Arts Festival 2012

“The Art of History” is the theme of the annual Macon State College Arts Festival, scheduled for Wednesday, March 21, through Saturday, March 24. For more information, email Arts Festival co-chairs Dr. Sheree' Keith (sheree.keith@maconstate.edu) and Dr. Loretta Clayton (loretta.clayton@maconstate.edu). All events are free and open to the public.


Wednesday, March 21
Presentation by Nancy Anderson: Historical Researcher & Writer
Arts Complex Theater, Macon Campus, 2:15 - 3:45 p.m.


Thursday, March 22
Presentation by Randy Cannon, Brian Renko and Roger Jamison: Basket Makers and Studio Potter
Arts Complex Lobby, Macon Campus, Noon - 4:00 p.m.


Thursday, March 22
Performance by Allan Evans: Opera Singer
Douglass Theatre, downtown Macon, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, March 23
Film showing and discussion of “Like Water for Chocolate”
Professional Sciences and Conference Center, Room 212, Macon Campus, 7:00 p.m.


Saturday, March 24
Reception
Arts Complex Lobby, Macon Campus, 5:30 - 6:00 p.m.

Saturday, March 24
Keynote address and performance by Allan Evans accompanied by Carol Goff, pianist
Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall, Macon Campus, 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.


More about the presenters/performers:

Allan Evans, Opera Singer
Allan Evans was born in Macon, Ga., but his talents as an opera singer have taken him far from his hometown. After studying at Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, and then at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York City, he moved to Europe, where he established himself as one of the world's preeminent bass-baritone opera singers. Known not only for his beautiful voice, but also for his formidable acting skills, Mr. Evans has performed many of what he calls "the monumental roles of operatic repertory," from Mozart's brash Don Giovanni, to the Norse god Wotan in Richard Wagner's Die Walkure. In addition to his operatic roles, Mr. Evans has recorded and regularly performs a treasury of great Negro spirituals that he learned from his family and teachers growing up in Macon. Mr. Evans is a longtime resident of Mannheim, Germany, where he continues to perform and teach. In 1996, the German government awarded him the title of “Kammersanger,” one of the highest honors the country bestows on distinguished singers.

Carol Goff, Pianist
Dr. Carol Goff is Associate Professor, Chair of Keyboard Studies, and Coordinator of the Collaborative Piano Program at Mercer University, Macon, GA. She holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree in Piano Performance and Accompanying from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Roger Jamison, Studio Potter
Roger Jamison has operated a wood-fire pottery since 1990 near Juliette, Ga. He retired from Mercer University’s College of Liberal Arts in 2009 where he taught ceramics, design and drawing since 1974. He attended the University of Kansas and Bethany College and did graduate study at Indiana University. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Bethany and the Master of Fine Arts Degree in Ceramics from Indiana University. His work has been shown in national juried competitions in the US since 1969 and in Italy and Japan. In 1978 he was artist-in-residence with the University of Georgia’s Studies Abroad in Cortona, Italy, and in 2004 with the UGA Studies Abroad in Japan where he studied traditional woodfiring techniques.

Brian Renko & Randy Cannon, Basket Makers
Brian Renko has served as Allied Arts Program Coordinator since April 1997. Brian is a graduate of Mercer University with a Bachelor degree in Fine Art concentration in painting and photography. He exhibits drawings and paintings throughout the state and is included in public and private collections in the South East. Randy Cannon is a resident of Milledgeville. He is a graduate of Georgia College and has been with Allied Arts for the past 33 years, serving as Executive Director since 1994.

Nancy Anderson, Historical Researcher & Writer
Nancy Anderson is an accomplished historical researcher and writer. Her major recent projects involve researching and writing a 230- page biography of Dorothy Vits Lewis; others include articles for the New Georgia Encyclopedia, catalog essays for Museum of Arts and Sciences, genealogical and property studies. She is currently the Chair of the Medical Center of Central Georgia Board of Directors and serves on the Lamar Lectures Committee at Mercer University. She has won numerous awards, including the Governor’s Award in the Humanities. Anderson holds a B.A. in history from Wellesley College and an M.A. in history from the College of William and Mary.


