News        from ABAC

Michael D. Chason Director of Public Relations ABAC 30 -- 2802 Moore Highway Tifton, GA 31793-2601 Phone 229-391-5055 Fax 229-391-5056 mchason@abac.edu

IMMEDIATE MARCH 30, 2006

GEORGE SCOTT DAY/ JAZZ FESTIVAL AT ABAC APRIL 13

TIFTON - George Scott Day at Abraham Baldwin College, an annual celebration of the Arts, and the 27^th annual ABAC Jazz Festival will take place on April 13 from 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.

The event, sponsored by the Humanities Division and the Music Department of ABAC, is held each year as a tribute to George Scott, an associate professor of English at ABAC, who passed away in 1994.

The Jazz Festival will be located on the front lawn of the ABAC campus from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Featured performances will include jazz bands from area high schools including Americus-Sumter High School, Cook High School, Colquitt County High School, Crisp County High School, Lee County High School, Lowndes High School, Thomas County Central High School, Valdosta High School, and Ware County High School.

Lunch will be served to the public from 11 a.m. -2 p.m. on the front lawn. The cost is $6 per meal. ABAC clubs and organizations will have information booths and activities throughout the day during the Jazz Festival.

The ABAC Jazz Ensemble will perform at 3 p.m. The 5:30 p.m. performance of the ABAC Jazz Choir will be in the Donaldson Dining Hall.

Dr. Brian Ray, Associate Professor of English at ABAC, said, “This year’s George Scott Day is going to be a hoot. We have a second venue that will showcase dance groups, prose and poetry, and art. We have also reinstated the George Scott Day Essay contest.”

The Pegasus (Literary) Awards ceremony and readings will be held from 11 a.m. –12:30 p.m., on the second floor of the Music Building. Special guest David Dudley, author of Bicycle Man, will speak from 1-2 p.m. in Conger Hall, Room 319. Dudley is the Chair of the Literature and Philosophy Department at Georgia Southern University.

From 3:30 - 6 p.m. in front of the Donaldson Dining Hall, there will be prose and poetry readings by Dudley and the ABAC Humanities faculty; a dramatic reading by John Galyean; dance performances by the “Triple Threat Dancers” and the ABAC Dancers; caricatures; clay art demonstrations; a book signing of Dudley’s Bicycle Man; an Art Award Presentation; and the George Scott Essay Award Presentation.

The Watters Brothers Jazz Quintet will culminate the jazz festival at 7:30 p.m. in the dining hall. Purchase tickets for the evening concert by calling (229) 391-4945 or (229) 391-4950, Monday – Friday from 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. General admission for the concert is $10 for adults and $5 for students. ABAC students will be admitted free with ID.

In the event of rain, the George Scott Day activities planned in front of the dining hall will be held in the ABAC Chapel of All Faiths, the Pegasus awards ceremony will take place on the second floor of the Music Building, and the Jazz Festival activities will take place in the dining hall.

All events, except for the Watters Brothers Jazz Quintet concert, are open to the public and are free of charge.

“We have expanded the scope of this event in the hopes that more students and people in the community can get a better look at what the Humanities Division of ABAC does,” Ray said.

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