Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University music majors, from left, Logan Ray, Lubbock freshman, Carly McClain, Marshall senior, and Greg Garcia, San Antonio freshman, rehearse a scene from the School of Music’s 2017 opera theater, Otto Nicolai’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor.” The opera will be performed at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, March 30 through April 1, in W.M. Turner Auditorium on the SFA campus. Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for seniors and $7.50 for students and youth. For tickets or more information, visit www.finearts.sfasu.edu or call the SFA Fine Arts Box Office at (936) 468-6407.

Dr. Kenneth Farrish, the Hiram and Gloria Arnold Distinguished Professor of Forestry and director of the Division of Environmental Science at Stephen F. Austin State University, will present “Intestines of the Earth” at the upcoming Regents Lecture.

Farrish, the 2016-17 Regents Professor, will deliver the address at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 27, in the Math Building, Room 101, on the SFA campus. Refreshments will be served, and there is no admission charge. The Phi Eta Sigma induction ceremony will follow the lecture.

Reserved for exemplary university role models, the title of Regents Professor is the highest honor SFA bestows upon members of the faculty and is held for one academic year.

Farrish’s address will provide an overview of the field of soil science with a focus on a surprisingly important group of soil-dwelling animals.

“I am extremely grateful for this honor and to be a member of SFA’s highly dedicated and talented faculty,” Farrish said.

An SFA faculty member since 1996, Farrish earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in forestry from Michigan Technological University in 1977 and 1981, respectively. He received his doctoral degree from the University of Minnesota in 1985.

This is the 12th in a series of lectures delivered by SFA Regents Professors. The SFA Office of the Provost and the University Lecture Series Committee sponsor the series.

Acclaimed artist Benito Huerta will serve as juror for the 23rd Texas National, Stephen F. Austin State University’s acclaimed art competition and exhibition, which opens April 8 and runs through June 10 in The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

Texas National features an assortment of art, including photography, painting, sculpture and mixed media, according to John Handley, director of SFA galleries. This year’s exhibition includes over 90 pieces of art by 81 artists from 29 states. This year’s event will include entries by Sarah Jentsch and Korey Burns, SFA art students whose work Huerta selected for the competition.

The School of Art’s annual juried competition and exhibition attracts entrants from across the United States, providing artists an opportunity to have their work juried by highly regarded artists and critics, such as Huerta, Handley said.

“Texas National provides an important opportunity for students and emerging artists to have their artwork seen by an established artist of national status,” Handley said. “It also provides an opportunity for our own SFA School of Art students to see what current trends are emerging in contemporary art across the United States.”

Because Texas National accepts an assortment of art, “we receive plenty of surprises based on what the juror selects,” Handley added.

A show of Huerta’s own work can be viewed in Reavley Gallery during the same exhibition period as Texas National. Huerta received a B.F.A. from the University of Houston and his M.A. from New Mexico State University. He was co-founder, executive director and emeritus board director of “Art Lies,” a Texas art journal. He is a professor at the University of Texas at Arlington where he has been director/curator of The Gallery at UTA since 1997.

His work was recently featured in one-person exhibitions at the Houston Museum of African American Culture, the Wichita Falls Museum of Art and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art. Other recent one-person exhibitions took place at the Glassell Gallery, Shaw Center for the Arts, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago and at the Ellen Noel Art Museum in Odessa. Huerta is a past recipient of the Dallas Center for Contemporary Art’s Legend of the Year Award and Exhibition. His work is in several museum and corporate collections throughout the United States. For additional information about the artist, visit http://flyingchalupaproductions.com

Huerta will give an artist/juror talk at 5 p.m. Saturday, April 8, at the art center, followed by the announcement of this year’s Texas National winners during the exhibitions’ opening reception, which begins at 6 p.m.

The exhibitions and reception are sponsored in part by the SFA Friends of the Visual Arts, Nacogdoches Junior Forum, Texas Commission on the Arts and R&K Distributors, Inc.

The Cole Art Center is located at 329 E. Main St. For more information, call (936) 468-1131.

Stephen F. Austin State University’s SFA Gardens will host its annual Garden Gala Day Plant Sale from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, April 1, at the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, 2900 Raguet St., in historic Nacogdoches.

The sale will feature a variety of hard-to-find, “Texas-tough” plants, including Texas natives, heirlooms, tropicals, perennials, shrubs, trees with an emphasis on pollinator-friendly selections, as well as exclusive SFA introductions. The featured plants are extensively trialed before being offered to the public and are produced by staff members and volunteers of the SFA Gardens.

This popular event benefits the SFA Mast Arboretum, the Pineywoods Native Plant Center, Ruby M. Mize Azalea Garden and Gayla Mize Garden, along with educational programs that are hosted monthly at the gardens. Educational programs provided at the SFA Gardens reach more than 15,000 participants annually.

Parking will be available at SFA’s Janice A. Pattillo Early Childhood Research Center, 2428 Raguet St., and visitors are encouraged to arrive early and bring a wagon for their plants.

For more information and a list of available plants, call (936) 468-4404 or visit sfagardens.sfasu.edu.