UT Martin to Co-Host Bellwethers Juried Collegiate Student Exhibition

The University of Tennessee at Martin’s Department of Visual and Theatre Arts, in partnership with the West Tennessee Regional Art Center, is hosting the seventh annual Bellwethers Juried Collegiate Student Exhibition, an exhibition of artwork created by undergraduate students from two- and four-year institutions throughout Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina and Virginia.

The exhibition will be held through Friday, Nov. 15, at the West Tennessee Regional Art Center in Humboldt.

The exhibition will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. A closing reception and awards ceremony will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. Nov. 15.

The juror for this year’s competition is Beth Edwards, an award-winning artist and retired professor of painting from the University of Memphis, where she taught for 21 years.

This year’s exhibition was particularly competitive, with only 92 accepted works from the total 257 individual pieces submitted from across the nine eligible states.

The Bellwethers competition is a long-standing annual tradition at UT Martin, beginning in 2000 as Artists of the 21st Century before going through a rebranding in 2018.

At the exhibition's inception, Lane Last, professor of graphic design, and Department of Visual and Theatre Arts Chair Doug Cook – both now retired – worked together to create an exhibition that allowed college students to showcase their artwork and network with other artists across the region.

Last passed away the weekend before the exhibition began on Oct. 21. He retired in July 2024 after 25 years of teaching, and the exhibition has continued under new oversight, but his legacy carries on.

“After Lane’s retirement, we wanted to make sure that there was a way to honor all the hard work and dedication he put into making this exhibition possible,” said Clay Palmer, gallery and events coordinator and current coordinator of the Bellwethers exhibition. “So, the Visual and Theatre Arts faculty met together and decided that creating the Lane Last Award for Best in Show was the best way to do that.”

Of the 61 artists chosen, 16 are from the UT Martin visual arts program, including sophomore Heather Alexander of Obion, sophomore Natalie Anderson of Paris, sophomore Emily Brown of Troy, freshman Terrah Edwards of Memphis, senior Megan Flowers of Big Sandy, junior Callie Hollowell of Jackson, senior Ben Joyner of Alamo, junior Do Hee Kim of Seoul, South Korea, senior Matthew Mancusi of Martin, freshman Natalie Munday of Union City, junior Kathryn Redlund of Camden, senior Alyssa Rogers of Trenton, junior Amanda Smith of Jackson, junior Mickela Stewart of Selmer, senior Joshua Turner of Henderson and junior Riley Waggoner of Milan. For more information, call Palmer at 731-881-7917 or email him at jpalme36@utm.edu.