Clarksville, TN — Austin Peay State University’s Department of Art + Design, with support from the Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts, is hosting Professor Emeritus Susan Bryant for an exhibition on the Mann Wall of Legacy, on the second floor of the Art + Design Building.
Selections from Bryant’s photography collection, “Southward,” will be on display throughout the Fall 2026 semester. The exhibition is free and open to the public during normal university business hours.
“I am interested in how nature can act as a metaphor for human emotion,” Bryant said. “I am amazed by how quickly nature can change from comforting to threatening, and that each of these conditions is imbued with beauty, power, mystery, serenity, grace, and allegory. My aim is to capture the timeless essence of a place through close observation of light and dark, space and atmosphere, stillness and silence.”
The Mann Wall of Legacy is made possible by a generous gift from Jim and Dottie Mann. Notable past exhibitions include work by Olen Bryant, Jim Diehr, and Kell Black.
Bryant received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Indiana University and her Master of Fine Arts in photography from Indiana State University. She retired from Austin Peay State University in 2019 after teaching photography for 37 years. Her process spans gelatin silver prints, hand-colored silver prints, and digital photographs, along with the 19th-century techniques of daguerreotypes, tintypes, and wet-plate collodion negatives and positives, known as ambrotypes.
Her work has been widely exhibited across the United States in solo and juried shows. Among her honors, Bryant is a recipient of a Tennessee Arts Commission Fellowship.
More of Bryant’s photography can be seen at her website, susanbryantphoto.com.
About the APSU Department of Art + Design
Established in 1927, the Department of Art + Design is one of Austin Peay State University’s original academic units. Housed in the College of Arts and Letters, the NASAD-accredited department moved into a state-of-the-art facility in 2017.
Today, 19 full-time faculty members guide approximately 350 students through comprehensive studies ranging from animation and digital media to traditional disciplines like ceramics, painting, and sculpture.
The department’s resources include three on-campus galleries and the Goldsmith Press and Rare Type Collection, an extensive archive of antique and vintage wooden letterforms.
About the APSU Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts
Supporting these initiatives is the Austin Peay State University Center of Excellence for the Creative Arts (CECA, pronounced “seek-ah”). Since 1985, the center has enriched the cultural landscape for students, the Clarksville community, and the broader Middle Tennessee region.
CECA drives engagement across APSU’s Art + Design, Creative Writing, Music, and Theatre & Dance programs. It brings approximately 85 guest artists to Clarksville annually and presents up to 100 public events, including concerts, exhibitions, lectures, master classes, and residencies.
Beyond public programming, the center provides APSU arts faculty with vital research opportunities and funds numerous scholarships for emerging student artists each year. To learn more, contact Dr. Andrea Spofford at spofforda@apsu.edu.
