APSU’s CECA highlights art innovations on campus during state conference

Austin Peay State University

Clarksville, TN – More than 200 art educators, administrators and artists from across the state visited the Austin Peay State University campus this month to discover new, innovative ways to teach and advocate for the arts in the coming year.

APSU’s Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA) hosted the Tennessee Arts Commission’s 2018 Tennessee Arts and Arts Education Conference, which allowed CECA to show off the groundbreaking projects taking place at Austin Peay State University.

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What Is Jin Shin Jyutsu and How Can It Help Me?

Clarksville, TN– Most people have a reluctance, even a fear, of trying new things. A healing technique that has a Japanese name and involves another person touching your body may make many Tennesseans feel that it’s not something they want to encounter.

Jin Shin Jyutsu (pronounced “jin-shin-jit-soo”) may seem new and different, but I can assure you it’s neither something to avoid nor is it something to fear. It is an age-old healing technique that originated in Japan about 1900 when Jiro Murai, a philosopher, recovered from a life-threatening illness after he rediscovered its methods. The words themselves mean “the art of the Creator in the person of compassion.”

This healing art involves having a therapist gently touch specific points on one’s body while you lie fully clothed on a massage table with, if you like, a small pillow under your head and a larger one under your knees. If you’re fortunate, you’ll have therapist Christina Burawa helping you rid yourself of stress and pain. [Read more]

Award-winning novelist William Gay to read at APSU

Award-winning novelist and short story writer William Gay will give a public reading of his work at Austin Peay State University on July 14.

Gay, a Tennessee native, emerged upon the literary scene later in life, not publishing his first novel, “The Long Home,” until after he was 40. Critics and readers, however, were quick to notice his talent, placing him among such luminaries as William Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy.

Gay has been described as a master of the “southern gothic” novel with his stories focusing on rural characters and locales, and he’s earned numerous accolades to accompany this praise.

He was awarded the 1999 William Peden Award, the 2000 James A. Michener Memorial Prize, a 2002 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2007 Ford Foundation U.S. Artist grant.

Gay is the author of three novels, “The Long Home,” “Provinces of Night” and “Twilight,” and the short story collections, “I Hate to See that Evening Sun Go Down” and “Wittgenstein’s Lolita.” A fourth novel, “The Lost Country,” is due out sometime this year. His short stories have also appeared in numerous magazines, such as Harper’s, Atlantic Monthly, GQ and New Stories from the South 1999 and 2000.

Gay will read from his work at 7:00 p.m., July 14 in Room 303 of the APSU Morgan University Center. This reading is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Susan Wallace with the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts at 221-7031.

APSU to host 41st Annual Student Art Exhibition

The Austin Peay State University Department of Art will host the 41st Annual Student Art Exhibition.

The exhibition, co-sponsored by the Student Art League of the APSU Art Department and the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, will open at 8 p.m., March 30 with the presentation of awards. The show will be from March 30-April 19. The event is free and open to the public.
There will be first-, second- and third-place awards as well as honorable mention in graphic design, 2-D studio art and 3-D studio art. There is also an award for Best of Show and a Purchase Award from the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts.

“About 170 pieces of work were entered and about 65 were juried into the exhibition,” said Ken Shipley, associate art professor and Student Art League adviser.

Olen Bryant, professor emeritus from the APSU Department of Art, and Noel Lorson, graphic design professor from Middle Tennessee State University, juried the exhibit entries.

For more information, contact Shipley by telephone, (931) 221-7325, or by e-mail, shipleyk@apsu.edu.