Maryville College, Clayton Center for the Arts dedicate space in memory of community leader Joy Bishop
Sept. 2, 2025
Approximately 50 people gathered inside Building B of the Clayton Center for the Arts on Aug. 26 to dedicate Maryville College’s new Vienna Coffee space in memory of Joy Mahana Bishop, a beloved community leader and philanthropist. It was an event — small, intimate, purposeful — that she would have thought perfect, said former Maryville City Mayor and longtime friend Tom Taylor ’70.
“She was a master of small groups, and I think this would be her ideal venue, if she had a choice,” he said. “This is a wonderful group of folks — her best friends — and she would have loved to have been here. She would have been the star of the show.”
Taylor said Bishop loved Maryville College and the Clayton Center, so the venue is fitting for those reasons, as well. Bishop retired to Maryville in 1990 following a trailblazing 30-year career in the United States Air Force. At Maryville College, she was a member of the College’s President’s Circle of donors and served on both the National Advisory Council and the Civic Art Center’s Advisory Council, which was formed to support what eventually became the Clayton Center. Fellow advisory council members and friends Jim Proffitt and Carolyn Forster were in attendance at the Aug. 26 dedication.
“Everything Joy touched or was associated with grew legs,” Taylor said.
The renovated coffee shop space — with new furniture, new painting, and new lights — was funded through a gift from Bishop’s estate. With the help of Blount Partnership, representatives from Vienna Coffee and the Clayton Center cut the ribbon on the new shop on Aug. 22 to a full room of students, faculty, staff, administrators and community leaders and members.
“When we first imagined this coffee shop, we hoped to create a welcoming gathering space where community, conversation and connection could flourish,” Maryville College President Dr. Bryan F. Coker said in his welcome. “And when we learned of Joy Bishop’s generous gift to the Clayton Center, it was clear that there could be no better way to honor the legacy of our dear friend than to ensure this space reflects her love of beauty, hospitality and community.”
Campaign launched for patio
Following presentation of a plaque that will be installed in the newly dedicated coffee shop space, Christy McDonald Slavick, interim executive director for the Clayton Center for the Arts, announced plans for a campaign to add “Joy’s Place” to the Clayton Center plaza. Adjoining the Clayton Center’s Building B, Joy’s Place will feature patio fencing, outdoor seating and planters that will complement the new Doug and Sally Gross Memorial Garden, which was dedicated in May, and the balcony overlooking it.
“We have priced and designed the project at a total cost of $15,000, which we hope to secure by the end of September,” McDonald Slavick said, adding that Forster and Proffitt had contributed, along with friends Ellie Morrow, Brenda Sellers, Rosemary Barker, Whitney Erickson, Howard Kerr, Heather and Dennis Larson, herself and Lee Mayhall, the Clayton Center’s development officer. “Thank you all for helping us get the campaign off to a strong start.”
For more information or to donate to Joy’s Place, contact Mayhall at lee.mayhall@maryvillecollege.edu or 865-469-1108.
