[330] Emmy-Winning MTSU Grad Wayne White Returns To Campus To Mentor Students, Deliver Free & Open Lecture March 18

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 1, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919, or lrollins@mtsu.edu

EMMY-WINNING MTSU GRAD WAYNE WHITE RETURNS TO CAMPUS
TO MENTOR STUDENTS, DELIVER FREE & OPEN LECTURE MARCH 18
Visiting Artist Will Participate in Book-Signing Event During Campus Visit

(MURFREESBORO)—The Department of Art will welcome back one of its own this month when Emmy-winning artist Wayne White returns to his alma mater to work with current art students and participate in a lecture/book-signing event on campus.
Christie Nuell, MTSU art professor, said, “We are delighted that one of our most
distinguished alums will be returning to campus for the week of March 15-19. Wayne will be working in the printmaking studio creating an edition of silkscreens and an etching, and will be engaging our students in dialog about their work.”
White's campus visit will culminate with a March 18 lecture and book signing beginning at 7 p.m. in the Business and Aerospace Building’s State Farm Lecture Hall.
During the free and open event, White will sign copies of his Todd Oldham-edited book, Wayne White: Maybe Now I'll Get the Respect I So Richly Deserve, which was published by Ammo Books in 2009.
The 400-plus page title, in full color, documents White's career from shortly after his graduation from MTSU in 1979 until late 2008, including sketches done for music videos and the sets of TV shows such as Riders in the Sky and Pee Wee's Playhouse, for which he was awarded several Emmys.
“Much of the book is devoted to White's more recent ‘word paintings,’ in which he paints giant letters that spell out edgy phrases and epithets in photorealistic detail over framed lithographic reproductions of bucolic landscapes,” Nuell observed. “These have caught the eye of collectors, including Todd Oldham, across the country and overseas.”
White sells his art in galleries in New York, Los Angeles and Dallas. His recent commissions include a large piece displayed on the exterior of a museum for Art Basel in Miami last December.
Copies of Oldham’s book will be sold at White’s lecture for discounted rate, according to event organizers.
For more information about the March 18 lecture and book signing, please contact Nuell in MTSU’s art department by calling 615-898-2455.

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• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request an advance interview with artist Wayne White via telephone, please contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs with your request by e-mailing lrollins@mtsu.edu or by calling 615-898-2919.



With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.