From the Dean

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We recently welcomed our Fine Arts Advisory Council for our annual fall meeting on campus. Our Advisory Council is a group of our most devoted supporters who come to advise on strategic positioning and advancement of the college and offer philanthropic support for our programs and students.

At this fall meeting, we had a running theme of welcoming new leadership, both within the college and within our Advisory Council. We took time to recognize Caroline Schupbach for her fearless leadership as chair of the Advisory Council for the past three years. A San Antonio resident, Caroline has been an incredible supporter as I transitioned into my role as dean of the College of Fine Arts. We passed the ceremonial baton to our new chair, Susanna Moldawer of Houston. Both Caroline and Susanna expressed their enthusiasm and support for our college’s commitment to maintaining a program that values both excellence and accessibility for new generations of students pursuing arts careers. I look forward to working closely with Susanna and our council as we continue to build on the success of the college.

We introduced the Fine Arts Advisory Council to new leadership within our college, including Peter Carpenter, the new chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Susan Thomas, the new director of the Butler School of Music. Peter and Susan offered us inspiring descriptions of the communities of artists, scholars and educators they now lead in the college.

We also introduced some of our new leadership heading up our college’s community engagement efforts: Associate Dean of Graduate Education and Academic Affairs Raquel Monroe, Associate Dean for Community Engagement and Public Practice Laura Gutiérrez, Director of the Center for Creative Economies Sonia Montoya and Associate Professor Charles Carson. Our panel had a robust discussion around the work of the Center for Creative Economies to prepare our students to navigate their creative careers with the appropriate business and legal skills. We also discussed how we’re integrating into our college the concept of artistic citizenship, an arts-based research framework that combines art/artmaking, social responsibility, community engagement and ethics, all with an eye toward practice.

And, of course, we had the pleasure witnessing impressive performances from student musicians. Artem Kuznetsov, a graduate student in piano performance in the Butler School of Music, gave an incredible performance at our welcome reception the evening before our meeting, and six students from our jazz program performed under the direction of Associate Professor Diego Rivera at our meeting.

I’m so grateful to our Fine Arts Advisory Council and all the faculty, staff and students who participated in this fall’s meeting. Our new leadership brings amazing energy to our efforts to support and sustain our college’s mission and vision.

Sincerely,

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I recently had the honor and pleasure of visiting Mexico City as part of a larger delegation from the University of Texas that included President Jay Hartzell, Provost Sharon Wood, other UT deans and UT alumni. The trip was graciously organized by Texas Global, and the University was the guest of honor at La Feria Internacional del Libro de las Universitarias y los Universitarios 2023, known popularly as FILUNI. This academic book fair for publishers in Latin America is hosted by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and attracts more than 35,000 participants from 10 countries.

In our Fine Arts delegation, I was joined by Professor David Stuart, the Miró Quartet, Professor Nathaniel Brickens and his Trombone Choir, as well as other faculty members.

During our visit, we celebrated the University’s deep connections in Mexico. We held lively, focused meetings and facilities tours with our counterparts in Mexico, including representatives from the arts and culture scene, leadership for the National Center for the Arts and academics from Mexico’s national universities.

Texas Exes hosted an incredible reception at the National Museum of Anthropology, and we were treated to a private tour of La Sala de Aztec (the Aztec Calendar Stone) by our own Professor Stuart, author of King and Cosmos: An Interpretation of the Aztec Calendar Stone.

The Miró Quartet performed and offered clinics and performances at UNAM. Our Trombone Choir, led by Professor Brickens, performed alongside their Mexican counterpart. The performance included a piece developed at UT this past spring with Marcia Medrano Serrano, a 2023 COMEXUS Fulbright-García Robles visiting chair.

While these ceremonial events were fantastic, I’m most excited about the many serious conversations we had with our Mexican partners about how we may deepen our connections and build further upon these relationships in the future.

Sincerely,

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

This summer, I’ve had the joy and privilege of traveling to visit friends of our college and see the incredible work of our faculty and alumni. In June, I spent time on the West Coast and East Coast, and in July, we headed for the mountains in Aspen with the Fine Arts Advisory Council. I want to share a few highlights from these trips with you.

In Los Angeles, we attended a joint event for UT alumni and parents of new UT students, hosted by the university. Along with Moody College of Communication Interim Dean Rachel Davis Mersey and UT Basketball Head Coach Rodney Terry, we welcomed incoming first-year students at a lovely event. I met so many alumni and supporters of the college, and they shared stories about the impact their UT experience has had on their lives and the hope they have for the future of the arts.

