School of Fine Arts

The Fairmont State University Academy for the Arts is now accepting registrations for its fall term classes and music lessons. The Academy was formed last year and incorporates the former Community Music Program as the Music Preparatory Department and preparatory departments in other arts areas. 

Students and faculty members from the Fairmont State University Academy for the Arts will offer a free public performance at 2 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 9, at Heston Farm Winery in Fairmont.

In July, the Fairmont State University Town & Gown Summer Theatre will present the popular musical “South Pacific,” with music by Richard Rodgers and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II.

Continuing the longstanding tradition of high quality outdoor theatre performances at Prickett’s Fort State Park, Town & Gown Summer Theatre will honor veterans and members of the U.S. Armed Forces with special ticket prices and special recognition at each performance.

“Town & Gown Summer Theatre is an important educational, as well as entertaining, endeavor. The School of Fine Arts hires students from Fairmont State and other colleges and high school interns, and all learn to work as a team to bring about a successful production,” said Peter Lach, Dean of the School of Fine Arts. “Part of the University’s mission is to strengthen the educational, economic and cultural well-being of our region. The School of Fine Arts is proud to partner with Prickett’s Fort State Park to provide outdoor theatre for North Central West Virginia. We also are proud to salute our nation’s veterans through this summer’s production.”

The Fairmont State University Marching Band continues to grow, but band members need your help to look as good as they sound. First impressions matter, and the band wants to “Dress to Impress.”

The Fairmont State Alumni Association, Office of Institutional Advancement, the Fairmont State Foundation, the FSU Department of Music, the FSU Marching Band and the Fairmont State Band Alumni Association are inviting the community to participate in a fund drive to purchase new band uniforms.

What is today Fairmont State University was first established in 1865 as the West Virginia Normal School at Fairmont, a private institution dedicated to educating teachers. Many decades and name changes later, it was the proud teaching tradition that gave birth to “Mountain Mother Goose.”

“Mountain Mother Goose” – which this summer becomes an operetta for young audiences and in the fall will become a published collection of childlore and a curriculum for public school teachers – has been a labor of the love of folklore for a distinguished group of Fairmont State faculty members.

Jingles, jangles, rhymes, The Hunkitchy Man, The Greedy Old Fat Man, Marigold and more -- you’ll find them all in “Mountain Mother Goose,” an operetta for young audiences.

The production, presented by the Fairmont State University School of Fine Arts, the Town and Gown Youth Company and the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center, will be on stage in the Wallman Hall Theatre at 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 8 and 9, and at 2 p.m. on Sunday, June 10. Following each performance will be a reception to meet the composer and the cast at the Folklife Center. Tickets are $12 and are available by calling (304) 367-4240.

If you are brave enough to walk down a darkened path to the Prickett Cemetery during Memorial Day weekend, you will hear “Whispers in the Wind.”

The original play, written by Fairmont State University students in Dr. Francene Kirk’s children’s theatre class during the spring 2012 semester, provides the unique opportunity to hear the voices of those who lived and died on the frontier. Participating student writers were Morgan Davis, Suzanne Hall, Kate Thompson, Kelly Blake, Kaici Lore, Jennifer Scholtz, Jessica Snyder, Shana Suesli and Lakyn Arrick.

On Sunday, April 22, the Fairmont State University School of Fine Arts held its annual Awards Ceremony to honor students and their accomplishments. Attending the event were students, their families, alumni and faculty and staff of the School of Fine Arts.

“The strong scholarship support that the School of Fine Arts receives from the Fairmont State Foundation allows us to attract talented, well-prepared students to our programs. The enrollment of those students raises the bar for all our students, a kind of ‘trickle up’ effect, which is very welcome,” said Peter Lach, Dean of the School of Fine Arts.