The Macon State Arts Festival is sponsored by the Office of Student Life, the Department of English, the Department of Media, Culture, and the Arts and the Arts Festival Committee.

Arts Festival 2011

The 2011 Macon State College Arts Festival, "The Arts At Work," was March 14-16, 2011. Each day featured an event at 2:15 p.m. in the Arts Complex Theatre and an event at 5 p.m. in the Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall. Events are sponsored by the Arts Festival Committee, the Office of Student Life and the Division of Humanities and are free and open to the public.

Arts Festival 2010

The 2010 Macon State College Arts Festival, "Arts and Interaction," was March 2-4. Events were sponsored by the Arts Festival Committee, the Office of Student Life and the Division of Humanities and were free and open to the public.

Tuesday, March 2

2 p.m. Photography Workshop with Doug Nurnberger in H/SS-108. Nurnberger
is a photographer and a member of Macon Arts. He utilizes computer technologies
to create his photographic artwork, which is often inspired by and contain images of Macon.

5:30 p.m. Doug Nurnberger, Craig Coleman and Craig Burkhalter in the Arts Complex Theatre. Nurnberger is a photographer and a member of Macon Arts. Coleman has worked for the past 15 years in academia teaching a wide range of media including kinetic sculpture, graphic design, installation, digital imaging, and photography. Most recently, he has shown work at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Atlanta. He also has art in outer space on a Japanese satellite that is orbiting the earth. Burkhalter is a teacher on both the high school and college level, Chairman of the Contemporary Arts Exchange/Macon and a prolific artist concentrating in printmaking, drawing, collage and bookmaking. He works in a narrative vein drawing on family lore and personal experiences.

6:30 p.m. Artist Reception and Gallery in the Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall.

Wednesday, March 3

2 p.m. Poetry Workshop with Y.O. Latimore in PSC-112. Y.O. is a poet and director of
Poetic Peach, an organization that meets downtown for spoken word poetry on Tuesday evenings usually held at the 567 Cafe. She has worked with several academic institutions teaching the community about spoken word.

5:30 p.m. Poetry Slam with Y.O. Latimore on the Patio outside of the PSC coffee shop.

Thursday, March 4

2 p.m. Theater Workshop with Firehouse Creative Productions in the Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall. Rachel Parrish and her theater troupe, Firehouse Productions, came to us from London. Rachel is a native Georgian, who has performed across the globe.

5:30 p.m. Firehouse Productions performed “Stella” in the Arts Complex Theatre. “Stella” is a“radical adaptation of Goethe's "Play for Lovers.”

 

Arts Festival 2009

Borderlines: Reading, Writing, Performing Within American Spaces

The 2009 Arts Festival – Borderlines: Reading, Writing, Performing Within American Spaces – is scheduled for March 3-5, 2009. The 2009 theme reflects the multiple identities of our guest artists, as they speak from diverse social spaces:

Tuesday, March 3

5:30 p.m., Arts Complex Theatre, Macon

Lillian Allen

Lillian Allen, a leading figure on the Canadian cultural landscape, specializes in the writing and performing of dub poetry, a highly politicized form of poetry, which is sometimes set to music. Her recordings “Revolutionary Tea Party” and “Conditions Critical” won Juno awards in 1986 and 1988 respectively. She has spent close to three decades writing, publishing, and performing her work in Canada, the US, Europe, and England.

Wednesday, March 4

11:00 a.m., Arts Complex Theatre, Macon

and 7:00 p.m., Warner Robins Campus

Tayari Jones

Supported by the Black History Month Committee

Tayari Jones, an Atlanta-born novelist, is recipient of a 2008 United States Artist Fellowship. Her forthcoming novel, The Silver Girl, is excerpted in Callaloo, Winter 2008. She also wrote The Untelling, which won the Lillian C. Smith Award and was featured at Target as a "Breakout Book," and Leaving Atlanta, which won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.

