[510] MTSU Buchanan Scholar Wells to Study 2 Weeks at Penland School

Release date: June 20, 2011

News and Media Relations contact: Randy Weiler, 615-898-5616 or jweiler@mtsu.edu
Honors College contact: Dr. John Vile, 615-898-2596 or jvile@mtsu.edu

MTSU Buchanan Scholar Wells to Study 2 Weeks at Penland School

(MURFREESBORO) — Kelsey Wells, one of 20 rising junior Buchanan Scholars at MTSU, has received a work-study scholarship for two weeks this summer at the Penland School of Crafts outside Asheville, N.C., University Honors College Dean John Vile said.
Wells' class will introduce her to printmaking. She will leave Thursday, June 23, for Penland, which is located outside of Bakersville in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
“I’m really excited about going,” Wells said. “I knew Penland is something I wanted to do. “I’m not real sure what to expect. I’ve never been to an art camp, but I have attended music camps. I’m trying something different.”
"Penland is a national center for craft education," Vile said. “Kelsey will be taking a class called 'Plate and Type Together.' It will explore how to combine letterpress printing and copper plate etching and will include work on prints, broadsides and books.”
The class will be taught by Bill Hall, a master printer at Pace Prints in New York City, and Amy Pirkle, an instructor at the University of Alabama and the proprietor of Perkolater Press, Vile added.
An award-winning old-time fiddle player whose major concentration at MTSU is in visual communications (graphic design) in journalism, Wells said she expects the printmaking experience to mesh with her interests in old-time music and folklore. She said she has an appreciation for the print work of Hatch Show Print and others – “the traditional vain of doing art,” she said.
After the Penland trip – a time when she will miss attending and competing in the July 1-2 Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and July 8-10 Uncle Dave Macon Days festival in Murfreesboro – Wells will travel to southwestern France to play fiddle for the Cripple Creek Cloggers for 2½ weeks at the international festivals of Morcenx and LaReole.
This will be Wells’ second overseas experience. In high school, she traveled to Costa Rica with the Murfreesboro Youth Orchestra.
Wells was valedictorian of her class at Siegel High School in Murfreesboro. She attended the 2007 session of the Governor's School for the Arts, which is held each summer at MTSU.
In addition to fiddle, Wells' interests include storytelling, writing and speaking German. She has been serving as a work-study student at MTSU. Along with graphic design, she has minors in German and mathematical sciences.
Wells is the daughter of Mike and Kory Wells of Murfreesboro.
The Buchanan Fellowship is the highest scholarship award given to entering MTSU freshmen. The program is named in honor of Dr. James M. Buchanan (’40), MTSU's Nobel Prize-winning alumnus.

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Note: A high-resolution jpeg head-and-shoulders photo of Kelsey Wells is available. To obtain, contact Randy Weiler in MTSU News and Media Relations by calling 615-898-5616, 898-2919 or email jweiler@mtsu.edu.

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In Brief

MTSU rising junior and Buchanan Scholar Kelsey Wells of Murfreesboro has received a work-study scholarship for two weeks this summer at the Penland School of Crafts outside Asheville, N.C., University Honors College Dean John Vile said. Wells' class, called “Plate and Type Together,” will introduce her to printmaking. She will leave Thursday, June 23, for Penland, which is located outside of Bakersville in the Blue Ridge Mountains.



Founded in 1911, Middle Tennessee State University is a Tennessee Board of Regents institution located in Murfreesboro and is the state’s largest public undergraduate institution. In September 2011, MTSU will celebrate its 100th year anniversary with special events and activities throughout the year — kicked off by a Blue-Tie Centennial Gala on Friday, Sept. 9.

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