News

WILSON, N.C. - Please join the Barton College community for a "Blessing of the Animals" service to be held on Sunday, Nov. 9, at 3 p.m.. There is no charge, and the surrounding community is invited to attend the service.

Each year, on or around the date of the Feast Day of Saint Francis of Assisi, a number of churches mark the occasion by having a service of blessing of the animals. Theologically, its purpose is to testify to the sacredness of all of creation, to celebrate its richness and variety and, more specifically, to acknowledge the importance of animals, especially companion animals, to our own spiritual growth and development. The service involves the literal blessing of animals by the priest or minister.

Barton's "Blessing of the Animals" service, to be led by the Reverend Hollie Woodruff, will last approximately 20 minutes and will take place on center campus. All pets are welcomed, but please consider the wisdom of bringing aggressive animals. Please leash all pets as appropriate. Large animals also are welcomed, but they must be led onto center campus and not ridden. Clean-up supplies and water will be available.

For additional information or questions, please contact Rev. Woodruff at 252-399-6368 or email: hewoodruff@barton.edu.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

WILSON, N.C. - Barton College's Victor R. Small Writers Series welcomes young adult fiction writer Eleanor Tate for a reading to be held in The Sam and Marjorie Ragan Writing Center on Monday, Oct. 27 at 7:30 p.m. The upcoming event is open to the public at no charge, and the community is invited to attend.

Children's author, folklorist, teacher, and former newspaper reporter, Tate was named a 1999 Zora Neale Hurston Award Winner, the highest award given by the National Association of Black Storytellers, and her latest book, "Celeste's Harlem Renaissance" (2007), was recognized with the 2007 North Carolina Book Award for Juvenile Literature and the International Reading Association 2008 "Teachers' Choice" Award.

Tate's previous award-winning books include "Front Porch Stories at the One-Room School" (1994; 2007), "To Be Free" (2003), "African American Musicians" (2000), "A Blessing in Disguise" (1995), "Retold African Myths" (1993) "Thank You, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.!" (1990), and "The Secret of Gumbo Grove" (1987).

"Just an Overnight Guest" (1980, 1997) was made into a award-winning film shown on PBS' "Wonderworks Series" and "Nickleodeon."

Her essays have been in the "Journal of Children's Literature," "Book Links," "Obsidian Three," "North Carolina Literary Review," "The New Advocate," and "African American Review," among others. She wrote the introduction to "Sayin' Somethin'," Stories from the National Association of Black Storytellers, Inc., and the introduction to Ronald Daise's picture book "Little Muddy Waters." Her short stories, books, and articles are recognized for celebrating neighborhoods, communities, and the families who live there.

Tate was cited by the South Carolina House of Representatives and the South Carolina Senate for her contributions to children's literature and community activism, and she received the Dr. Annette Lewis Phinazee Award from North Carolina Central University during its 2000 Charlemae Rollins Colloquium. She also received the Iowa Author Award from the Des Moines Library Foundation.

An instructor with the Institute of Children's Literature based in Connecticut, she currently teaches children's literature at North Carolina Central University in Durham. She also serves as an associate professor in the School of Graduate Studies' Master of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Adults, at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn.

Tate was born in Canton, Mo., where she also attended a one-room school before moving to Des Moines, Iowa.  She completed a Bachelor of Science degree in Journalism at Drake University. As a journalist, Tate wrote for the "Iowa Bystander and the "Des Moines Register and Tribune" newspapers. With her husband, photographer Zack E. Hamlett III, she also was co-owner and president of Positive Images, Inc., a public relations company. They currently live in North Carolina and are members of St. Paul AME Church in Raleigh. And, they have a dog named Shaka Zulu, who now writes a column of his own.

This event is sponsored by the Department of English and Modern Languages at Barton College. For additional information, please contact Dr. Rebecca Godwin at 252-399-6364 or email: rlgodwin@barton.edu.

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Questions? Contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu

WILSON, N.C. — Barton Art Galleries is pleased to announce the opening of two photography exhibitions on Sunday, Oct. 26, from 2 - 4 p.m. Early and recent work by acclaimed photographer Burk Uzzle will be in the Virginia Thompson Graves Gallery and a selection of work from three photographers from Eastern North Carolina featuring images and artifacts dating from the 1920's to 1970's will be on view in the Lula E. Rackley Gallery.

Uzzle portrays a unique blend of American sensibility, themes, and values through his photography. His images are sometimes quirky, sometimes humorous, and always respectful of the people or places he has observed. Many images in the exhibition are large-scale color photographs of places found on country roads and other venues off the beaten path.

