Dean’s Insider: Guest artists bring their creative magic to campus this spring
Dear Friends,
This spring, we’re delighted to host a diverse array of guest artists and artists-in-residence who are advancing innovation in their field, while expanding the imagination of our students during their time on campus.
Associate Dean of Graduate Education and Academic Affairs Raquel Monroe is part of the collective Propelled Animals, a group of artists, dancers, scholars, musicians, and designers who embed innovative and provocative art in unconventional spaces. Members of the collective visited campus this month, and despite arriving in Austin in the wake of our recent ice storm, they made the most of their time here. The collective led a structured improvisation exercise in Raquel’s graduate class and participated in a panel discussion about their work with the Performance as Public Practice program.
The Department of Art and Art History welcomed Nicolás Dumit Estévez Raful, the department’s new Social Practice Artist-in-Residence for the next year-and-a-half. In his work, Estévez has worked in many locations around the world, and in each, he focuses on establishing relationships with the community and creates work inspired by his surroundings and what makes each community unique. This spring, he’s teaching two classes, “Art Within Walking Distance” and “Commuting into Community.”
In a partnership with the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, the Department of Art and Art History also welcomed Marianne Hoffmeister Castro as the recipient of the 2022-23 St. Elmo Arts Residency and Fellowship. Castro arrived in August, and she’s currently teaching an undergraduate course in transmedia and will have a solo exhibition later this spring at the Wildflower Center.
In the Butler School of Music, Fulbright-Robles fellow Marcia Medrano is visiting from Mexico City and working with our Trombone Studio. Last week, she led and performed with the Trombone Choir for the lecture recital Mexican Composers Repertoire for Trombone Ensemble, and she’ll perform with the ensemble again on April 6.
In November, Sandbox Percussion performed on campus as part of Texas Performing Arts’ regular season. While here in the fall, they taught a master class with the Percussion studio in the Butler School of Music. They also returned earlier this month to rehearse and perform works written for them by composition students in the Butler School.
This weekend, Texas Performing Arts will present Chicago-based Manual Cinema’sLeonardo! A Wonderful Show About A Terrible Monster,a multimedia theater work for families and young audiences inspired by the books of Mo Willems. Megan Alrutz, interim chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance and a professor in the Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities area, is the dramaturg of the show. Manual Cinema will return in March for a guest residency with students in the Department of Theatre and Dance.
We’re excited to have such an exciting line-up of artists visiting campus and creating rich educational experiences for our students this spring.
Sincerely,
Ramón H. Rivera-Servera Dean, College of Fine Arts