Thursday, March 5

11:00 a.m., Arts Complex Theatre, Macon State College

Carmen Agra Deedy

Carmen Agra Deedy is an award-winning storyteller and author of numerous best-selling books for children. Deedy was born in Havana, Cuba and emigrated with her family during the Cuban Revolution to Decatur, Georgia, near Atlanta. Her books include Martina, the Beautiful Cockroach, The Yellow Star, The Library Dragon, and Growing Up Cuban in Decatur, Georgia.

4:00 p.m., Arts Complex Theatre, Macon

Lorna Goodison

Supported by the Artists & Lecturers Committee

Lorna Goodison is among the best-known poets of the Caribbean region. She has published six volumes of poetry and her most recent book, From Harvey River (2008), is a memoir. Her honors include the Commonwealth Poetry Prize, Americas Region, and the Musgrave Gold Medal awarded by the Institute of Jamaica for her contributions to literature.

Arts Festival 2008

Making a Living in the Arts

The 2008 Arts Festival – Making a Living in the Arts – was April 15-17. All events were sponsored by the Artists and Lecturers Committee, the Arts Festival Committee, the Office of Student Life, and the Division of Humanities. Featured artists included:

Caroline Aiken, an indie folk/rock artist and teacher based in the Decatur/Atlanta area. An accomplished singer/songwriter, she is also a respected musician know for her skill on both the 12-string guitar and piano. She has played with the Indigo Girls and Bonnie Raitt and been nominated for a Grammy.

Chrysalis Theatre, a cross-cultural, multidisciplinary performance ensemble that has presented innovative and progressive cultural work in western Massachusetts since 1978. Its multidisciplinary group of artists draws on a range of cultural backgrounds to develop new music-theatre productions and to engage in community education and training.

Rick Dahl, the senior news graphic artist for the Rochester Post-Bulletin. He was won numerous awards for illustration, page design and news graphics and is also an award-winning actor, playwright and director.

Andrea Hairston, the Louise Wolff Kahn 1931 Professor of Theatre at Smith College. She directs, teaches playwriting and African, African-American and Caribbean theater literature. An award-winning playwright, author, director, actor and musician, she is artistic director of the Chrysalis Theatre and has produced original theatre with music, dance and masks for more than 25 years.

Pan Morigan, a culturally acclaimed singer, composer and instrumentalist who has produced music for more than 20 theater productions as musical director of Chrysalis Theatre. She toured with Bobby McFerrin's a capella Voicestra and produced and performed Castles of Gold, Songs and Stories of Irish Immigration as both a stage production and as a radio special for Public Radio International.

Micala Sidore, a tapestry weaver who learned the techniques and aesthetics of traditional French tapestry at the Manufacture Nationale des Gobelins in<Paris. She established the Hawley Street Tapestry Studio and developed the TraveLoom, a patented portable tapestry frame loom.

April 15

12:30 p.m. – MSC-TV Greenway Awards, Student Life Center Lobby

6 p.m. – "Threads That Tell Stories: A Short Look at Historical Tapestries" by Micala Sidore, Arts Complex Theatre

April 16

12:30 p.m. – Performance of the play "Dog Logic" by Rick Dahl, Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall

6 p.m. – Performances of the plays "DISPATHCES" and "I Sing Earth" by Andrea Hairston and Pan Morigan of Chrysalis Theatre, Arts Complex Theatre

April 17

11:30 a.m. – Free outdoor concert by Caroline Aiken, Student Life Center Amphitheater

12:45 p.m. – Performance of the play "Dog Logic" by Rick Dahl, Warner Robins Campus Auditorium

1 p.m. – Panel discussion "Making a Living in the Arts" with Caroline Aiken, Andrea Hairston, Pan Morigan and Micala Sidore, Learning Support Auditorium

6 p.m. – Poetry reading by Catherine Brosman, Arts Complex Theatre

6 p.m. – Workshop on Songwriting and Performing by Caroline Aiken, Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall

Arts Festival 2007

Telling Lives

Telling Lives Arts Festival '07 was March 26-29. All events were sponsored by the Office of Student Life, the Division of Humanities, the Arts Festival Committee and the Macon State College Library. Featured artists included:

Patrick Brennan, PhD, a film scholar at Macon State College who teaches courses in English, film history, film theory and digital video production. His specializations are in American underground, world and classic Hollywood cinema.

