APSU Center of Excellence for Creative Arts to host “An Elegant Obsession” on September 7th
August 1, 2018
Austin Peay State University (APSU)
Clarksville, TN – History and fantasy will collide into an evening of pure entertainment during the premiere performance of the musical drama, “An Elegant Obsession,” at 7:30pm on Friday, September 7th, 2018 in the Mabry Concert Hall.
This event will be hosted by the Austin Peay State University Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA), and guests with reserved seating may attend a formal reception from 5:00pm-7:00pm at 416 College Street on the night of the premiere.
“An Elegant Obsession,” to be held September 7th & 8th in the APSU Mabry Concert Hall.
Austin Peay History Students present new research at Fort Defiance event
June 14, 2017
Clarksville, TN – Members of the Austin Peay State University History Club recently had the opportunity to present new research related to Fort Defiance at the historical site’s newest event, titled “Fresh Research, New Discoveries.”
A partnership between APSU’s History Club, Phi Alpha Theta history honors society and Fort Defiance, and funded through a Student Academic Success Initiative grant from APSU faculty senate, “Fresh Research, New Discoveries” saw Austin Peay students John Schuler and Jenny Brown explore the histories of African American men and women during the Civil War.
APSU History Club presented new research about Fort Defiance at “Fresh Research, New Discoveries” event. (Austin Peay State University)
The Freed Slaves of Montgomery County
December 14, 2015
Clarksville, TN – Every human being has worth and deserves dignity. “Everyone matters” is an incredibly powerful humanitarian ideal, and one upon which the United States seems to continually both build and define. We hear the whispers of this ideal within the words of the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
The generation of Americans which fought to free us from the tyranny of Europe in the late 18th Century probably could not have grasped how these words, and the spirit of the ideal they reflect would be used by subsequent generations to form the nation we live within today.
Unknown Slave Women and children
Clarksville’s First Thursday Art Walk to take place April 2nd, 2015
March 27, 2015
Clarksville, TN – Produced by The Downtown Clarksville Association, First Thursday Art Walk is a free, self-guided tour spanning a 5-block radius that combines visual art, live music, engaging events and more in the heart of Downtown Clarksville.
With 10+ venues, bars and businesses participating each month, the First Thursday Art Walk in Clarksville is the ultimate opportunity to savor and support local creative talent.
First Thursday Art Walk in downtown Clarksville scheduled for July 3rd.
Clarksville Arts and Heritage Development Council gives Lifetime Achievement Awards to Dr. Joe Filippo and Dr. Richard Gildrie
November 12, 2014
Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville Arts and Heritage Development Council held a gala reception at Emerald Hills, Austin Peay State University, on Monday, November 10th to honor Dr. Richard Gildrie with the Lifetime Achievement Award for Heritage and Dr. Joe Filippo through the Lifetime Achievement Award for Arts.
The County Mayor, Jim Durrett, was introduced by James Moore, Treasurer of the CAHDC and Director of R. F. Sink Library at Fort Campbell, KY.
Dr. Richard Gildrie (left) and Dr. Joe Filippo (right) received Lifetime Achievement Awards Monday night.
Eighth Annual Clarksville Writers Conference is June 7th and 8th with Pulitzer Prize Winner Alex S. Jones as Keynote Speaker
May 11, 2012
Clarksville, TN – The Clarksville Arts and Heritage Development Council is pleased to announce the Eighth Annual Clarksville Writers Conference, being held June 7th and 8th, 2012, on the campus of Austin Peay State University.
We are very honored to have as this year’s keynote speaker Alex S. Jones, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author of Losing the News: The Future of the News that Feeds Democracy, and co-author of The Patriarch: The Rise and Fall of the Bingham Dynasty with Susan E. Tifft.
Jones, who is currently the director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, will speak at the conference banquet at the Clarksville Country Club on the evening of Thursday, June 7th. [Read more]
Clarksville-Montgomery County to Commemorate 150th Anniversary of Town’s Surrender to Union Naval Forces
January 21, 2012
Montgomery County, TN – The Clarksville Montgomery County Civil War Sesquicentennial or CW150 Commission is preparing for the 150th anniversary of the “Surrender of Clarksville.”
To commemorate this historic event, the CW150 Commission will host a ceremony marking the date on Sunday, February 19th, 2012 at 2:00pm at Fort Defiance Civil War Park.
Fort Defiance Civil War Park & Interpretive Center
APSU Professors’ Dream for Civil War Fort Comes True Three Decades Later
March 31, 2011
Clarksville, TN – In 1982, two young Austin Peay State University history professors – Dr. Howard Winn and Dr. Richard Gildrie – ventured up to the top of a forgotten hill overlooking the Cumberland River. What they found was a wild tangle of bushes and sapling trees, 10 to 12 feet tall, that blocked out the sun and made it nearly impossible to hike through without machetes and axes.
Judge Sam Boaz, who owned the land, had asked the two men to come take a look and see if it was historically important. Rumor had it an old Civil War fort was hidden somewhere in those weeds. The professors hacked their way into that dense mess until they found the old earthen walls and communication trenches of what was known in the early 1860s as Fort Defiance.
Austin Peay State University professors Richard Gildrie (retired), Phil Kemmerly, Howard Winn (retired) and David Snyder stand next to a monument with their names engraved on it at the city’s new Fort Defiance Interpretive Center. (Photo By Charles Booth/APSU Public Relations and Marketing)
APSU’s Center of Excellence Celebrates 25th Anniversary with New Musical by Two APSU Professors
March 30, 2011
Clarksville, TN – One thing that really annoys Dr. Richard Gildrie, emeritus professor of history at Austin Peay State University, is when people commonly mistake Benjamin Franklin for a serious, pompous old man. Don’t even mention to him D.H. Lawrence’s essay criticizing the founding father’s seminal work, “The Autobiography,” unless you’re looking for an argument.
“That essay angered me so much, in which Lawrence took seriously the assumption in ‘The Autobiography’ where Franklin said he wanted to be perfect,” Gildrie said. “The whole thing is obviously a spoof. Few people understand that Ben Franklin was quite a comedian, and the Pennsylvania Gazette was a sort of ‘The Daily Show’ of its time.”
Retired Austin Peay State University professors George Mabry and Richard Gildrie joke around on the tavern set of their new musical “Ben and the Virtues.” (Photo By Charles Booth/APSU Public Relations and Marketing)
APSU Center of Excellence Celebrates 25 Years with Major Arts Events
August 16, 2010
Chris Burawa, the executive director of the Austin Peay State University Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, looked tired. He sat slumped in a booth at the Einstein Bros. Bagels coffee shop with his Blackberry on the table, and a large poster filled front and back with event listings.
“It’s the Center’s 25th anniversary,” he said, lifting the poster, “and we’re going to have a yearlong celebration.”
Chris Burawa at the 2010 Clarksville Writers' Conference.
