In honor of its 10^th season, the Averitt Center for the Arts will hold the Georgia Southern University music faculty’s annual showcase at the Emma Kelly Theater on Sept. 12 at 7:00 p.m.

The showcase will be one of two opening events to a 10-day art celebration the Averitt Center will be holding, the celebration runs from Sept. 12through Sept. 21^. The other show opening the event will be a ceremony celebrating legends in the art community of Statesboro/Bulloch County.

“We’ve always had a strong relationship with Georgia Southern University and the types of arts and music they bring to the community,” Kate Fitch, marketing director for the Averitt Center of the Arts, said.

“We were happy to bring one of their campus events here to Averitt Center because we like to encourage a strong relationship between them,” Fitch said.

The faculty showcase will consist of 11 professors and graduate students along with a brass quintet performing a variety of classics music ensembles, presenting pieces from composers like Mozart, Gershwin, Castelnuovo-Tedesco and more.

“I am truly amazed at the level of excellence of the music department faculty,” Maestro Adrian Gnam, director of the Georgia Southern Symphony and professor, said.

The pieces to be performed were picked specifically for the music faculty to play together, and they include some of the faculty’s favorite pieces of music.

“We have a variety of things like theatre performance, art and more. We try to have a little bit of everything,” Fitch said.

The week will include events such an art exhibit from artist Lamar Dodd, a free Shag dance lesson led by popular local Shag dancer Michael Singleton and a movie showcase that will show movies that have been shot in Statesboro over the years.

“The most well known is ‘Now and Then’ which was shot in the 90s and it had Demi Moore in it, and the Averitt Center was in it. It was actually a library back then. And we’ll also show ‘The Garden of Good and Evil’ which shows Emma Kelly, who the theater was actually named after,” Fitch said.

And the week will round out with a performance by local community group, the Averitt Stars, putting on a comedy called “Southern Hospitality,” which will tie into the finale fundraiser on the courthouse lawn. The entrance price for the fundraiser will be $15 per ticket, and will include a salsa competition, Boston butt sale, cakewalk and a performance by Bulloch County Square Dancers.

Averitt Center director Tim Chapman said the center wants its 10 days of events to be a celebration of art for the whole community to enjoy and not just at the Averitt Center, and that is why they are excited to have the Music Faculty Showcase at their theatre.