The Blackwell Prize | The Other Night School | The Stone Visiting Artist Series
The SOTA Reading Series | The Vault Gallery | The Wadsworth Piano Competition

See the Event Schedule for upcoming programs.

Event Schedule

The Blackwell Prize

The Blackwell Prize Series recognizes high achievement in writing and observational painting, with the writing prize occurring each spring and the painting analog in fall. Winners have included writers B.H. Fairchild, Allison Joseph, Teresa Brown, and Graham Barnhart, as well as painters Peggi Kroll Roberts, Josephine Halvorson, and Lilian Garcia-Roig. 

Winners are in residence in Newnan (at Gray Cottage) for at least two weeks, and deliver readings, artist talks, demos, and exhibits for the surrounding communities. Each prize is valued at $10,000. 

The Blackwell Prize Series is possible through the generosity of the Blackwell Trust of Newnan, Georgia, legacy of Fred R. and Nell W. Blackwell, as well as the support from the Newnan Artist-in-Residence Program.

The Other Night School

The Other Night School is a dynamic, community-based lecture series featuring the very best of UWG faculty from the Arts, Humanities, and Sciences, speaking about the topics that interest them the most. Locations in Carrollton and Newnan.

The Other Night School is possible through the generosity of The Hollis Trust of Newnan, Georgia, as well as Milestone Investment Management, LLC, in Carrollton, Georgia. Special thanks to our partners at the Carrollton Center for the Arts and UWG Newnan.

The Michael and Andrea Stone Visiting Artist Series

The Michael and Andrea Stone Visiting Artist Series welcomes the campus and the Carrollton community to attend events with artists from diverse backgrounds and disciplines once a semester. Former visiting artists include playwright Daniel Banks, filmmaker Zack Godshall, musician Adison Evans, visual artist Foon Sham, novelist and musician John Darnielle, and many, many more. 

The eclectic nature of the series—with the host program shifting from visual art, to creative writing, to music, to theatre, and film—means that each semester is quite different than the last.

This series is possible through the generosity of Michael and Andrea Stone, who share with the School of the Arts a commitment to improving and enriching the community through arts-based programming. 

The SOTA Reading Series

The SOTA Reading Series invites scholars and authors to campus for dynamic talks that cross over traditional program barriers. Invitations are extended to the most seasoned critics and artists, who can (and do) deliver scintillating talks on topics of wide appeal to campus and community cultures. The School of the Arts manages this series as a way to forge new connections between the Arts disciplines as well as among the other disciplines in the College. 

The SOTA Reading Series is possible through the generosity of the Warren and Ava Sewell Foundation of Bremen, Georgia, whose longstanding commitment to the west Georgia community has brought innumerable benefits as well as having provided for inventive programming like this reading series. All events are open and free to the public.

The Vault Gallery

The Vault Gallery, housed in the historic Wadsworth Auditorium in Newnan, Georgia, is the School of the Arts most recent project. In partnership with the Newnan Artist-in-Residence Program and the City of Newnan, the School of the Arts brings to The Vault Gallery two shows per semester, all open and free to the public. 

The Vault Gallery is made possible through the generosity of The Hollis Trust of Newnan, Georgia, legacy of Edgar Hollis, with support from the Newnan Artist-in-Residence Program.

The Wadsworth Piano Competition

The Wadsworth Piano Competition attracts the best young pianists from around the world to Newnan to compete for $34,500 in prizes. Contestants routinely hail from the best conservatories and top-ranked music programs in the world, such as The Juillard School, London's Royal College of Music, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, Yale School of Music, and New England Conservatory, and represent a broad range of nationalities. Taking place over an intensive weekend, the competition includes both solo and accompanied performances, all of which lead to the finale on Sunday. 

The competition is named in honor of Charles Wadsworth, pride of Newnan and of the international piano community, and is made possible through the generosity of the Blackwell Testamentary Trust.