Augusta University’s partnership with Westobou Festival features art, music and film

This year, Augusta University solidifies its relationship with the Westobou Festival by partnering on four events during the five-day arts festival.

As part of Westobou’s extensive visual arts programming, the Mary S. Byrd Gallery of Art will present Transformative Processes: The Sculptural Work of Matt Toole, from Sept. 24 to Nov. 4, with an opening reception and lecture Thursday, Sept. 29.

Transformative Processes showcases the sculptures of contemporary artist Matt Toole, which are inspired by his home in the Low Country landscape of Savannah.

“I grew to embrace the beauty and imperfection of the natural world,” he says.

As a sculptor who creates with pieces that he collects from the environment as well as man-made objects, Toole constructs and displays found objects in a manner that draws attention to their dynamic form and texture. The new exhibition uses video, photography and three-dimensional models that reveal Toole’s process of transformation and the excitement of, as he states, “the moment when a work of art is created.”

Toole’s lecture and the opening reception for Transformative Processes are free and open to the public. The lecture begins at 5 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 29, in University Hall, Room 170. A reception follows at 6 p.m. in Washington Hall.

The Mary S. Byrd Gallery of Art is located on the first floor of Washington Hall on the Summerville Campus. See augusta.edu/byrd for more information.

Augusta University students will have the opportunity to join the festival at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 28, when students from the Music Department will perform a Student Showcase recital at the Maxwell Theatre.

This free event is part of this year’s Westobou Chamber Music Series, which also includes the Intersection Piano Trio, presented by the Harry Jacobs Chamber Music Society and sponsored by the Augusta University Lyceum Series.

The Intersection Piano Trio – piano, violin and cello – performs everything from tangos to show tunes to traditional classical offerings with an artistry that has critics raving. They’ll be appearing at the Maxwell Theatre at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1. Tickets are $25 for the general public, $5 for children and students, and free for Augusta University and East Georgia State College students, faculty and staff with a valid JagCard.

Perhaps the most exposure will come on Friday, Sept. 30, when Miss Sharon Jones! screens at the Imperial Theatre. Presented in part by the Georgia Cancer Center, the event gives attendees the chance to screen the film, directed by two-time Academy Award-winner Barbara Kopple, and experience a Q&A with both Sharon Jones and the filmmaker.

The film, which highlights the Augusta native’s battle with cancer at the breakthrough moment of her long musical career, was a popular film festival selection last winter.

Jones was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in 2013. Nine months later, she went into remission, but last September, at the film’s premiere, she announced that the cancer had returned.

Tickets* are $20. Doors open at 7: 30 p.m. Film begins at 8 p.m.

*Augusta University faculty and staff receive a 20 percent discount on tickets to Westobou Festival events (excluding Yoga Nidra at the Imperial Theatre). Tickets must be purchased Monday through Friday at the Westobou Gallery, 1129 Broad Street, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Faculty and staff must show their Augusta University ID to receive the special discount.

Augusta University students also qualify for a special discounts on tickets purchased at the Westobou Gallery.