Tech’s 2020 Bacchanal Cancelled

Tennessee Tech’s School of Art, Craft and Design’s 2020 Bacchanal has been cancelled.

The annual art auction is a fund raiser for art student scholarships. School of Art, Craft and Design School Director Kimberly Winkle said Bacchanal is an event where social distancing is just not possible.

“What makes it so wonderful is how our community convenes together in close quarters to celebrate our community and to celebrate the fundraiser that goes toward art scholarships,” Winkle said. “These are challenging times to bring people together like that.”

Winkle said besides the health concerns, asking artist for donations, who may be struggling financially, was not appropriate.  The school has enough funds from past auctions to continue awarding art students with scholarships.

“Our student recipients are going to be fine,” Winkle said. “We have had years of generosity from our community, so we do have that nest egg to support our student artists. Another reason why we choose to cancel this year’s Bacchanal, in addition to the safety concern, is we are the recipients of great generosity of great pieces of work, and artists are struggling.”

The Bacchanal is usually held on the third Sunday of October and hosted by Spankies Restaurant. Winkle said the school explored the idea of an online auction but decided not to in respect to struggling artists. The decision to cancel came before a date for the auction was decided.

“We worked with John Josephson of Spankies really closely on that,” Winkle said. “We coordinate dates for the Bacchanal with the Bryan Symphony Orchestra, the Art Prowl and homecoming. We are always in negotiations with different entities to plan the Bacchanal.”

Winkle said the school is thankful for all the donations from the community over the years and is excited to see the turnout for the 2021 Bacchanal.