Please join the Department of Art +Design tomorrow evening (Friday, January 16) at 4-6:30PM in the Manners Gallery, on the campus of Jax State, to celebrate the life, art, and legacy of Charles Groover at the opening reception of the Charles Groover Memorial Exhibition.
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Charles Groover was an artist, professor, and department head whose leadership left a legacy that has shaped the Department of Art (Now the Department of Art +Design) at Jacksonville State University for decades, even up into the present.
Charles was born in Heflin, Alabama, and grew up in Calhoun County. After serving as a First Lieutenant in the United States Army during Vietnam, he studied at the University of Alabama, where he received his Master of Fine Arts degree. He taught photojournalism at UA and was later hired by Jacksonville State University as Department Head of Art in 1989, where he led for almost three decades.
As Department Head and Emeritus Professor, Charles set a stage for growth and success. He secured new facilities for Art, including the Carlisle Fine Arts Facility and the Anders Hall: Roundhouse Building. He developed relationships with influential professionals and recruited them to contribute to the department. He emphasized the value of an arts education that integrated both analogue and digital technologies at a time when many institutions resisted teaching digital tools.
One of Charles Groover’s most significant achievements was leading the department through the process of earning accreditation from the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). This status is a key contributor to the rigor, quality, and credibility of Jax State’s art program and established the foundation that has produced cohort after cohort of successful art and design graduates who, in turn, have taken jobs and hold influence in the world.
Charles worked for years in a rented studio just across Pelham Road from the university, where he explored the expanded possibilities of photography. This memorial exhibition features a selection of that work — including photographic collage, hand-tinted silver gelatin prints, and even canvas painting.
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