There is now a website featuring a dozen images of works of art to be displayed at Belmont’s Leu Art Gallery in September. You can view the images at http://forum.belmont.edu/artshow.
Belmont Professor a Tolkien Expert
Dr. Amy H. Sturgis, adjunct instructor in the Liberal Studies Department in the University College at Belmont University, has been invited to be a Guest of Honor at the Gathering of the Fellowship in Toronto, Canada from December 15-17, 2003.
The Gathering of the Fellowship is an international event commemorating the works of author J.R.R. Tolkien and the worldwide premiere of the film The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and is expected to involve several thousand participants from over twenty different nations.
Other confirmed Guests of Honor for the three-day event include actors from The Lord of the Rings films and leading Tolkien artists, musicians, and academics.
Dr. Sturgis will present a talk entitled Harry Potter Is A Hobbit: How J.R.R. Tolkien Put the Adult in Children’s Literature,” and participate in scholarly panels on Teaching Tolkien at the University Level, The Lord of the Rings: The Books vs. The Films, and Women in Middle-Earth. Her appearance is sponsored by the New York Tolkien Society Heren Istarion.
In July 2003, Sturgis presented original research on Tolkien at the annual meeting of the Mythopoeic Society and also participated in the conference’s “Teaching Tolkien” panel presentation.
Sturgis is the co-founder and coordinator of Lómelindi, the Nashville Smial of the Tolkien Society. She teaches, among other things, J.R.R. Tolkien in History, Political Thought, and Literature and Harry Potter and His Predecessors at Belmont University.
Van Hook First Dean of Curb College of Entertainment & Music Biz
NASHVILLE, August 21, 2003 – One of Nashville’s most successful music industry executives will become the first dean of Belmont University’s new Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business – the nations’ first college dedicated to offering comprehensive education for careers in the entertainment industry.
Jim Van Hook, former chairman and CEO of Provident Music Group, brings both an academic and an entrepreneurial background to the Dean’s chair. Holding a Master of Music Education, with enough hours for a doctorate, Van Hook was a music professor at Trevecca Nazarene University for six years in the 1960s, before embarking on a career in the music business where his management style of “mentoring, teaching and coaching,” helped him build Brentwood Music into a music industry powerhouse.
Van Hook started the company in 1981 with a $500 investment. Today the company, now owned by Bertelsmann Music Group, is one of the top three companies in the Christian music industry and includes such labels as Benson Records, Verity Records, Reunion Records, Essential Label Group, Brentwood Records and Diadem Music, plus the largest publishing catalog of Christian songs in the world with Brentwood-Benson Music Publishing, Inc. Van Hook sold Brentwood Music to Zomba Music Group, the world’s largest independent music company, in 1994. Zomba renamed the company Provident Music Group in 1997, and sold it to BMG within the last year.
Belmont University’s new Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business is building on the strength of Belmont’s already well-regarded BBA program in music business. The new Dean will lead the college in developing new and innovative programs to serve other facets of the entertainment industry. Currently, the college of music business enrolls approximately 700 undergraduate students and employs 11 full-time faculty and 13 full-time staff. The program features state-of-the-art facilities, including on-campus studios as well as Ocean Way Nashville and the historic RCA Studio B on Music Row; an established study and internship program, Belmont West, in Los Angeles, and another, Belmont East, in the final planning stages in New York City; international study opportunities in Great Britain, Germany, and Australia; and an internal record label, Acklen Records.
Belmont University President Dr. Robert Fisher said Van Hook’s music business experience and entrepreneurial spirit make him the right choice to lead the growth of the new college. “I couldn’t be more pleased to appoint someone with the stature and experience of Jim Van Hook as the inaugural dean of the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. He is known throughout the industry for his innovation and entrepreneurial spirit and we’re excited to bring this same perspective to Belmont University.”
Van Hook built his company before the emergence of Belmont’s music business program, but says today that Belmont’s program is very much needed.
“Belmont’s school of music business is the most significant school of music business in America. Bob Fisher has a great vision for expanding it into other areas of entertainment. There’s a lot more work to be done in the development of that dream. It has tremendous momentum already. I’m just blown away by what’s been accomplished so far,” said Van Hook, explaining why he decided to end a brief retirement and become the college’s first dean.
“I think the industry, and the world for that matter, has so dramatically changed ? everything from technology, business models and attitudes. A more sophisticated response in terms of education and preparation is much more important than it ever was,” Van Hook said. “Today’s challenges require a very different approach. We didn?t have downloading back then. We didn’t have Soundscan back then. We didn’t have the same pricing pressures back then. Today, we need better training for tomorrow’s leaders and I think Belmont is rising to that occasion.”
Van Hook Biographical Information
Van Hook earned a master’s degree in music education at Peabody College in Nashville.
He began his career in 1963 as a music professor at Trevecca, where he served in the music department for six years and was later promoted to assistant director of public relations. In 1971, he accepted an offer to become the minister of music for the Bethany First Church of the Nazarene in Bethany, Oklahoma. Van Hook coordinated an extensive music program with 19 ensembles and choirs and also directed a weekly studio-produced television show.
Van Hook returned to Nashville in 1979 as senior vice president of The Benson Company, where he was responsible for the company’s creative product development and music publishing, then founded Provident – as Brentwood Music – in 1981, specializing in unique inspirational music and church choral product.
In 1991, Van Hook’s company was the recipient of the Nashville Business Journal’s prestigious Small Business of the Year Award.
Van Hook has served as president of the Exhibitors Association for the Christian Booksellers Association, chairman of the Crossroads Business Park Association, a member of the CEO Roundtable of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce, president of the Church Music Publishers Association, Executive Board member of the Christian Booksellers Association, and has been a board member of the Gospel Music Association and the Christian Music Trade Association.
