CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Austin Peay State University’s Department of Art + Design, with support from the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, is hosting the 57th Annual Juried Student Exhibition April 14-30, 2025. This exhibition will be in The New Gallery and is free and open to the public, with an awards night to be held from 5:30-7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 30.
This competitive juried show honors the Department of Art + Design’s outstanding student artists for their hard work and creativity. The show is professionally juried from outside Austin Peay State University, emulating the practice of real-world art shows. The exhibition showcases the array of artwork produced by students during the past academic year and allows students to participate in a professional exhibition where a qualified juror selects artwork and artistic merit awards.
“As an educator and practicing artist, it is an honor and privilege to be asked to jury an exhibition, especially at another university,” said this year’s juror, Kariann Fuqua. “To see the work produced by students is a glimpse into the art world’s future … ultimately, the work I selected drew me in with the combination of a technical approach or material exploration married with a strong conceptual pull.”
Fuqua is an instructional assistant professor of art and the director of museum studies at the University of Mississippi. Her abstract artwork uses drawing and painting to investigate the edges of environmental disaster. She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Kansas State University and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Her work has been widely exhibited in solo and group shows across the United States including Stand4 Gallery (Brooklyn, New York), Jenkins-Johnson Gallery (San Francisco, California), Governors Island (New York, New York), Hyde Park Arts Center (Chicago, Illinois), Byron Cohen Gallery (Kansas City, Missouri), Manifest Gallery and Drawing Center (Cincinnati, Ohio), Stoveworks (Chattanooga, Tennessee), Athens Institute of Contemporary Art (Athens, Georgia), and the Mississippi Museum of Art (Jackson, Mississippi).
In 2008, Fuqua was awarded a public commission at McCormick Place in Chicago. She received a Joan Mitchell Foundation full fellowship to the Vermont Studio Center and an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Mississippi Arts Commission. She was recently awarded grants from the Puffin Foundation and South Arts, and her work was published in New American Paintings, F Stop Magazine, and the Artist’s Magazine. She currently lives and works in Oxford, Mississippi.
This year’s exhibition features 55 works of art chosen from 178 submissions, created by the following artists: Ralph Acosta, Aba Allerup, Arrie Arcega, Kaos Armstrong, Lizzie Bagby, Emelia Beck, Chloe Bell, Ginger Bertoni, Sara Blanton, Brennan Byard, Kayla Cathey, Delilah Chacon, Lucas Chadwick, Cynthia Clark, Shae Cross, Abbi Farthing, Jordan Fulsom, Kaitlynn Gerogianis, Lily Goodowens, Lauren Gray, Logan Hardison, Kamau Hargrow, Noah Hoosier, Naomi Hundt, Garlyn Jarrell, Colyn Jones, Dion Jones, Jacqueline Justice, Ashlee Knowlton, Cheyenne Korenich, Jackie Lewis, Aaliyah Louis, Rebecca McWhorter, K. Muñoz, Yesenia Roldan Ponce, Syd Macpherson, Victoria Nave, Jada Powell, Radio Pryor, Ryan Sharratt, Herzel Sireci, Julianna Smith, Lincoln Smith, Thomas Wilson, and Liz Vatovec.
“Art is a powerful form of communication, and I look for work that makes me think about our collective place and purpose in society,” Fuqua said. “To those artists not selected this time, keep pushing, making, thinking, and experimenting. At this critical juncture, the world needs more art and artists to create a more just, caring, and transformative future. We are all better off with you in it.”
For more on this free public exhibition, contact Dickins at dickinsm@apsu.edu. To learn about future CECA Visiting Artist Speaker Series events, visit https://www.apsu.edu/art-design/galleries/visiting-artists.php.
About the Department of Art + Design
Established in 1927, The Department of Art + Design is one of the original departments at Austin Peay State University. Accredited by the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, the department offers studies in animation, art education, art history, ceramics, drawing, digital media, graphic design, illustration, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture. The department is housed in the College of Arts and Letters and consists of 19 full-time faculty for approximately 350 students. Three on-campus galleries also support the art and design programs. In 2017 the department moved into a state-of-the-art building. The Department of Art + Design also houses the Goldsmith Press and Rare Type Collection, a remarkable collection of antique and vintage wooden letterforms. To learn more about the department, contact McLean Fahnestock, department chair, at fahnestockm@apsu.edu.
About the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts
Since 1985, the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA, or “seek-ah”) has been providing students, the Clarksville community, and the middle Tennessee region with engaging experiences through the Art + Design, Creative Writing, Music, and Theatre & Dance programs at APSU. CECA brings as many as 85 guest artists to Clarksville each year and presents up to 100 public arts and culture events annually, including concerts, exhibitions, artist lectures, master classes, artist residencies, and more. In addition, CECA provides the arts faculty at APSU with research opportunities to enhance their professional growth as well as numerous student scholarships each year to support APSU’s own emerging artists. To learn more about the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts at APSU, contact Dr. Andrea Spofford at spofforda@apsu.edu.
