Carl Gombert is exhibiting a collection of his works at the Blackberry Farm and William “Ed” Harmon galleries of the Clayton Center for the Arts as one of the inaugural exhibits of the 2025-26 academic year.
Carl Gombert is a local artist who has taught it for more than three decades at Maryville College before retiring in 2024, when a collective wail of lamentation could be heard ringing out over College Hill.
However, Gombert, now professor emeritus at Maryville College, taught a course per semester during the 2024-25 academic year, audited an additional course each semester, and turned up for numerous theatrical productions, athletic events, and other activities that made it feel as if he hadn’t left at all.
A native of Ohio, Gombert paid for art lessons as a child by delivering newspapers, eventually earning a bachelor’s in drawing from the University of Akron, a master’s in painting from Kent State University, and a Ph.D. in interdisciplinary fine arts at Texas Tech University. He taught at Maryville College for 31 years before retirement.
I always had a lot of freedom at the College, so retirement doesn’t seem all that different,” Gombert said. “Maybe less hectic at times, but I am still looking forward to sitting in on classes and attending music, theater, and sporting events.”
From sitting in with the Maryville College Pep Band to volunteering to help Biology Professor Dr. Drew Crain pick apples from the Maryville College orchards (which he did last week), Gombert was and remains an active member of the MC community. Returning to campus to show some off the works he’s created in retirement, along with a few older pieces, is a nice way of reconnecting with that community.
The exhibit, “Retro Spectacles,” opened Aug. 29 and will run through Sept. 26, with normal gallery hours 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mondays through Fridays, with extended hours during Clayton Center evening events.
There will be a closing reception on Friday, Sept. 26, 6-8 p.m. The receptions, he added, are always a pleasant time to “meet some of the new students, see friends and colleagues, and eat Peanut M&Ms.”
Maryville College is a nationally ranked institution of higher learning and one of America’s oldest colleges, located in Maryville, Tennessee, between the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the city of Knoxville. Maryville College offers more than 60 majors, seven pre-professional programs, and career preparation from their first day on campus to their last, in the words of our Presbyterian founder, to “do good on the largest possible scale.”
Karen Eldridge, Executive Director of Communications: karen.eldridge@maryvillecollege.edu.
Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook and Instagram. Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our Free Newsletter.
