The Capitol Theatre in Lebanon will be opening its doors to showcase Cumberland University fine arts students’ work during its first ever arts extravaganza.
“This is all about the students,” organizer John Ray said. “It’s all about getting our university art program’s name out to the public.”
Poets, playwrights, visual artists and musicians will share their art with the community on Saturday and Sunday. When the doors open at 6:15 on Saturday night, exhibitions from visual arts students will be displayed in the lobby of the Capitol Theatre.
“There’s going to be a combination of drawings, paintings, sculpture,” fine arts program director Joseph Bates said. “I think there’s even a neon piece in there. Everything has different meanings behind them, ranging from students that are expressing emotions, students that are talking about personal growth.”
The pieces being shown on Saturday and Sunday were mostly produced by juniors and seniors.
“It’s a great thing for the community to know about the arts,” Bates said. “Sometimes I feel like the art world is overlooked at Cumberland. Anytime that we get a chance to get out and show the public that we produce fine art, I’m all for that.”
Students from Cumberland University’s English department will also share their art at the event.
“We have a group of poets, and we also have two original plays that we’re doing in collaboration with the theatre department,” English program director Michael Rex said.
Rex teaches playwriting at Cumberland and was excited for the opportunity for his students to share their plays at the event.
“I was very thankful that John had approached me and said, ‘Do you want to participate?’ ” Rex said. “Particularly for playwrights, there’s very little opportunity — unless you are connected with a theatre or a theatre program — to see your work on stage.”
Poets who are presenting readings over the weekend are members of the university’s creative writing club.
“We’re trying to have them select things that could resonate with an all-ages, mainstream audience,” creative writing associate professor Sandee Gertz said.
When Ray met with the vice president of Cumberland University at the beginning of his time with the department last year, one of the things that was discussed was increasing interdepartmental communication and cooperation between the arts departments. Ray contacted other members of the faculty to begin planning the Arts Extravaganza.
“It’s very easy for arts departments to be so busy doing their own thing creatively that it’s hard to find time to work together across disciplines,” Ray said. “The other thing (discussed) was that we needed to do something to increase visibility of the arts programs both on campus and off-campus.”