Craig Hamilton, a local artist internationally renowned for his work on DC Comic's Aquaman. In addition to a comic adoption of "Peter Pan and Wendy," he has designed T-shirts for rock'n'roll bands like Bon Jovi and movies such as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." His repertoire includes theatre set designs and posters, portraits and a collection of fantasy art.

Lucy Anne Hurston, a sociologist and the niece of literary luminary and Harlem Renaissance figure Zora Neale Hurston. She published the multimedia volume "Speak, So You Can Speak Again: The Life of Zora Neale Hurston." This work has the look and feel of a family scrapbook and has been lauded as a valentine to the fans of Zora Neale Hurston.

Vientos del Pueblo, a band that performs music that represents a fusion of cultures and rhythms, combining African, European and American indigenous roots. Featuring the quena, charango, bombo, guitars and bass, the band has appeared on GPTV and CNN.

March 26 – Arts Festival Kickoff and Lecture by Craig Hamilton, 7 p.m., Arts Complex Theatre

March 27 – Musical performance by Vientos del Pueblo, 11:30 a.m., Student Life Center Amphitheater

March 28 – Lucy Anne Hurston lecture, 2 p.m., Warner Robins Campus Auditorium and 7 p.m., Arts Complex Theatre

March 29 – Arts Alive Student Celebration, 11 a.m., Student Life Center Atrium and "What's Love Got to Do With It?" film/lecture with Patrick Brennan, 7 p.m., Arts Complex Theatre

Arts Festival 2006

Poetry & Prose Lectures and Readings

Arts Festival ’06 – Poetry & Prose Lecutres and Readings was March 29 and 30. All events were sponsored by the Macon State College Artists and Lecturers Committee, the Arts Festival Committee, the Office of Student Life and the Division of Humanities. Featured artists included:

Emeritus Professor Edward Baugh taught a the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies and and has held visiting appointments at the University of California, Los Angeles, Dalhousie University, University of Hull, University of Wollongong. Flinders University, Macquarie University, University of Miami, and Howard University. His publications include “West Indian Poetry 1900-1970: A Study in Cultural Decolonisation” (1971), “Critics on Caribbean Literature” (1978), “Derek Walcott: Memory as Vision” (1978), “A Tale From the Rainforest (1988), “It Was the Singing (2000) and an annotated scholarly edition of Derek Wolcott’s “Another Life” (2004) with Colbert Nepaulsingh.

Emeritus Professor Mervyn Morris taught Creative Writing and West Indian Literature at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies and has held visiting appointments at the University of Hull and the University of Kent. He has delivered guest lectures at various universities in the Caribbean, England, Germany, Canada, and the U.S. His books include five collections of poetry: “The Pond” (1973), “On Holy Week” (1976), Shadowboxing” (1979), “Examination Centre” (1992) and “Making West Indian Literalture,” a critical source book of engaging essays and interviews reflecting on the diversity of approaches that composes West Indian writing.

Internationally acclaimed author, distinguished professor of English at the University of California, Berkley, and a national Book Critics award recipient, Bharati Mukherjee has been long know for her elegant, evocative prose and for drawing characters influenced by ancient customs and traditions, but also very much rooted in modern times. Mukherjee is the author of five novels, two non-fiction books and two collections of short stories including “The Middleman and Other Stories,” which was the winner of the 1099 National Book Critics Circle. Her works reflect her Indian heritage and American influences.

March 29 – Edward Baugh and Mervyn Morris, 11:30 a.m., Arts Complex Theatre and 6:30 p.m. Lecture Hall, Warner Robins Campus

March 30 – Bharati Harati Mukherjee, 7 p.m., Arts Complex Theatre

Arts Festival 2005

New Narratives of Identity: Fiction, Memoir, Poetry, and Theory

The 2005 Arts Festival – New Narratives of Identity: Fiction, Memoir, Poetry, and Theory – was March 1-3. All events were sponsored by the Artists & Lecturers Committee, the Arts Festival Committee, the Office of Student Life, and the Division of Humanities. Featured artists included:

