Murfreesboro Poet, Photographer and Painter Laureates will be featured at the Murfreesboro City Hall rotunda during the Boro Art Crawl on August 9. The public is invited to meet the laureates and view their creative work during the reception which will be held from 6 to 9 p.m. Refreshments will be served.
2019 marks the second year of the Murfreesboro Laureate program. Poet Laureate Kory Wells, Photographer Laureate Gale Stoner and Painter Laureate Ashley Buchanan were selected among a talented pool of artists to represent the city of Murfreesboro. The Art Crawl provides an opportunity to meet the artists and see their art on display. The exhibit runs from Aug. 9 through Aug. 15.
The Murfreesboro Cultural Arts Laureate Program is a notable honor for local artists, providing recipients with further opportunities to educate, advocate, and represent the community through their own creative initiatives. Laureates serve for one year with an optional one-year renewal.
This year's Painter Laureate Ashley Buchanan is an artist, filmmaker, and designer with a vastly interdisciplinary practice, ranging from drawing, animation, and film, to wood carving and photography. Her involvement in Murfreesboro's creative community is equally expansive. She is the founder of the production company Creative Movements, is a longtime contributor to several regional youth arts camps, and has been awarded by Tennessee Parks & Recreation for her extensive volunteer service to the arts community. Buchanan says, "Painting can be used to develop the imagination, inspire, and relieve stress. Art shapes the world and can be used to shape views…I want to use art to uplift and inspire our community."
Photographer Laureate Gale Stoner's foray into Fine Art photography began in the mid-sixties while he was stationed in Duluth, Minnesota. Through a successful twenty-one-year career in the Air Force and two decades as a professional speaker, Stoner has continued to hone a masterful and professional photographic practice, with great contribution to the landscape tradition. As a Laureate, Stoner continued his outreach with veterans and volunteer youth education classes. He also completed an outreach program for the residents of Doors of Hope. With the support of the Paul Mitchell School and the help of four volunteers, he provided a glamour portrait session for the 12 participants. Photos from this session along with his work with the Tennessee State Veterans Home and Possibility Place are currently on display in the Rotunda at City Hall.
Returning Poet Laureate Kory Wells is a longtime Murfreesboro resident best known for her work with the League of Women Voters. She is author of the poetry collection Heaven Was the Moon from March Street Press, and her writing appears in publications nationally and abroad. In her first term as Poet Laureate, Well's outreach included writing poems with incarcerated women in Murfreesboro's Doors of Hope program and founding Poetry in the Boro.
Submissions are currently being accepted for the 2020 Laureates at www.culturalartsmurfreesboro.submittable.com. Laureates will be announced in January 2020.
The Boro Art Crawl was founded in 2015 by a group of local artists to help foster the artistic community in their hometown. For more information about the Boro Art Crawl, visit boroartcrawl.com.
Murfreesboro Parks and Recreation Department is dedicated to providing vibrant public spaces and inclusive programs delivered with visionary leadership and caring staff that engage the individual and strengthen the quality of life of our community.