"Uzzle's wonderful sense of color rests on a fine line between the visual balance of his composition and the delicate, sometimes bizarre social order of the places he depicts," said Gerard Lange, director of exhibitions at Barton.

Also on view in Uzzle's exhibition, is a selection of black and white prints taken at Woodstock in 1969. Billed as "An Aquarian Exposition," the music festival was held at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the rural town on Bethel, N.Y. The festival exemplified the 1960's and 70's counterculture, the hippie era, and hosted 32 of the best-known musicians of the time who performed for almost 500,000 attendees.

Placed under contract at the age of 23, Uzzle was the youngest photographer hired by "Life" magazine. He later ventured into a 15-year membership in Magnum Photos, the international photographers co-operative, where he served for two years as its president before leaving in 1983. Uzzle is represented exclusively by the Laurence Miller Gallery in New York, and his work is included in many museum and private collections worldwide.

The concurrent photography exhibition "Images of 20th Century North Carolina" pays homage to photography during the mid 20th century. A portion of the exhibition has been devoted to the photography of Bayard Wootten who chose a pictorial style for her work. Her images include beautiful gardens and splendid landscapes, but her greatest accomplishment was the recording of both black and white Americans of the working class. While Wootten's photographs recall a forgotten time and culture, they retain a freshness and vitality for viewers today. The Bayard Wootten Collection is on loan from the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Born in New Bern, Wootten first pursued drawing and painting as a cottage industry and is credited with the original Pepsi-Cola logo. Around 1904, the possibility of photographic orders replacing labor-intensive artwork steered her to cameras. Wootten identified with the pictorialist style, despite its decline in popularity after 1910. Stylistically, her photographs recall the Farm Securities Administration images from the Great Depression, and often resemble the work of Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange.

Managing to overcome obstacles typical for her gender, Wootten eventually attained national recognition. Her first studio was in a small building beside the family home in New Bern, but over the course of her career, Wootten worked in several other locations in North Carolina and also briefly operated a studio in New York City.

At one point in her career, Wootten employed a Wilson native by the name of Charles Raines. Born in 1919, Raines attended Randolph Macon Military Academy and Atlantic Christian College. He later opened his own photography studio in 1947 with another Wilsonian, Guy Cox.

Throughout their career, the two men photographed nearly every facet of Wilson life from weddings, to schools, to street corners, to the tobacco industry. They also captured images of famous visitors to Wilson such as Lady Bird Johnson, President Jimmy Carter and Andy Griffith. In a "Wilson Daily Times" article in 1993, the studio was quoted as having shot more than 39,000 studio portraits. Raines passed away in 2001, but at age 86 Guy Cox is still enjoying his work. He is keeping up with the digital age of photography through weekly classes at Wilson Community College.

The exhibition pays homage to the photography of Raines and Cox, and to the historical record they captured on film and have housed for years in their studio on Nash Street. On view in the Rackley Gallery will be a selection of photographs from the 1950's as well as studio portraits from the 1960's and 70's. Also included in the exhibition will be numerous artifacts collected over the 60-year career in photography: studio equipment, cameras, and negatives. The exhibition also will include a partial reproduction of their darkroom.

The "Burk Uzzle: Photographs" and "Images of 20th Century North Carolina" exhibitions will run through Wednesday, Dec.10. A private dinner and lecture for the Barton College Friends of Visual Arts, featuring photographer Burk Uzzle, will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 28 from 6 - 8 p.m. This event is open only to members. For membership information, please call Caroline Hart, assistant vice president for institutional advancement, at 252-399-6533 or email cohart@barton.edu.

Author Jerry Cotten will lecture on photographer Bayard Wootten's work on Thursday, Nov. 13 at 7 p.m. This event is free of charge and open to the public. Keith Barnes, photojournalist for "The Wilson Daily Times," will present a talk on Guy Cox and the Raines & Cox Photography Studio on Tuesday, Nov. 18 at 1 p.m. This event is also free of charge and open to the public.

Gallery hours are Monday-Friday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the exception of holidays. For additional information, please contact Gerard Lange, director of exhibitions, at 252-399-6475 or email glange@barton.edu.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

WILSON, N.C. - With bright blue shirts scattered around the city on Wednesday, Oct. 22, one might wonder what's going on, but no need to guess. You will have just spotted some busy "bulldogs" from Barton College. With over 620 participants signed up, students and professors at Barton College will set aside books and campus staff members will step away from desks for Barton's inaugural "Day of Service" on campus and in the Wilson community.  (A slideshow of the Day of Service is available by clicking here or on the photo above.)

