Everything Nac

Stephen F. Austin State University’s Dr. George Avery, staff archeologist and cultural heritage coordinator, will present “Archeology of Two Freedom Colonies in Deep East Texas” during the East Texas Archeological Society meeting at 7 p.m. Jan. 26 in the Ferguson Building, Room G78, on the SFA campus.

 

Meetings are open to the public. The society has met five times a year — primarily on the SFA campus — since 2009.

 

Avery’s presentation will chronicle his ongoing work identifying freedom colonies — those in which African Americans settled after they were freed following the Civil War. Avery, along with volunteer archeological stewards from the Texas Historical Commission, began to unearth the history of two of these often-neglected gems: the Sand Hill Community in Nacogdoches County and Shankleville in Newton County.

 

The Texas Freedom Colonies Project, started in 2014 by Dr. Andrea Roberts of Texas A&M University, has identified over 700 freedom colonies in Texas.

 

“This project emphasizes the point that Shankleville and Sand Hill are indeed freedom colonies that developed independently from 1870 to 1920,” Avery said. “Even though many of the features that initially made up the specific freedom colonies are no longer surviving, such as the schools, stores, homesteads, and masonic lodges, we might still have archeological projects that will allow a remembering of the various features.

 

“Of course, we also want to shed light on the features that do survive, such as the churches and cemeteries, by having people from those respective communities come to the sites and tell their stories. The people may also look at found archeological artifacts and offer their personal interpretations.”

 

To do this, Avery and volunteer stewards excavated the land with metal detectors and dug 50-by-50-centimeter shovel test units. The areas tested at the Shankleville Community included an 1870s homestead, a store and a 1920s homestead. At the Sand Hill Community, a school was tested. A sample of the artifacts from these excavations will be presented during the meeting.

 

Avery’s work is supported by a grant from the Summerlee Foundation in Dallas, SFA students, members of the East Texas Archeological Society and the Deep East Texas Archeological Society, along with volunteers.

 

The purpose of the meetings is to bring together those with an active interest or curiosity in archeology and the history of East Texas and to promote public awareness of local archeology. Past meetings have included discussions on updates from the Caddo Mounds and Mission Dolores State Historic Sites, as well as results from archeological surveys, among many other topics.

 

For more information, contact Avery at averyg@sfasu.edu.

A reception to mark the closing of the exhibition “Jennings Tofel: Drawing Genesis” is planned for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 19, at The Cole Art Center @ The Old Opera House in downtown Nacogdoches.

The “Drawing Genesis” exhibition is curated by Dr. David A. Lewis, professor of art history at Stephen F. Austin State University. Tofel was a well-respected avant-garde American artist who regularly exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in New York and Chicago, as well as Paris, France, according to Lewis. From 1920s through the 1950s, Tofel’s solo exhibitions were reviewed in Art News, Art Digest and other magazines, as well as in the major New York newspapers. Since his death, two monographs, including a lavish Abrams book, have been published. His work is represented in the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Hirschhorn Museum, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, among other notable collections. A few pen-and-ink and ink-wash drawings executed variously in a symbolist or expressionistic style are also included in the exhibition, which closes on Friday, Jan. 20.

Admission to the exhibition and reception, which is sponsored in part by William Arscott and the Friends of the Visual Arts, is free. The Cole Art Center, SFA’s historic art gallery, is located at 129 E. Main St. Gallery hours are from noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. For more information, call (936) 468-5500.

Stephen F. Austin State University School of Music will present the 2023 Pineywoods Horn Day featuring Dr. Eldon Matlick Saturday, Jan. 21, in Wright Music Building on the SFA campus.

The second annual Horn Day targets horn players in middle school, high school and college as well as semi-professional performers. Event coordinator Dr. Andrea Denis, assistant professor of horn at SFA, opens the day’s activities with a warm-up session at 9 a.m. There will be presentations, rehearsals, a master class with Matlick and a horn maintenance clinic with Jim Jones who is sponsored by Tatum Music. The day concludes with concerts by Matlick, the SFA Horn Choir and Horn Day participants beginning at 4 p.m.

Matlick is retired as a professor of horn at the University of Oklahoma. He was principal hornist with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra and the Norman Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a Conn-Selmer educational artist.

Pre-registration before Jan. 13 is $20 and includes a T-shirt. Registration the day of the event is $20 but does not guarantee a T-shirt. The registration form can be accessed at https://music.sfasu.edu/hornday.

For more information about Pineywoods Horn Day, contact Denis at andrea.denis@sfasu.edu. For more information about the SFA School of Music, call (936) 468-4602.