Entries Sought For This Year's FL3TCH3R Exhibit At East Tennessee State University

From East Tennessee State University:

July 19, 2021

JOHNSON CITY – Entries are sought for the 2021 “FL3TCH3R Exhibit: Social & Politically Engaged Art,” which will be held at East Tennessee State University’s Reece Museum from Oct. 4-Dec. 10.

This annual exhibit continues to represent the spirit of social and political movements of the country and world.

“There will be no general theme for entries except a focus on social and politically engaged artworks,” say co-directors Barb, Wayne and Carrie Dyer, who established the exhibition in memory of Fletcher Dyer, a senior ETSU art and design student who was in a fatal motorcycle accident in 2009. “However, this year’s exhibit will especially honor ‘Protection of Voting Rights,’ and continues this year to honor ‘Black Lives Matter.’”

The 2021 juror will be Michael Ray Charles, a contemporary American painter and Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Painting since 2014 at the University of Houston’s School of Art. Charles was a participant in the PBS series “Art21” in 2001 and his work explores historic African American stereotypes from the Antebellum South.

The directors of the 2021 exhibit have issued their Call for Entries to artists through Aug. 23, with an extended deadline of Aug. 31 for an additional fee. A non-refundable fee of $40 is required for submission of up to three entries, with an additional $10 fee per artwork/title over three.

Artists may view the prospectus at fl3tch3rexhibit.com/downloads/prospectus.pdf.

A portion of the entry fees funds the Fletcher Hancock Dyer BFA Graphic Design Scholarship Award, which is given annually to an ETSU Department of Art and Design student.

“As an artist and graphic designer, Fletcher’s passion for art was a vehicle that allowed him to mirror his passion and marry it to his concern for social and political issues through visual means,” says Fletcher’s mother, Barb Dyer, a children’s advocacy attorney. “Fletcher was always curious and aware of current events. He experimented in innovative ways to create works that investigate contemporary social issues.

“The ‘FL3TCH3R Exhibit’ aspires to honor Fletcher’s legacy by providing a venue for artists to exhibit artworks that continue the dialogue.”

The exhibit’s more than $1,500 in awards will be announced and presented during the exhibition reception and juror talk at the Reece Museum on a date still to be determined, according to Fletcher’s father and retired ETSU Department of Art and Design faculty member and Professor Emeritus M. Wayne Dyer.

In addition to the best-in-show and previously established memorial awards, a special award will be presented this year to an artist whose work reflects the “Protection of Voting Rights” movement. Another new award will honor the recently retired Mary B. Martin School of the Arts Director Anita DeAngelis and her husband, Steve Jackson Sr., both of whom have been ardent supporters of the arts and the “FL3TCH3R Exhibit.”

For more information on Fletcher Dyer, visit fletcherdyer.com/about.html. To learn more about the “FL3TCH3R Exhibit,” visit FL3TCH3Rexhibit.com.

This press release was produced by East Tennessee State University. The views expressed are the author's own.