This new campus initiative supports Barton's vision for its graduates to be "well-prepared for life and for success in their chosen careers because they will possess a lifelong commitment to learning, service, and achievement."

Through participation in these one-day projects, Barton hopes to provide its students with a foundation for developing a deeper appreciation for service learning and a stronger sense of civic responsibility, as well as meeting needs within the broader Wilson community.

"Developing a lifelong commitment to service is part of the ‘Barton Experience,' and Barton College's Strategic Planning Team has initiated a ‘Day of Service' for the Barton campus community to provide an intentional opportunity to give back to our hometown community of Wilson," said Richard Marshall, vice president for administration and finance, and chair of the Day of Service Committee.

"Service and civic engagement help provide living, breathing values for a college or university, and Barton's ‘Day of Service' allows us an opportunity to put our vision into practice in very real and, hopefully, significant ways for our neighborhood and broader community."

The Day of Service will begin with a kick-off breakfast for participants at 8:30 a.m. followed by brief remarks by Dr. Norval C. Kneten, president of Barton College. The campus community will then disperse to assigned locations for service and return to campus later that afternoon to share reports of work and refreshments.

Local service projects include working with Habitat for Humanity, the Wesley Shelter, Youth of Wilson, the American Red Cross, the City of Wilson at Gillette Park, the Arts Council of Wilson, St. Therese Catholic Church and School, St. John AME Zion Church, the ARC, Boys and Girls Club/Salvation Army, the Clothes Line, First Christian Church, Imagination Station, Jackson Chapel First Missionary Baptist Church, Mental Health Association, New Hope Elementary School, United Way, Wilson Crisis Center, and Wilson Pregnancy Center. Campus-related service projects will include Spanish interpretation services for the Hispanic community, as well as a number of building and grounds maintenance projects.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-236-7202 or 252-289-7846, or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.

Wilson, N.C. - Barton College is pleased to welcome renowned historian Fitzhugh Brundage as the featured speaker for the upcoming BB&T Heritage Lecture in American History scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 21. Dr. Brundage's lecture will address the question "Is Southern History Still a Front in the Culture Wars?" The program will begin at 7 p.m. in Hardy Alumni Hall and is open to the public free of charge. Sponsors for the evening include BB&T, the Department of History and Social Sciences at Barton College, and the Wilson County Historical Association.

Dr. Brundage is the William B. Umstead Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Director of Graduate Studies in UNC's Department of History. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Chicago and a Ph.D. from Harvard. His books include "The Southern Past: A Clash of Race and Memory" (2005), "A Socialist Utopia in the New South: The Ruskin Colonies in Tennessee and Georgia, 1894-1901″ (1996), and "Lynching in the New South: Georgia and Virginia, 1880-1930″ (1993), which won the Merle Curti Award from the Organization of American Historians and the Elliot Rudwick Award from the University of Illinois Press. Dr. Brundage has received grants from the American Philosophical Society, the Virginia Historical Society, and the American Council of Learned Societies. He is a recipient of the E. Merton Coulter Award from the Georgia Historical Society and is a popular speaker in the OAH's Distinguished Lectureship Program.

For additional information about the program, contact Dr. Jeff Broadwater, chair of the Department of History and Social Sciences, at 252-399-6443 or email: ojbroadwater@barton.edu.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email kdaughety@barton.edu.

Wilson, N.C. - Members of the Wilson community are invited to join Barton College faculty, staff, and students for "Take Back The Night," scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 7. Co-sponsored by the Counseling Services Center and Office of the Chaplain at Barton College and the Wesley Shelter of Wilson, "Take Back The Night" is an annual program that raises awareness about domestic violence.

The Reverend Hollie Woodruff, chaplain of the College, will conduct a service of healing at 11 a.m. in the Hackney Worship Center (lower level of Hackney Residence Hall).

On Tuesday evening, participants will gather at 6 p.m. at the fountain in front of Hamlin Student Center for a Candlelight Vigil. The vigil, protesting violence in homes and in schools, will begin with brief remarks by faculty, staff, and students of Barton College followed by a musical interpretation from the College's Dance Team. As candles are lit, names of people will be read who have lost their lives this year as a result of domestic violence.

Then, with light sticks in hand, participants will walk the Barton Mile around the perimeter of the campus and return to Hamlin Student Center for refreshments and an opportunity to visit the "Take Back The Night" information table.

The event is open to the public at no charge, and the community is encouraged to attend. For additional information, please contact Courtney Manning, director of counseling at Barton College, at 252-399-6587.

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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.