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• ICC Opens 2026 Gallery Season With “Soul Red Wawa” by Artist Lilian You

  Itawamba Community College opened its 2026 exhibition season with Soul Red Wawa, a cut-paper and mixed media installation by Tupelo artist Lilian You. The exhibition will be on view through Wednesday, Feb. 11, in the W.O. Benjamin Fine Arts Gallery on the Fulton Campus. The term “wawa” in Chinese culture refers to a doll or figurine rooted in folk art traditions. When created through paper-cut techniques, wawas are commonly used in traditional ceremonies as symbols of good fortune, happiness and prosperity. Drawing from these cultural origins, Soul Red Wawa explores the place of tradition within a technology- and meme-driven modern world. Through hundreds of red paper-cut wawas, You examines the merging of culture and ritual, art and contemporary themes, inviting viewers to consider how inherited traditions evolve and persist in present-day life. Born in northern China, You has lived, taught and worked across China, Japan and the United States. Her artistic practice integrates traditional Chinese folk art, embodied experience and contemporary installation. Her work centers on themes of women, the body, memory, trauma and spiritual restoration, expressed through paper-cut installations, spatial interventions and cross-media ...
• ICC to host February Fridays preview for prospective students

              Itawamba Community College will host February Fridays to provide a preview for prospective students.             Dates, time and locations include from 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Feb. 4, 11 and 25 at the David C. Cole Student Services Building at the Fulton Campus; and Feb. 18 in the Academic and Student Center at the Tupelo Campus.             Students will meet with a recruiter and receive assistance with completion of the application, housing and scholarships as well as have an opportunity for a campus tour. They will receive a free t-shirt.             According to Jake Hartfield, director of recruitment and orientation, the event is primarily for high school seniors who have not visited ICC or are still making their college choice.             Registration is available at http://bit.ly/FebruaryFridays.             For more information, email go2icc@iccms.edu.
• Tupelo artist William Heard’s artwork opens ICC’s fall art exhibition

  Itawamba Community College has opened its fall 2026 exhibition schedule with “Becoming Butterflies, Lovely Ladybugs and Heavenly Honey Bees,” a collection of paintings by Tupelo artist William Flewellen Heard. Heard, a 1994 graduate of Tupelo High School, served in the Army National Guard as a medical specialist before attending ICC and Mississippi State University. In 2000, Heard sustained a spinal cord injury in an automobile accident that resulted in quadriplegia. During rehabilitation at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, he discovered a passion for art through art therapy. After returning home, Heard was inspired by “Pollock,” a film chronicling the life and work of artist Jackson Pollock. Heard began experimenting with drip painting and has spent more than two decades developing and refining his own technique. Heard later returned to Mississippi State, where he earned a degree in general business with an emphasis in furniture production. He also became involved with Living Independence for Everyone of Mississippi, a statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals with disabilities. Heard is the founder of Our ArtWorks, a nonprofit organization that provides artistic opportunities for individuals ...
• "Between Earth and Sky," works of two artists, now on display at the W.O. Benjamin Fine Arts gallery on the ICC Fulton Campus

  Now through Sept. 18, Itawamba Community College is hosting “Between Earth and Sky,” a collection of works by two participating artists in the gallery of the W.O. Benjamin Fine Arts Center at the Fulton Campus. A collection of ceramic pieces by Melanie Eubanks of Jones College is complemented by the large acrylic paintings of clouds by Hattiesburg artist Martina Sciolino. All of the works are for sale.             Eubanks is a ceramic artist who works primarily in stoneware and porcelain. The surface of her work is often decorated with brushwork, sgraffito or Mishima or a combination of all of these. With these techniques, she can make images that usually reference the organic shapes of nature and are echoed by the marks made by wood firing. Most of her work is functional and fired in a wood burning kiln, which creates irregular surfaces due to wood ash adhering to the side of the objects facing the flame, which interests her most. She fires her work at various kilns in Louisiana, Alabama, Florida and at her home in Hattiesburg, where she shares a ...
• Local musician to kick off ICC's Senior College, Feb. 6

  Dale Rushing of Tupelo will kick off Itawamba Community College’s Senior College, Feb. 6, with a presentation on the influence of Mississippi musicians on the music industry.             Rushing is a member of the Rust Bucket Roadies of Mooreville and a self-described late bloomer in the music world. The group is “a lively band that will get your feet moving with their rowdy throwback backbeat of years gone by,” according to their social media account. “They are a true Mississippi gem playing some of the best rocking blues you will ever hear. They have the sound that made Sam Phillips famous influenced by the Hill country blues of North Mississippi, true Americana music that will rock everyone of every age.”             In addition to Rushing’s presentation, there will be bingo and door prizes.             The Senior College meets once per month, except for February, from 9-11 a.m. at the ICC Belden Center.             The next session will be Feb. 20, when Tupelo’s Jack Reed, Jr. will share excerpts from his book, “A Time to Listen.”             The first session is free, but a $30 ...
• ICC's Griffith to present "Music: A Uniquely Human Experience," Feb. 6

              Christy Colburn Griffith of Amory, recipient of Itawamba Community College’s Mississippi Humanities Teacher Award for 2024, will present “Music: A Uniquely Human Experience,” Feb. 6 at 6 p.m. in the W.O. Benjamin Fine Arts Center auditorium at the Fulton Campus.             “Music does more than just make sounds,” Griffith said. “It changes the way people think and behave. The skills learned in music will help students be successful on the stage, in the classroom and for the rest of their lives. Music is a human experience, and it plays an important role in educating the entire person.”             Griffith will be among those honored at the Mississippi Humanities Council Awards Ceremony in March at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson. The evening pays tribute to outstanding faculty in traditional humanities fields at each of the state’s institutions of higher learning.             In her 25th year as a music educator, Griffith serves as associate band director at ICC.             A graduate of Aberdeen High School, Grifith earned the associate’s degree from ICC and both the bachelor’s and master’s ...