Van Hook resides in Brentwood, Tenn., with his wife Susie. They have two children: Brent, who is married and pastoring a church in Oklahoma and Susan, who along with husband Rod Riley, own and operate Spirit-Led and Fervent Records in Franklin, Tenn.
Medical Paper Quotes Nursing Dean
Dr. Debra Wollaber, Dean of the College of Health Sciences adn the School of Nursing at Belmont University, is interviewed in the August 2003 issue of Nashville Medical News about people making a mid-career switch to nursing. The story, which appeared on page 13 of the paper, is available online in a PDF file here when the August 2003 issue of the paper is posted online. In the story, Wollaber comments:
“I was just talking with a student that had a career in the music business, and she’d decided that nursing is the way to go.
“I would be lying if I said that salary is not an issue. Nursing has always been a profession where you can find employment anytime and anywhere. When there is an economic downturn, our enrollment does tend to go up.”
Photos of Curb/Maddox/Beaman Complex Progress
Construction is in its final phases on the Curb Event Center, Maddox Grand Atrium and Beaman Student Life Center, the grand new complex anchoring the southwest corner of the Belmont University campus. Here are some photographs taken by Belmont University staff photographer Michael Krouskop:
Grammy-nominated Russian band to play at art exhibition opening
NASHVILLE, August 6, 2003 – Bering Strait, a Grammy-nominated country/bluegrass band originally from Obninsk, Russia, will perform at the opening of the Russian Impressionism art exhibition at Belmont University’s Leu Gallery Sept. 4.
The Russian Impressionism exhibit features several paintings from the collection of Ray Johnson, a noted American art collector and founder of The Museum of Russian Art, in Bloomington, Minn., who also played a role in bringing the members of Bering Strait to Nashville several years ago. The band’s self-titled first album was released on the Universal South label in January. The band was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Country Instrumental Performance category
Women’s Leadership Workshop at Center for Entrepreneurship
Best-selling author Carol Grace Anderson will speak at the Women’s Leadership Workshop, hosted by the Center for Entreneurship’s Women’s Programs at Belmont University.
Raines Named New Dean of Belmont College of Business
NASHVILLE, August 4, 2003 – Dr. J. Patrick Raines has been named the new Dean of the Belmont University College of Business Administration, which includes Belmont’s undergraduate business program and the Jack C. Massey Graduate School of Business Administration.
Raines is currently a professor of economics and holder of the F. Carlyle Tiller Chair in Business at the Robins School of Business at the private University of Richmond, where he has taught since 1982. Dr. Raines holds a B.A., M.A., and Ph.D, all in economics, from the University of Alabama.
Belmont University President Dr. Robert Fisher says Dr. Raines brings to Belmont a wealth of academic experience and credentials, and an entrepreneurial edge, making him the right person to lead Belmont’s undergraduate and graduate business programs.
“His credentials speak for themselves,” says Fisher. “And his leadership of the University of Richmond’s innovative Corporate MBA program is the kind of leadership that will take Belmont’s Massey Graduate School of Business to the next level. We are delighted to have Dr. Raines join the Belmont family.”
At the University of Richmond, Dr. Raines directed an innovative Corporate MBA program that provides an accelerated weekend MBA education with a customized curriculum for employees of such companies as Capital One. Raines explains that Capital One had input into developing customized curriculum for its employees, to better fit the needs of the employees and Capital One.
Dr. Raines says he sees much opportunity in Nashville for similar programs at Belmont.
“It’s an exciting opportunity for me to be a part of an institution that is continually striving to improve the quality of education it provides to students, its facilities, and the quality of scholar educators it is attracting to campus,” Raines said. “My wife Judy and I are ecstatic about moving to Nashville and becoming an integral part of the community.
Dr. Raines’ first book, Economists On the Stock Market: Speculative Theories of Stock Market Fluctuations, co-authored with University of Alabama economist Dr. Charles Leathers, was published in the spring of 2000
Russian Impressionism Show Coming to Nashville
NASHVILLE, July 17, 2001 – The Leu Gallery at Belmont University announces a new exhibit, Russian Impressionism, opening at the Leu Sept. 4 for a one-month exhibition. The exhibition will feature 50 paintings from The Museum of Russian Art in Bloomington, Minnesota, the only museum of its kind in the United States devoted to Russian art from the 20th Century. The collection is filled with scenes of everyday life in Russia painted by various painters during the Soviet era – including a variety of still-lifes, landscapes, and portraits.
Belmont Athletics Unveils New Logo
After nearly six months of development, Belmont University and the Department of Athletics unveiled their new athletics logo on Tuesday. The new logo is an updated version of the previous mark introduced when Belmont University introduced the “Bruins” nickname in the fall of 1995. Featuring a growling bear and new Belmont script, the logo change coincides with the opening of the Curb Event Center on the south end of the campus.
“This is a time at Belmont where a lot of different things are going on. In coordination with President Dr. Robert Fisher, we decided it was time to reintroduce Belmont Bruins athletics to the Nashville community,” stated Assistant Athletics Director for Marketing Eric Jones. “It is just perfect timing with the opening of the Curb Event Center, an arena we feel will be one of the best facilities in the country.”
Local firm Dye, Van Mol and Lawrence created the new logo. The same company was chosen to develop the new Belmont University logo earlier this year.
The mark will be featured at center court on the new arena floor and will become the prominent symbol at all athletic venues and on team uniforms. Official merchandise bearing the new mark is available exclusively at the Belmont Bookstore on campus or via the internet at www.belmont.edu/bookstore. Additionally, a new Bruin mascot will be rolled out at a special new student gathering on Belmont
