C-N Students Spark Jefferson City’s First Art Crawl

Four of a Kind — C-N students (l-r) McKenzie Wampler, Nathanael Mosher, Hannah Williams and Megan McSwain will move a step closer to graduation with the open their senior gallery shows Sunday afternoon. Wampler will be the first artist to utilize The Creek’s new Creekside Room, while Mosher, Williams and McSwain will present their works in C-N’s Omega Gallery.

Four senior art majors and two exhibits less than a half-mile apart might not rival Manhattan, but it’s a start that may expand over time, hopes Carson-Newman’s David Underwood.

C-N’s art department and The Creek are partnering to pull off Jefferson City’s first art crawl on Sunday. The afternoon’s events begin simultaneously at 2 p.m. when Megan McSwain, Nathanael Mosher, McKenzie Wampler and Hannah Williams open their senior gallery shows.

Wampler’s exhibit will be the official inaugural event for The Creek’s new venue, the Creekside Room. The coffeehouse/creamery/sandwich shop began as a nonprofit enterprise before developing a more traditional business model in the last six months. Located at 110 Old Andrew Johnson Highway in Jefferson City, the business is part of the revitalization effort for the Historic Mossy Creek District.

“The beauty of art is that it has no boundaries, no restrictions, no rules,” said Wampler, an art major who has designs on med school after May graduation exercises. “My love for science and anatomy meets my artwork in figure studies… I attempt to communicate deeper truths through some of my work, while others are created out of mere exploration of aesthetics.”

Some five blocks south of downtown, C-N’s Warren Art Building’s Omega Gallery will host the three-artist display of McSwain, a photography major, and art majors Mosher and Williams. Both Mosher and Williams are part of C-N’s Honors Program and their exhibits will include their respective capstone projects. A reception from 2 until 4 p.m. will kick off the three week exhibit.

“We’re excited by this opportunity for our students and for the community,” said Underwood, C-N’s art department chair. “It may be the first art crawl in town, but we hope it’s an idea that takes root and grows in the coming years.”