MURFREESBORO — MTSU President Sidney A.
McPhee’s collection of photos from more than a decade of visits to China are
the focus of a special exhibit at the university’s Todd Art Gallery Sept. 10-12
to help celebrate MTSU’s Founder’s Day.
The free
public exhibit, “China: Through the Eyes of an American University President,” is
presented by MTSU Arts and features more than 300 digital images and 30 large
prints in 14 different categories. The photos commemorate McPhee’s visits to
more than 100 Chinese towns, cities and provinces during his tenure as MTSU’s
10th president.
The brief
campus exhibit will then move to the Rutherford County Chamber of Commerce
headquarters on Medical Center Parkway to be seen for a month by an even larger
audience beginning Monday, Sept. 22.
To help
celebrate the presidential photo exhibit, MTSU’s College of Liberal Arts has
planned a special fall reception for the 2014-15 MTSU Arts Patron Society on Founder’s
Day, Thursday, Sept. 11, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Todd Art Gallery.
The
reception is open to members of the public interested in joining the MTSU Arts
Patron Society, which helps support artistic development and student enrichment
at the university with annual giving.
“My goal
has been to capture some of the texture and nuances of the people and places of
China through these images,” McPhee said. “It has helped me learn more about
this fascinating and complex culture and has allowed me to share my
perspectives with others.”
McPhee’s photo
exhibit at the Chamber of Commerce, which is free and open to the public, will
continue through Wednesday, Oct. 22.
The photo
exhibit expands upon McPhee’s 2012 internationally released book of
photographic essays, “China:
Through the Eyes of an American University President,” published by the Hanban-Confucius Institute. In
2013, China’s foreign ministry designated the book as a significant cultural
presentation.
McPhee
has visited the country multiple times since 1999 and has also worked closely
with Chinese educational partners to strengthen MTSU’s international undergraduate
and graduate student enrollment, expand its study-abroad and cultural
opportunities and develop research collaboration. In 2007, China Agricultural University in Beijing named McPhee an
honorary professor, its highest academic award.
MTSU has tripled its international enrollment under
McPhee’s watch and this year welcomed its largest class of international
scholars.
“Dr.
McPhee tells of the beauty and wonder of China’s past, its undeniable progress
and its evolution through images that illustrate the people’s history,
traditions and contemporary life,” Todd Art Gallery Director Eric Snyder said
of the exhibit.
“Comprising
10 years of photographic work and more than 300 images, the exhibit promotes a
positive new understanding of a modern China that is a rising economic and
cultural world power. Dr. McPhee’s work speaks not as a mere tourist but as a
pictorial account that reflects the human connections and personal accounts of
his Chinese friends and colleagues who accompanied him throughout an incredible
journey across an extraordinary country.”
For more
information about MTSU Arts, which presents a full slate of art, theatre and
music offerings at the university each year, or the MTSU Arts Patron Society,
visit http://www.mtsu.edu/supportmtsuarts.
MTSU’s
Todd Art Gallery is open from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and
is closed on weekends and state and university holidays.
For more
information, including parking and directions, contact Snyder at 615-898-5653
or eric.snyder@mtsu.edu or visit http://www.mtsu.edu/art. You also can
find a campus parking map at http://tinyurl.com/MTSUParkingMap14-15.
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