Creative Arts at Austin Peay State University
Mission
For over 20 years, the Austin Peay State University Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts
(CECA) has been providing students, the Clarksville community, and
the middle Tennessee region with one-of-a-kind experiences in visual arts, music, creative writing, theatre,
and dance.
The Center brings more than 100 world-class writers, musicians, performers,
and artists to campus each year to work with APSU students in master
classes, concerts, and workshops. This program provides
undergraduate students with graduate-level experiences that they
will take with them into the workplace or graduate school.
For the public, the Center provides countless free and low-cost exhibitions,
lectures, readings, concerts, and performances, including the Clarksville Community Concert Series
which will be celebrating its 50th Anniversary during the 2009 -
2010 season.
From ceramics to sculpture, you’ll find all kinds of art – and artists – at Austin Peay.
The Nashville Scene has hailed the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts for “attracting heavyweight poets for years…everyone from Gwendolyn Brooks and Allen Ginsberg to Galway Kinnell and Eavan Boland.”
Though you won’t see them on stage, visiting artists and artists-in-residence have a visible impact on APSU theatre and dance students.
The Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts sponsors the annual Clarksville Community Concert Series, which includes lectures and performances by renowned musicians such as classical guitarist Philip Hii, the American Brass Quintet and Grammy Award-winning ensemble Chanticleer.