Troy, Troy State University

By JAINE TREADWELL

Features Editor

Nall Hollis will bid "au revoir" to Troy and Troy State University Wednesday and returned to his home in Vence, France.

However, four students from Troy State University will trail him to France as recipients of scholarships from the N.A.L.L Foundation and will spend the summer studying at his studio in the South of France.

These scholarships are just one of the many ways Nall supports the arts in his hometown of Troy and his native home Alabama.

Dr. Jack Hawkins Jr., chancellor of the Troy State University System, visited Nall’s studio on the campus of TSU Tuesday to express his appreciation to the artist for his many contributions to the university and to the community during his tenure as artist-in-residence at TSU for the past two spring semesters.

Hawkins presented a resolution from the Alabama House of Representatives to Nall in recognition of his artistic contributions to Troy State.

"Troy State University enjoys a rich tradition of excellence in the fine arts in both curricular and extracurricular activities," Hawkins said. "This tradition has been further enhanced by the appointment of Nall, who is an internationally-acclaimed artist, as artist-in-residence at Troy State University. He has brought immense talent to the university’s classrooms."

Nall’s talent and his love for his home state were the blocks that provided the foundation of the "Alabama Art" movement which gained international acclaim when the exhibition opened in the South of France in the summer of 2000.

"The ‘Alabama Art’ movement showcases the genius of Alabamians in all media," Hawkins said. "The movement has enjoyed widespread popular and critical acclaim in both the United States and Europe. We, at Troy State University, join the City of Troy in supporting and nurturing this vision."

Hawkins said the "Alabama Art" movement is a vision that is much bigger and more far reaching than Troy, but laid claim to Troy as the home of the movement.

Hawkins presented Nall with the resolution from the House of Representatives that recognized Troy as the official home of the ‘Alabama Art’ movement.

The resolution

also honored Nall, the City of Troy and Troy State University for their roles in promoting the very best work of Alabama artists on an international stage and for bringing acclaim to Alabama as an emerging cultural center.

Nall expressed appreciation to Hawkins, the university and the Troy community for their support and encouragement as he planted the seeds for an art movement which he hopes will take root and bear fruit all across the state.

The "Alabama Art" movement, Nall said, hopefully, will gain support throughout the state with Alabama Art museums cropping up in different locations.

The city of Fairhope will be the headquarters for the Alabama Art movement. The old city jail is being renovated for use as an Alabama Art Museum. Nall will make his Alabama home in Fairhope when he completes his third term as artist-in-residence at Troy State in the spring of 2003.

Even though, the headquarters of the "Alabama Art" movement will be in Fairhope, the home of "Alabama Art" will always be in Nall’s hometown of Troy. The state legislature deemed it so.