Brian Jones, Fine Arts, IU Southeast

Ten years ago, he co-founded the Mary Anderson Center for the Arts at Mount St. Francis in Floyds Knobs as a retreat for artists, writers and musicians.

Jones says artists’ retreats are important “because they offer time and space for artists to concentrate on their work without daily distractions.”

To Jones’ students, he teaches by example. He spent the last academic year on sabbatical to devote time to his printmaking and painting. He was awarded a 2000 Residency Fellowship at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts in Sweet Briar, where he spent a month last spring and was named a visiting artist at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.

In printmaking, Jones specializes in mezzotint, a laborious engraving process. In painting, he routinely uses acrylic but this year switched to oils. Now in his 21st year at IU Southeast, Jones influences his students by the nature of his work. Three of his students have earned summer research fellowships, and one graduate was a finalist for a Fullbright Scholarship.

In addition to displaying his works in numerous art exhibits, Jones has paintings and prints on permanent display in 30 locations including: the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the corporate offices of R.J. Reynolds Corp., Winston-Salem, N.C., Texas Tech University, Connecticut National Bank in New Haven and Brown-Forman Corp. in Louisville.

Jones said IU Southeast has given him both the freedom to pursue his art and the opportunity to encourage his students to follow their own paths of creativity.

“This campus recognizes the importance of maintaining artistic integrity by allowing the artist time and space for creativity,” he said.