Here’s a roundup of education briefs from around Southwest and Southside. Want more education news? There’s no full-time education reporter west of Richmond. You can help change that. Help us fund this position.
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Averett hosts pinning ceremony for first accelerated BSN students
Averett University last week hosted a pinning ceremony for the first cohort of students in its accelerated Bachelor of Science in nursing program.
The event marked the transition from students to nurses following completion of a 16-month program, which Averett launched in 2021 as a professional path for those with non-nursing bachelor’s degrees or at least 60 non-nursing college credits. The program combines an online curriculum with hands-on application in an interactive learning lab. Students also apply their skills through clinical rotations at Bon Secours, the university’s health care partner in Norfolk. After completing the programs, graduates prepare for the National Council Licensure Examination before they can officially begin working as a nurse.
The ABSN program complements Averett’s School of Nursing offerings at its main campus,
including a four-year traditional Bachelor of Science in nursing program, and its Master of Science in nursing program with a focus in family nurse practitioner and emergency nurse practitioner.
The ABSN program has annual start dates in January, May and August.
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Danville CC announces Job Resource Fair
Danville Community College, in partnership with the Danville/Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce, the City of Danville, Pittsylvania County Community Action, PATHS, BrightView, and Goodwill Industries, Inc., is hosting a community-wide Job Resource Fair at the Community Market in Danville on November 1, 2022 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. The event is open to the public and anyone with an employment need is encouraged to attend.
The event is geared toward both job seekers, and employers. Local businesses who are seeking to hire new employees may reserve a space for a table at the event where they will meet job seekers, receive resumes, and distribute information about their open positions.
Job seekers are encouraged to dress for success and bring copies of their resume with them to the event.
Attendees of the event will be welcome to visit each booth and talk to employers and support services personnel.
For more information, or to reserve a space as a business seeking employees, contact Barry Mayo at barry.mayo@danville.edu or call 434-797-8429.
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Wytheville CC announces lineup for monthly bluegrass jamboree
Wytheville Community College will host its monthly bluegrass and old-time jamboree at 7 p.m. Saturday.
The free concert will be held in the William F. Snyder Auditorium on the WCC campus, 1000 E. Main St. Adam McPeak and Mountain Thunder will perform first, followed at 8 p.m. by The Crooked Road Ramblers.
Seating is first-come, first-served basis. The event is free and open to the public, but donations will be accepted to help defray the travel expenses of the bands.
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W&L’s Staniar Gallery presents fall 2022 programs and exhibitions
The first fall exhibition at Washington & Lee University’s Staniar Gallery, “Black Alchemy: if this one thing is true – Redux,” will run through Oct. 5. An opening reception and lecture is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Sept. 20.
The exhibition focuses on the work of Arkansas-based artist and educator Aaron Turner. Turner uses photography as a transformative process to understand the ideas of home and resilience in the Arkansas and Mississippi deltas. His exhibition features photographic still-life studies – taken with a large-format view camera – that are reflections on identity, history, blackness as material and abstraction.
Later this fall, “Distorted Myths” – featuring the work of artist Esteban Ramón Pérez – opens on Oct. 10 and will be on display through Nov. 2.
In his interdisciplinary works, Pérez often incorporates materials such as leather and embroidery, paying homage to his experience growing up in his father’s upholstery shop. Drawing on his West Coast Chicanx experience, his practice can be seen as an expression of rasquache aesthetics, which is an approach to art making based on a theory developed by Tomas Ybarra-Frausto that explores “an underdog perspective, a view from los de abajo [from below].”
Marcela Guerrero, the Jennifer Rubio Associate Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, will join Pérez for an artist’s talk at 5 p.m. Oct. 25 with a reception to follow.
The third fall exhibition, “Terra Ignota: Land Unknown,” explores the art of Amanda Lechner and will be on display from Nov. 7 through Dec. 9. The artist’s lecture will be held at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 15 with a reception to follow.
A spirit of experimentation and discovery permeates Lechner’s studio practice that is inspired by ideas from topics such as imagery quantum physics, alchemy and science fiction. This exhibition is organized around the notion of terra ignota (also known as terra incognita), Latin for “land unknown.” This phrase has been long used in cartography to indicate the unexplored, undescribed or uncharted. In our contemporary age, terra ignota is often used to refer to the unmapped immensity of outer space, the unknowns of the ocean floor or the complexity of the human brain. The show focuses on works in egg-tempera and improvisational fresco – processes that relate to the birth of scientific inquiry and the history of visual art.
For more information about the fall 2022 exhibition and programming schedule, visit Staniar Gallery’s website.
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