After juggling night classes and a full-time job at Eastman Chemical Company, Mrs. Mary Beard Martin earned her bachelor’s degree in chemistry from East Tennessee State University in 1962. When she passed away in 2008, her husband sought a unique way to honor her memory. While she held a career in chemistry, his wife always had an affinity for the arts. So, in late 2008, James Martin agreed to endow $1 million to the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts at ETSU. His wife’s namesake officially opened in January 2009.This semester, the school celebrated its one-year anniversary, and Mr. Martin was so pleased with its progress, he donated another $1 million.

“Jim really liked what was happening,” said Anita DeAngelis, director of the School of the Arts. “He could see that his donation was truly impacting the arts in our community and some of the programs were beginning to provide benefits to our students.”

In its first year, the Mary B. Martin School of the Arts booked eight different activities that bring a variety of art forms to ETSU and the surrounding communities. One was a screening of “Stark Love,” a silent film about Appalachia that had formerly been lost.

“Apparently the film was found in an archives in France,” said DeAngelis. “There’s only one copy of it in the United States now.”

The film was shown at the Paramount in Bristol and children of the Appalachian actors – some of whom had never seen the movie – were invited to the screening.

Last fall, the school brought New York-based jazz fusion band Spyro Gyra, which has recorded an album nearly every year since its inception in the ’70s, to the Culp Center. This spring, the 51st Society of Illustrators exhibition was presented at Slocumb Galleries.

Still to come this semester are Juilliard String Quartet performance on Monday, March 25, and the Mountain Visions 2010 Annual Juried Exhibit, held April 5-June 25.

“We really are trying to represent across the arts,” said DeAngelis. “I’m also trying to promote some diversity on campus.

“In our first season it was very hard because we had to put it together so quickly but now I’m really looking to do some other things.”

This September, for example, Nashville band Eclectica – which includes percussionist Roy Wooten, who also performs with Bela Fleck and the Flecktones – is coming to town, as are traveling art exhibits Bagels & Barbecue and Cherokee Carvers.

Thanks to additional funding from the Southern Arts Federation, the Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Film Makers will also bring six independent feature-length films to campus in the next school year. One will be shown each month throughout the fall and spring semesters.

World-renowned performers Ensemble Galilei will bring their multimedia show to ETSU in the spring. As part of their Universe of Dreams project, the group will play Celtic music while images are projected from the Hubble Space Telescope. Neal Conan, of NPR’s Talk of the Nation, will narrate the performance, which centers on creation.

“There’s a Native American creation story in the mix and several other pieces of literature,” said DeAngelis. “I think that’s going to be very exciting.”

To learn more about what the Mary B. Martin has in store for ETSU and the Tri-Cities, visit www.etsu.edu and click the “ETSU Arts” tab.

To purchase tickets for this Thursday’s Juilliard String Quartet performance, call 439-4276.

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