Alumni Association

Gadsden State Alumni Association, Walnut Gallery team up for free event

The Gadsden State Community College Alumni Association and the Walnut Gallery is hosting “An Acoustic Evening with Alumni and Art” from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. March 13. All alumni and Gadsden State supporters are invited to attend the free event.

“This is a great way for the alumni association to recruit new members as well as network with others who are supportive of Gadsden State and its mission,” said Justin Hayes, president of the alumni association.

“An Acoustic Evening with Alumni and Art” will feature music from local bluegrass great Glen Williams and local landscape artist Bryce Lafferty.

“This event will combine two popular forms of the fine arts – music and art,” said Mario Gallardo, owner of the Walnut Gallery and division chair of Gadsden State’s fine arts department. “People will be entertained at the Walnut Gallery, a venue they may have never visited before, while learning more about how they can get involved with the Gadsden State Alumni Association.”

Williams has been a part of northeast Alabama’s musical landscape since his days in the school band in Hokes Bluff. He is known for his bluegrass style and is a co-founder with his wife Felicia of the Foggy Hollow Bluegrass Gatherin’. He has performed with several well-known bluegrass acts, including Doyle Lawson and IIIrd Tyme Out. For over two decades, Williams has been playing the guitar and mandolin as the leader of the Foggy Hollow Band. He is also a member of the worship band at North Glencoe Church.

Lafferty will have several watercolors of landscapes on exhibit. He is an associate professor at Jacksonville State University, where he teaches painting, watercolor, illustration, digital drawing and foundations drawing. His works have been accepted into many juried exhibitions in Alabama, North Carolina, Ohio, Connecticut, Tennessee and Georgia. Lafferty has been featured in solo exhibitions at such venues as the Birmingham Botanic Gardens, Heritage Hall Museum in Talladega, Horizon Gallery in Carrolton, Texas, and the Hammond Gallery at JSU.

Light refreshments, beer and wine will be served. For more information, contact Brandy Hyatt, liaison for the Gadsden State Alumni Association, at bhyatt@gadsdenstate.edu or 256-549-8247.

The Gadsden State Alumni Association is selling commemorative, personalized bricks that will be placed in the newly-renovated courtyard at the College’s Wallace Drive Campus to raise funds for student scholarships.

The bricks are $100 each and include three lines of 16 characters or spaces per line.