Frank Bidart, who was educated at the University of California at Riverside and at Harvard, where he was a student and friend of Robert Lowell and Elizabeth Bishop. Bidart’s early books are collected in “In the Western Night: Collected Poems 1965-1990.” His recent volumes include “Music Like Dirt” and “Desire,” which was a finalist for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award. Bidart is also co-editor of “Robert Lowell’s Collected Poems” with David Gewanter. He also received the Academy’s Wallace Stevens Award, the Lila Wallace–Reader’s Digest Foundation Writer’s Award, the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award given by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and The Paris Review’s Bernard F. Conners Prize. Bidart was elected chancellor of The Academy of American Poets in 2003. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and teaches at Wellesley College.

Janet H. Murray, an internationally recognized interactive designer, the director of Georgia Tech’s master’s degree program in Information Design and Technology and PhD in Digital Media. She is a member of Georgia Tech’s interdisciplinary GVU Center. Murray is the author of “Hamlet on the Holodeck: The Future of Narrative in Cyberspace,” which has been translated into five languages and is widely used as a roadmap to the coming broadband art, information and entertainment environments. In addition she directs an eTV Prototyping Group, which has worked on interactive television applications for PBS, ABC and other networks.

Dale Ray Phillips, who published “My People’s Waltz,” a collection of stories while living in Milledgeville. The stories also had appeared in The Atlantic, GQ, Ploughshares, Best American Short Stories, and New Stories from the South: The Year’s Best. He says of his own work, “writing a story is a strange act of discovery; generally, I find that what I have uncovered is nothing more than what I have always known. Also – and I’m embarrassed to admit this – I love to lie, and fiction offers and acceptable channel for this compulsion.”

Chuck Rosenthal, the author of six published novels: “Loop’s Progress,” “Experiments With Life and Deaf,” “Loop’s End,” “Elena of the Stars,” “Jack Kerouac’s Avatar Angel” and “My Mistress, Humanity.” His short fiction has appeared in numerous literary magazines and he has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and the PEN West Literary Award. His screenplay “Cowboys and Angels” was a finalist at the Sundance Institute. He is the fiction editor for the Los Angeles Review and teaches narrative writing and theory for the Syntax Program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

March 1 – Chuck Rosenthal: Reading from Memoir, 11 a.m. Warner Robins Campus and Discussion, 7 p.m. at the Macon Campus Theatre.

March 2 – Dale Ray Phillips: Reading Short Stories, 11 a.m., Macon Campus Theatre; and Janet Murray: Lecture, 6:30 p.m., Macon Campus Theatre.

March 3 – Frank Bidart: A Conversation About Robert Lowell, 7 p.m., Macon Campus Theatre.

Arts Festival 2004

Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community

The 2004 Arts Festival ­ Digital Storytelling: Capturing Lives, Creating Community ­ was April 7 – 9. It featured nationally known digital storyteller Joe Lambert, director of the Center for Digital Storytelling in Berkley, California. Joe presented his keynote address on Wednesday, April 7 at 7 p.m. on the Wamer Robins Campus and on Thursday, April 8 at 7 p.m. in the Macon Campus Theatre. On Friday, April 9 at 11 a.m. in the Macon Campus Theatre, the Arts Festival will "show and tell" presenting digital stories made by Middle Georgia artists, including Macon State students enrolled in HUMN 2999.

Digital storytellers use digital technologies to create media rich stories that share and preserve our memories. Weaving still and moving images, graphics, music, narrative, and together, our stories offer insights into the people and situations that comprise our rhe accessibility of the Web allows for an interactive and transformative process that makes it possible to build communities of common concern on a global scale.

Arts Festival 2003

Celebrating Cultural Diversity Through Folklore, Stories and Songs

The 2003 Arts Festival – Celebrating Cultural Diversity Through Folklore, Stories and Songs – was April 7, 11, 15, 21 and 24. The Arts Festival was sponsored by the Division of Humanities, with support fir the Macon State College Arts & Lecturers Series and the International Education Committee. Featured artists included:

Cynthia Watts, storyteller of Afro American and African folktales, 12:15 p.m. April 7 in the Arts Complex Theatre. Watts is a member of the speech and drama faculty at Atlanta Metropolitan College and has traveled through rural Georgia conducting school residencies for the Georgia Council of the Arts. She not only performs but also instructs in the art of storytelling through workshops, seminars and continuing education courses. The city of Atlanta selected her as one of 11 artists to present workshops to inner-city children.

