Register Now for the 4th Annual Auburn Writers Conference!

On Friday and Saturday, October 18-19, 2013, the Auburn University College of Liberal Arts’ Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts and Humanities and Department of English will host the fourth annual Auburn Writers Conference, “Artful Crossroads: Where the Arts Intersect.” The conference offers instruction, practice, perspective, and community for both established and emerging writers. 

“Artful Crossroads” invites writers and readers to come together and talk not only about craft and publishing, but about the ways in which our words reflect other forms of art. For some, it will be the creation of characters who happen to be artists, for others, it might be the fusing of literature with another kind of artistic expression, such as music, visual art, or performance.

The 2013 conference will feature keynote speakers Cristina Garcia, finalist for the National Book Award and author of the upcoming King of Cuba, and Taylor Mali, one of the most well-known poets to have emerged from the poetry slam movement. Also featured: Chantel Acevedo, A. Manette Ansay, Emma Bolden, David and Jeanne Heidler, Skip Horack, Keetje Kuipers, Kevin Moffett, Michael Farris Smith, Susan B.A. Somers-Willett, and Kristin Tubb, among others. Visit the conference website for an updated list of writers and workshops.

Cristina Garcia

Taylor Mali

Registration fees are as follows: Full conference, $250; Friday or Saturday only, $150. Students may register at a rate of $20 per day ($35 per day including lunch).

The 2013 Auburn Writers Conference is sponsored by the College of Liberal Arts’ Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities, Department of English, Department of Music, Department of Theatre, School of Communication & Journalism, Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures, the Southern Humanities Review, and the Auburn University Special Lectures Fund.

For more information, please visit our conference website, follow the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities on Twitter (#AWC13) or join us on Facebook for updates. 

Sneak Preview of POV's THE WORLD BEFORE HER

On Thursday, September 5, 6:30 p.m., the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University will screen a sneak preview of Point Of View’s The World Before Her (60 minutes) at the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (450 East Thach Avenue). The screening is free and open to the public.

The World Before Her is a tale of two Indias. In one, Ruhi Singh is a small-town girl competing in Bombay to win the Miss India pageant—a ticket to stardom in a country wild about beauty contests. In the other India, Prachi Trivedi is the young, militant leader of a fundamentalist Hindu camp for girls, where she preaches violent resistance to Western culture, Christianity and Islam. Moving between these divergent realities, the film creates a lively, provocative portrait of the world's largest democracy at a critical transitional moment—and of two women who hope to shape its future.

Joyce de Vries, Associate Professor in the Department of Art and Director of the Women’s Studies program, will lead a discussion before the film. Refreshments will be served.

PBS’s POV is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. The screening is sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University and the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

Education and Democracy Symposium

Education and Democracy Symposium, a set on Flickr.

Community Arts Partnership

Community Arts Partnership, a set on Flickr.

Sneak Preview of POV's BEST KEPT SECRET

On Thursday, August 1, 6:30 p.m., the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University will screen a sneak preview of Point Of View’s Best Kept Secret (90 minutes) at the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship (450 East Thach Avenue). The screening is free and open to the public.

In Best Kept Secret, Janet Mino, who has taught a class of young men for four years, is on an urgent mission. She races against the clock as graduation approaches for her severely autistic minority students. Once they graduate and leave the security of this nurturing place, their options for living independently will be few. Mino must help them find the means to support themselves before they "age out" of the system.

Angie Burque, assistant professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work, will lead a discussion following the film. Refreshments will be served.

PBS’s POV is television's longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films. The screening is sponsored by the Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for Arts & Humanities in the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University and the Auburn Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.

One-Day Professional Skills Development Event For Community Arts Organizations and Artists

On August 8, 2013, the College of Liberal Arts at Auburn University, in partnership with the Alabama State Council on the Arts, invites the public to attend a one-day arts conference titled, “Exploring FuturePrograms & Partnerships for Community Arts Development” from 8:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m. at Biggin Hall, on Auburn University’s main campus. This conference will be of interest to community arts organizations, artists, students, art volunteers, art educators and anyone who is working, or plans to work in the arts.

The organizing partners recognize that there is a broad range of needs for Alabama artists and community arts organizations. This pilot program aims to build connections and initiate a series of education opportunities in the future that will offer professional skills development for artists and community arts organizations.

“We are thrilled to offer this one-day pilot project initiated by our College, in collaboration with the Alabama State Council on the Arts, to determine the needs of arts organizations and independent artists in the state and to hopefully fulfill them through future programming and partnerships, that can also benefit our  Auburn University nascent artists” said Associate Dean for Educational Affairs in the College of Liberal Arts, Dr. Giovanna Summerfield “We are looking forward to the outcomes of this exciting event.”

 “Exploring Future Programs & Partnerships for Community Arts Development” includes: a showcase of three community arts projects; tips to improve grant writing skills; social media and marketing for arts organizations and individual artists; and, how art-based internships can benefit organizations or individual artists. The Alabama State Council on the Arts will present a session that we hope will demystify the grant process as well as enable participants to meet and ask questions of our program managers about grants.

The showcased organizations will include presentations by Shirley Spears, director of B. B. Comer Memorial Library in Sylacauga, Alabama, with Dr. Ted Spears, chair of Sylacauga’s ‘Magic’ of Marble Festival; Phillip Preston, director, East Alabama Arts Association, and Martha Lockett representing ArtsRevive, Selma, Alabama. The presenters will tell the story of the development of their community arts organizations and their growing success.

Sara Hand Custer, City of Auburn Parks and Recreation cultural arts director, and Michelle Hopf, an intern and region coordinator for Poetry Out Loud, will discuss the benefits of arts internships. Robert French, who teaches public relations at Auburn University, will offer tips on social media and the arts, and Tony Ventimiglia, associate director education communication in the  Office of the Vice President of Research at Auburn University, will offer grant writing tips. Program managers representing the various arts programs at the Alabama State Council on the Arts (ASCA) will provide an overview of ASCA grants and deadlines, and will answer attendees’ specific questions.

All events will occur at Biggin Hall, which is located at 112 S. College Street in Auburn, Alabama. Registration for “Exploring Future Programs & Partnerships for Community Arts Development” is $15 for the entire day, including lunch, or from 1:15 through 4:00 p.m. only for no admission. Registration is required in both cases.  For a full schedule and to register, visit the event website at: http://www.auburn.edu/communityarts or call 334-844-4903.

The “Exploring Future Programs & Partnerships for Community Arts Development” partnership includes the College of Liberal Arts, the CLA Community and Civic Engagement Initiative, the Department of Art, Caroline Marshall Draughon Center for the Arts & Humanities, and Alabama State Council on the Arts.

Visit from Bob Gamble