College of Fine Arts and Communication 2023 Report

- 1923 - 1927 - 1946 1946 1922 The first art association, the Art Lover’s Club, is established proclaiming “an interest in, and love of, the beautiful.” 1923 Southwest Texas State Normal College becomes Southwest Texas State Teachers College; on October 6, the school newspaper Normal Star becomes the College Star . - The Bobcat Band gets its first permanent director when President Cecil Evans hires Robert Tampke for that purpose. He serves as bandmaster until 1948, as chair of Music 1933-56 and retires in 1973. 1927 Lyndon Johnson enrolls at the Teachers College; he serves two terms as editor of the College Star , one as president of the Press Club, and excels on the debate team. (PICTURED) 1928 The Bobcat Band gets its first uniforms. (PICTURED) - J.W. Dunn replaces the Rabbit’s Foot Dramatic Club with the College Theatre, which has two subgroups – the Apprentice Players and the College Players. - Lyndon Johnson lobbies thecollege tooffer a journalismcourse.DeanA.H.Nolleagrees, as longas enough students enroll to justifyaclass. Johnson recruits four other students, Nolleapproves theclass, and the journalismprogram isborn. - Hollywood freelance cameraman Jack Holman films 10 students in the first movie set on campus, SanMarcos Sheik . 1929 College enrollment continues fairly steady through the Great Depression, often more than 2,000 students, only to plummet to 650 in the summer of 1945. - Monroe Lippman , takes the play Kempy on “tour.” They go to Navarro High School, 31 miles away. Student Lyndon Johnson is publicity director for the show. 1930 The Public Speaking and Dramatics Department becomes the Speech Arts Department with speech arts becoming a minor for a degree in English. 1937 Bachelor’s degree in music is approved. 1938 Music moves into Music Hall, a wooden frame building that had been a boarding house; it is moved to the site of current Taylor-Murphy and renovated. Bachelor’s degree in speech is approved (later communication studies). 1939 The Academic Laboratory School (later named the Evans Academic Center) and auditorium are built. The theatre programmoves there fromOld Main for the next seven years while the Little Theatre is built in Old Main. 1940 Bachelor’s degree in art is approved. 1942 John Garland Flowers becomes president and spearheads a progression of SWT from a teachers college to a regional multipurpose institution. - Journalism is included in the name of the department: English, Journalism, and Speech. 1946 Elton Abernathy joins the faculty as chair of the Speech Department (later Speech and Drama) and remains in that post until 1973. (PICTURED) 29 College of Fine Arts and Communication