Elise Witt, singer and guitarist, noon, April 11 at the Arts Complex Rehearsal Hall. Known for her wide repertoire of international folksongs and other music, Witt has performed in venues ranging from New York’s Carnegie Hall to Nashville’s Bluebird Café to the Popular Music Festival in Siena, Italy. In 1995, she represented the state of Georgia at the Kennedy Center’s 25th Anniversary Celebration. The Raleigh, N.C. Times has said Witt’s “performance is like a suitcase plastered with stickers from all over the world …. populated with interesting characters both heroic an comic.”

Barry Stewart Mann, writer, storyteller and arts educator, 11 a.m., April 15, in the Arts Complex Theatre. Mann began telling stories in 1992, when he was invited to join David Novak on a tandem program of Trickster Tales touring New York schools through the Lincoln Center Institute. He is a member of the National Storytelling Network, has presented at the National Storytelling Conference, was named 1999 National Storyteller of the Year by the Creative Arts Institute an can be heard across the county telling stories on the public radio program “Recess!” He has told in hundreds of venues, including Emory University, San Diego State University and Young Harris College. Man works at professional theaters and presents educational school programs on Shakespeare, Greek mythology, Spanish poetry and world folklore.

Doc Stovall and Jerry Warren, cowboy poets. Stovall and Warren tell stories through poems and songs about cowboys and are know for their humorous looks at the West through parody and satire. Stovall’s work has garnered him several nominations from the Academy of Western Artists. His album, “Western Journeys,” features original music and poetry. Jerry Warren draws on his vast experience as a ranch hand and veteran of the rodeo circuit to support the reality of his writings. He has performed at Elko and Carson City, Nevada, and is a regular at various WestFest events. Stovall was named Official Balladeer of the state of Georgia. Warren was named Official Cowboy Poet of the state of Georgia. They are co-founders of the Cowboy Performing Arts Society.

Carmen Deedy, award-winning storyteller and author of children’s books, 8 p.m. April 24, Arts Complex Theatre. Deedy is a well-known storyteller of Cuban decent who has been featured on National Public Radio, She performed at the 2002 Beyond the Border International Storytelling Festival in Wales, the 2001 National Book Festival in Washington, D.C., and a the national Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Her audio book, “Growing up Cuban in Decatur, Georgia,” was a 1996 Parent’s Choice Gold Award winner and was named Best Audiobook – Storytelling by Publisher’s Weekly in 1995.

Arts Festival 2002

Celebration of Music

The 2002 Macon State College Arts Festival – Celebration of Music – was April 9-11. The festival included the follwing artists and events:

Bisi Adeleke, player of the African talking drum, gave an interactive demonstration, followed by a solo program, 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, in the Rehearsal Hall, Arts Complex.

Rebecca Lanning, Christopher Giles and the Macon State College Chamber Singers presented a program of Hungarian music from noon to 12:45 p.m. Wednesday, April 10, in the Rehearsal Hall, Arts Complex.

Bavarian Flavors, a German folk group, performed from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Thursday, April 11, in the Student Life Center AmphitheaterThere was free frankfurters, sauerkraut and root beer

An International Night of Music, Friday, April 11, Rehearsal Hall, Arts Complex. Performers scheduled to appear were Angela Lee, master of the gu-zheng, 7 to 7:45 p.m.; Vientos del Pueblo, an Andes Indian folk group, 8 to 8:45 p.m.; and the Red Heifers, Macon's own Klezmer band, 9 to 9:45 p.m.

