May 7, 2021, Filed Under: From the DeanDean’s Insider: Celebrating the incredible work of our students In the College of Fine Arts, late spring is an especially exciting and rewarding time for me to see our students doing what they do best—creating new work and pushing the bounds of their artistic disciplines. Every other year, the Department of Theatre and Dance hosts the Cohen New Works Festival, and I am so proud of how our students adapted this year’s festival to create engaging and safe experiences. The weeklong festival is the largest of its kind and is completely student-run and student-produced, with the support of faculty mentors. As faculty member Kirk Lynn says, the festival is “a preview of what theater is going to look like in the next five to 10 years.” Last month, we saw amazing performances in our Sound in Sculpture series, a collaboration between Landmarks, the Butler School of Music and Texas Performing Arts. The event features musical compositions by student composers, all created in response to works in the Landmarks collection. In the Department of Theatre and Dance, the students recently created a series of Classical Vlogues, with each student delivering a solo performance of a classical text on camera. Each spring, the Visual Arts Center in the Department of Art and Art History hosts a pair of thesis exhibitions for seniors in the B.F.A. in Studio Art and the graduating M.F.A. in Studio Art students. These exhibitions run through May 23. Our Design seniors have launched a new website showcasing their work, and our AET students are hosting a livestreamed showcase on May 8 starting at 1 p.m. CST. Our students have been adaptive and nimble this past year, and I couldn’t be prouder of the work I’m seeing produced in our college. Excelsior! Doug Dempster
