Sumner County

Fifty-four students have graduated from the Adult Education High School Equivalency program at Volunteer State Community College. The program held a graduation ceremony recently at the Vol State campus to celebrate.

Nicholas Bishop, Esq., Vice President for Economic and Community Development at Volunteer State Community College, was the guest speaker. Graduate Brandon Dees (pictured above) was the Class Valedictorian. Both individuals addressed those in attendance during the evening commencement program on June 23rd.

The Art Gallery at Volunteer State Community College will be showing the work of artist Alex Lockwood in October and November. The Central Basin of Middle Tennessee is home to a globally unique desert-like ecosystem known as the Cedar Glade. Surrounded by Eastern Red Cedars, these clearings are made of limestone rock formed 500 million years ago during the Ordovician geological period. The exhibition “A Future Field” is a depiction of a Tennessee Limestone Cedar Glade in the distant future.

The Art Gallery at Volunteer State Community College will be showing the work of artist Matt Eddmenson of Nashville. The exhibit is open to the public. A graduate of The Art Academy of Cincinnati, Eddmenson draws from a range of influences and sources for his practice, including Cowboy Comics, Pop Art, and the work of Cy Twombly. His works are gatherings and reconfigurations of American imagery and iconography, commonly featuring cowboys, skulls, and rodeo horses. He also incorporates images from the golden age of comics and tattoo culture.

Forty-five students have graduated from the Adult Education High School Equivalency program at Volunteer State Community College. The program held a graduation ceremony recently at the Vol State campus to celebrate. LaToya Newsom, assistant administrator of Performance and Accountability with the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development, addressed the graduates.

Volunteer State Community College is celebrating 50 years of service to residents of the 11 counties in the college service area. Groundbreaking for the Vol State Gallatin campus was held on a cold and blustery day in November of 1970. The college opened for classes in October of 1971. The campus opened in 1972.

Volunteer State Community College is reopening all campuses starting July 20: Gallatin, Springfield, Cookeville, and Livingston. It will be a safe reopening with masks and social distancing required for everyone on campus and an online screening form filled out before people come to campus. The goal is to get students and people considering college ready for fall classes. Safety is a primary consideration for the fall semester.

Volunteer State Community College students will celebrate the season with two nights of Christmas favorites. “Christmas Past and Present” will feature several groups from the Performing Arts Department: the Commercial Music Ensemble, the Jazz Music Ensemble, and the Vol State Showstoppers. The concerts also mark the release of a CD of Vol State student work. This year’s CD will be on sale at the shows.

The drawings of Nashville artist Marilyn Murphy will be on display at the Volunteer State Community College Art Gallery in October. The professor of Art emerita at Vanderbilt University has been shown in 390 exhibitions nationally and abroad.

The works of wife and husband artists, Heather Jones and Jeffrey Cortland Jones, will be on display at the Volunteer State Community College Art Gallery in August and September, opening the fall season for the gallery. The Ohio couple have shown their pieces nationally and internationally. They both make extensive use of colors with his pieces often paint on panels and her creations in fabric