Arts Festival 2001

Cyberculture and the Humanities

Cyberculture and the Humanities, the conference on New Media, was held April 5-6. Sponsored by the Communications & Information Technology Program and the Information Technology Program, Cyberculture and the Humanities focused on ways in which emerging technologies – the New Media – are affecting the humanities and how they are likely to influence and change the communication of ideas in literary, hjournalistic and personal settings The power of the Web has diminished or blurred traditional traditional barriers of time, distance, place, self and community. Leaders in higher education today are confronted with issues regarding how the Web is already transforming the nature of communication in the academic learning community. The conferce goal was to address these issues that challenge our traditional understanding of the humanities. The conference was supported by The Georgia Humanities Council, The Porter Foundation, The Macon State College Foundation, Macon State College Artists and Lecturers Committee and the Macon State College Arts Festival Committee. The event was $20 for students and $45 for others.

Keynote Speaker

The Keynote Speaker on April 5, at 7:30 p.m. was the noted American novelist John Barth, whose book at the time dealt with electronic fiction versus print fiction. He spoke to concerns such as the future of print the nature and implications of hypertext, The tenative of his presentation was “The End of the World as We Know It." Barth is the author of 14 books, including nine novels, two volumes of short stories and volume of novellas and two volumes of nonfiction and other essays. His novel, “The Floating Opera” and a volumme of short stories, “Lost in the Funhouse,” were finalists for the National Book Award in Fiction. “Chimera,” his volume of novellas won that award in 1973. Barth was educated at the Johns Hopkins University. And before returning in 1973 to teach at his alma mater, he held professorships in the English department of Pennsylvania State University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and Boston University. In 2002 he was Professor Emeritus in the Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins. In 1974 he was elected to both the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1997 her was presented with the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Fiction, in 1998 with both the Lannan Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Story, and in 1999, the Pratt Society's Lifetime Achievement in Letters Award

Other speakers

Jim David Bolter was Director of the New Media Center and Wesley Professor of New Media in the School of Literature, Communications and Culture at Georgia Tech. His work with computers led in 1984 to the publication of “Turing's Man: Western Culture in the Computer Age,” a book that was widely reviewed and translated into several foreign languages. His second books, “Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext and the History of Writing,” published in 1991, examines the computer as a new medium for symbolic communication. Together with Michael Joyce, Bolter is the author of “Storyspace,” a program for creating hypertexts for individual use and World Wide Web publication. In “Remediafion,” written in collaboration Richard Grusin, Bolter explored ways in which new digital media, such as the World Wide Web and virtual reality, borrow from and seek to rival such earlier media as television, film, photography, and print. Bolter gave the closing session from 12:45 to 3 p.m., April 6.

Silvio Gaggi, the opening session speaker, from 1 to 2 p.m., April 5, was a professor of Humanities at the University of South Flordia, where he taught interdiciplinary courses in Humanities and Cultural Studies, focusing on the various aspects of 20th century arts and ideas. He has published numerous journal articles dealing with modenr literature, visual art, and film. His book, “Modern/Postmodern: A Study in Twentieth Century Arts and Ideas,” was published by University of Pennsylvania Press in 1989, and “From Text to Hypertext, Decentering the Subject in Fiction, Film and the Visual Arts,” and “Electonic Media,” was published by Penn in 1997.

Arts Festival 2000

The Arts as a Catalyst for Change ...

The 2000 Arts Festival was April 5, 11,19, April 20-22 and April 27-29. The topics included:

“Swamp Gravy: The Rejuvenation of a Dying Southern Town" – Joy Jelks spoke on this topic, April 5 at 7 p.m.. Jelks is a social worker in Colquitt, Georgia and has been one of the driving influences behind the com­munity arts project, "Swamp Gravy," She recently received the Governor's Award in the Humanities and the Georgia Legislature has adopted "Swamp Gravy" as "the official folklore play of the state of Georgia."

"Visions of Change" – An oral interpretation program April 11, at 11 p.m., which features pieces of modern literature that comfront the major social issues of our time. Features Dr. Amy Burt of GC&SU and GC&SU graduate students.

“God's Country” – A production of the MSC Impromptu Players. Playwright Steven Dietz spoke on his play about the militia movement, and about hate crimes in the U.S. on April 19, at 11 a.m. Then, the Impromptu Players production of "God's Country" was at 7:30 p.m., April 20-22, and April 27-29. Macon State College students with a valid "Fee Paid" student I.D, received two free tickets.