaker Tracey Goodrich of Minneapolis; Nashville’s Hans Schmitt-Ratzen, an artist and preparator for the Frist Center for Visual Arts; painter Dan Hall; and Patrick Brien of Nashville, an artist and preparator for the Cumberland Gallery.
• Gallery Hours: The Todd Gallery at MTSU is open 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. each Monday-Friday and closed on all state holidays. Admission is always free.
For more information regarding the alumni show or its individual artists, please contact Nuell at 615 898 2505.



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