![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/APSUgallery_logo-178x200.jpg\" "\\"APSU"){kind=logo}
For 16 years, Vicki Ranck has taught art to sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Montgomery Central Middle School, and she relies on her experience as an Austin Peay State University alumnus to motivate the young artists in her classroom.<\/p>\nFor 16 years, Vicki Ranck has taught art to sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Montgomery Central Middle School, and she relies on her experience as an Austin Peay State University alumnus to motivate the young artists in her classroom.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had an excellent art program and professors at our disposal at APSU,\u201d she said. \u201cI tell (the students) my room is set up like a \u2018mini\u2019 APSU in that there are centers of study to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ranck\u2019s analogy of a \u201cmini APSU\u201d however extends beyond her classroom to encapsulate the three campuses off Highway 49 that make up Montgomery Central Elementary, Middle and High schools. Or rather, a \u201cmini APSU art department\u201d resides in those buildings because Ranck is one of four APSU alumni teaching art at those schools. <\/p>\n
Lauren Martin, at the elementary school, and Mike Andrews and Debbie Harrison, at the high school, also graduated from APSU. The four teachers\/artists don\u2019t often get to see each other, but next month they\u2019ll get together at the Austin Peay Downtown Gallery for a joint exhibition of their work. The show begins with an opening reception on Thursday, July 1 and runs through July 31st.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard for us to find the time to collaborate so this exhibit is a great way for the four of us to work on a project together,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cI think it is great.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four artists will present works in different mediums for the show. Ranck will display her dark landscapes drawn with a roller ball pen on watercolor paper, and Harrison will present her photography and painting.<\/p>\n
Andrews will exhibit his sculptures, including new works that experiment with machine parts and foundry patterns.<\/p>\n
![\"Smith](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/06\/Smith-Brothers-Road.jpg\" "\\"Smith")
<\/a>Smith Brothers Road<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cI work with stone, clay, metal, wood and just about anything that interests me,\u201d he said. \u201cThe work that I appreciate the most is that of the modern artists of the 20th century \u2013 Brancusi, Noguchi and Chillida, my mentor Olen Bryant, as well as local folk artists like Edmondson, Bagget and Wickham.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin, who once attended both Montgomery Central Middle and High Schools and studied under Ranck and Harrison, will display her pottery at the exhibition.<\/p>\n
\u201cA teacher once told me that the best tools are your own two hands,\u201d she said. \u201cMaybe I knew this as a child, since I have been making pots from mud for as long as I can remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts leased a building in downtown Clarksville to provide gallery space for APSU alumni, such as these four Montgomery Central teachers. The gallery, located at 116 Strawberry Alley in downtown Clarksville, is open from noon to 4:00pm, Tuesdays through Saturdays. For more information on this space or the exhibit, contact Gregg Schlanger at (931) 221-7789 or schlangerg@apsu.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For 16 years, Vicki Ranck has taught art to sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders at Montgomery Central Middle School, and she relies on her experience as an Austin Peay State University alumnus to motivate the young artists in her classroom. \u201cWe had an excellent art program and professors at our disposal at APSU,\u201d she said. \u201cI […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[23,2961,2964,2963,2962],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-Hr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2693"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2695,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2693\/revisions\/2695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}