Athens State Faculty Members Participation in Shoals Exhibit

             Athens, ALA - Works by Athens State University art-faculty members Gail Bergeron, Cara Fuller and Pamela Keller are in “Art of the State,” a juried show featuring pieces by 27 full- and part-time studio-art faculty from two- and four-year Alabama colleges and universities.

            “Art of the State” opens at the Tennessee Valley Museum of Art, 511 N. Water St., Tuscumbia, with a free reception, 1-3 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 22 and continues through Friday, March 2. The body of work then travels to museums in Troy and Gadsden. Museum hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday and 1-3 p.m. Sunday. Cost is $5 adults, $3 children, Sundays free, members free and group rates available.

“This exhibition celebrates contemporary visual art and displays the experimental and creative work of studio artists who teach at Alabama’s colleges and universities,” said Stephanie Qualls, curator of education and exhibits at the museum.

Selections and awards juror Nandini Makrandi, curator of contemporary art at the Hunter Museum of American Art in Chattanooga and assistant professor of art history at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, will give a free gallery talk at the opening reception. Also attending will be several of the artists included in the exhibition.

Bergeron, an associate professor of art at Athens State, attended graduate school in Texas and has taught in Tennessee and Alabama. She spent 13 years at Martin Methodist College, in Pulaski, Tenn., and the past 11 years at Athens State. She has shown her work in Louisiana, Tennessee, Alabama and Massachusetts. She received the Zimmerman Scholarship to Israel, went to India with the Rotary International Exchange Program to India and participated in an Alabama Center for International Programs grant funded by a Fulbright Scholarship to study art and history in Guatemala. She is on the board for Art on the Square Art League and paints on the Elk River. Her exhibited oils on canvas are “Razamataz at Elk River” and “North View Elk River.

Fuller teaches photography at Alabama A&M and Athens State. She received her master in fine art photography from Savannah College of Art and Design.  Most of her work is completed with a large-format view camera and output digitally. Her works in “Art of the State” are “Fuel” and “Landscape.”

Keller, head of the Athens State art department, began making art on the living room floor when she was 18 months old. After earning degrees from Indiana University and the University of Wisconsin, she moved to rural Tennessee and began teaching at Athens State in 1981. She has taught every studio course offered by the university at least once. Her areas of expertise are photography, graphics, art history and painting. Since 1996 she also has worked in bronze and completed numerous works on commission. Her exhibited acrylic is titled “Playground.”

Details at 256.383.0533 or tvaa.net.

For Further Information
Guy McClure
256-233-8296
Guy.McClure@athens.edu
 January 17, 2012
www.athens.edu