CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Two Austin Peay graduates will spend their summer immersed in art. Khari Turner and Ashante Kindle are two of 38 students who will attend the Chautauqua Institution, in western New York.
According to officials, the young artists from across the country will spend seven-weeks in an “incubator of inclusive and expansive programming in the visual arts”. Studies will be comprised of classes, workshops and one-on-one time with world-renowned artists such as Wendy Red Star and Hasan Elahi.
Turner and Kindle are the only two students from Tennessee who were accepted.
Turner begins his time a s graduate student at Columbia University in September, and Kindle will seek her master’s at the University of Connecticut in August.
Chautauqua’s School of Art meets every summer and welcomes emerging artists who haven’t yet received a lot of recognition. However, Kindle and Turner are beyond being emerging artists. Both are nontraditional students in their late-20s who took extended breaks from college before enrolling at Austin Peay.
Kindle and Turner both see the opportunity to advance their work at Chautauqua, and they both believe that through their art, a change can really be made. “I think moving people is the hardest thing to do,” Turner said. “Once you can figure that out, that’s when you really can make change.”
Kindle added, “I feel like I was given these gifts and either I’m going to run from them or I’m going to run to them.” She said. “I’m going to take every opportunity given to me to make (my gifts) better,” she said. “I feel like the opportunity at Chautauqua is a major one.”