“In every sense of the word, this was my dream school.” Those are the words film student Kenny Strawn used to describe Watkins College of Art.

 

The small art college of fewer than 200 students is in a state of upheaval. The funds ran dry. They were told there was no other option but to merge with a private Christian college more than 40 times their size, effectively ending the small, intimate environment many students say is the reason they came to Watkins.

 

The Meeting

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News of the merger with Belmont University was met with protest. The students and faculty demanded answers in a meeting with Belmont Provost Thomas Burns.

 

Among their concerns were questions about the well-being of those in the LGBTQ+ community, job security for Watkins professors and potential limits on freedom of expression as they transition to the private Christian institution.

 

Burns assured them that Belmont would not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. “There will be no discrimination against any student for any reason on Belmont’s campus and if anybody does discriminate against any student, they’re held accountable for it,” said Burns.

 

In 2010, Belmont soccer coach, Lisa Howe, was asked to resign after announcing to her team that she was a lesbian and she and her partner had decided to have a baby.

 

The question of Watkins faculty job security arose and whether Watkins instructors will receive severance if they don’t get a job at Belmont or simply do not wish to apply. Burns said he didn’t know.

 

According to Burns, instructors must be of the Christian faith to be considered at Belmont. “We do not hire people who are not Christian. So, the ones who are not Christian will not be eligible to work at Belmont. That’s just part of who we are.”

 

Later in the meeting, an adjunct professor stood and listed the domestic and international faith-based work in film he’d done and said, “My sense of honor prohibits me from, in good conscience, signing a profession of faith… I will miss my students.”

 

When the topic of censorship came up in the meeting Burns said, “As far as I know, we have never been accused of censoring our student work or our faculty work.”

 

In 2018, Belmont administration compelled former faculty member and director, Jacqueline Jutting, to omit explicit language in her students’ production of The Wolves two weeks before the play was to open. However, the request was virtually impossible to satisfy because theater companies aren’t allowed to make changes to a script without written permission from the playwright. So rather than canceling the play, Jutting took it off-campus. She was asked not to return to Belmont the following semester.

 

As the meeting came to a close, minds of students and faculty all but put at ease, Kenny Strawn read aloud a letter he wrote to addressed to Watkins president, Dr. Joseph Kline. He reminisced about the school that nurtured his creativity.

 

“By moving the school and selling the land, the board, as well as yourself, have ensured the death of the culture that has blossomed within the walls of 2298 Rosa L. Parks Blvd. I assure you; this move does not save the school but kills it. Watkins College of Art will no longer serve as a place for free and open art to be created. No, that name will be reduced to just that. A name on a building” said Strawn.

 

There was an undeniable theme amid the unrest. The message was clear. The students hold Kline, at least in part, responsible for the demise of their school.

 

Later, Strawn said in an interview that he’d signed a 13-month lease just before finding out the news of his school’s upheaval.

 

He added that students had been admitted to Watkins the week before the merger was announced, that they had been giving tours to those students the day before the meeting. Strawn said some of these students even reached out to him over social media and told him, “I was accepted into Watkins. I declined other scholarships. I declined other schools. What do I do?” His words got caught in his throat as he said, “I don’t know what to tell these kids…go somewhere else where you will be able to express your art openly and freely.”

 

He said, by leaving everyone in the dark, the administration has left them stranded with very few options.

 

The Protest

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Later that week, Watkins students channeled their frustrations and anguish the best way they know how— through art.

 

Students put together a last-minute showcase titled, “In Good Faith: How Not to Save an Art School.” The show, held out of the back of a small semi van, included photos of Watkins taken by students, a list on large brown paper titled “How Not to Save an Art School” and a “Highlight Reel of Hypocrisy,” a video from Kline’s Belmont press conference spliced together with video of what he said in the meeting. Some students were dressed in oversized tan suits and white wigs, satirical costumes meant to emulate Kline’s usual garb.

 

A group of freshmen at the protest shared their reservations about transitioning to Belmont.

Addisyn Burns-Shattuck is a fine art major and expressed her concerns about the censorship her art might face at the university.

 

“Most of my work tends to have a lot of nudity and dealing with traumas based on that and I feel like they’re probably not going to enjoy too much of that there,” Burns-Shattuck said.

 

Nate McKendree is also a fine art major. “I came to Watkins because of the freedom of thought and the embrace from faculty to explore free thought, whether it be good or bad, they’re all important to the faculty.” He said he fears they won’t have the same luxury at Belmont.

 

The show was met with overwhelming support from the Nashville community. Students, faculty and alumni alike stood around talking like old friends, sharing memories and consoling one another. There was an air of something between a party and a funeral. They all shared the same heartache.

 

Leslie Haines is a former Watkins professor and chair of Graphic Design and is currently a professor at Middle Tennessee State University. She said the Watkins learning environment always encouraged experimentation, avant-garde and breaking tradition.

 

Haines said censorship hinders the development of young artists, “to not have that opportunity to pursue your real vision, to have to edit that is unfortunate because that’s what art is about.”

 

In reference to Belmont, Haines said, “It’s definitely not going to be the same atmosphere… It’s just a different approach and it’s a Christian school. So, you are going to have limitations.”

 

She elaborated on those potential limitations in instances such as nude figure drawing and depicting non-Christian values, such as gay relationships in art.

 

Haines said the merger and the potential censorship these students will face is a loss for Nashville's art community.

 

“It’s been this institution for over 100 years, we have served the community for so long. There’s nothing else like it left that has that kind of freedom.”