In New York, I had the pleasure of seeing Funny Girl on Broadway, with lighting design by Doty Distinguished Alumnus Kevin Adams (B.F.A., Theatrical Design, 1984). I also visited Studio Art Assistant Professor Scherezade García-Vazquez at her studio in Queens, where I got a sneak peek at some of the large-scale paintings and soft sculptures she’s working on for an upcoming round of exhibitions this fall. And I attended the opening of the New Museum exhibition My Beating Heart/ Mi corazón latiente, which showcases the work of Puerto Rican artist Pepón Osorio. I’m proud to have contributed an essay to the exhibition catalog for this show.

In July, our Fine Arts Advisory Council convened in Aspen for a spectacular showcase of Texas art and music in Colorado. Piano Professor Anton Nel was celebrating the 25^th anniversary of his faculty role in the Aspen Music Festival, where he performed many different concerts this summer. We had a studio tour with Texas-born artist James Surls, and we saw an incredible window display at the Hermès store designed by Raul De Lara (B.F.A., Studio Art, 2015).

Now that I’m back in Austin, we’re hard at work prepping for the start of the fall semester. I’m energized and rejuvenated about the important work that we do here in the College of Fine Arts, and I’m grateful to our friends and alumni for your support of our mission.

Ramón H. Rivera-Servera
Dean, College of Fine Arts

Dear Friends,

This month, we were so excited to celebrate the College of Fine Arts Class of 2023. After missing last year’s commencement ceremony, I was thrilled to take the reins of my first commencement as dean to celebrate more than 330 graduating students.

We were honored to have Butler School of Music alumnus Lecolion Washington as our commencement speaker. A Texas native, Lecolion shared his own moving journey from student to professional musician to arts administrator who advocates for making his field more inclusive and welcoming.

We do commencement a little differently in our college and celebrate our students as they showcase their personalities and talents as they cross the stage. One student’s walk across the stage went viral on social media—you can see why for yourself here.

These talented, passionate and creative graduates enter their post-college lives with incredible artistic might and an ethical compass from their time spent at The University of Texas at Austin. What starts here changes the world, and I expect incredible things from these newly minted alumni.

While commencement always seems like a conclusion to the academic year, it’s really just a momentary pause of celebration for our graduating students. You’ll continue to hear from me over the summer — our doors are open, and our work continues. We’re already preparing to welcome a new incoming cohort of students, new faculty members and new department leadership.

Sincerely,

Ramón H. Rivera-Servera
Dean

Dear Friends,

Earlier this month, the biennial Cohen New Works Festival kicked off in the Winship Building. Every two years, the department suspends all classes so that students and faculty can attend more than 30 new productions in this student-run, student-produced festival.

Along with Associate Dean Raquel Monroe, I had the great pleasure of seeing three new works that used the language of performance to explore historical events.

In La Liga de la Decencia, creator Jessica Peña Torres utilized comedy and cabaret aesthetics to talk about a complicated moment in Mexican political and cultural history in the period after World War II. Torres, a graduate student in Performance as Public Practice, explored this period in history with empathy, depth of analysis and so much humor.

In ZAZ: The Big Easy, M.F.A. in Dance candidate Ryan K. Johnson used dance and performance to explore the experiences of dispersed communities in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The work also highlights the ways in which the resources of a nightclub, music and dancing become genuine fuel for the possibilities of community in the city after the hurricane.

And in ReSourced: Portals of Possibility, M.F.A. in Dance candidate Love Muwwakkil created a gorgeous, body-based work for the festival. The performance starts with a story about dolphins, only for the audience to realize the work is also addressing relationships between people and the ways in which bodies can reflect relationships in dance. The work demonstrates a powerful expansiveness of what small gestures can advance narratively.

I was also fortunate to attend the opening ceremonies, which included a keynote by Idris Goodwin, a playwright, breakbeat poet, content creator and arts champion. In his invitation to jump into the threshold of the theatrical experiment, to boldly explore the possible, he rehearsed the worldmaking power of the arts. Though I know I only scratched the surface of the rich diversity of programs offered throughout the week, I left each of these performances so inspired and excited to see what these creators and performers do next. These experiences reaffirmed the ways the arts advance possibilities, even in the most difficult of circumstances.

Sincerely,

Ramón H. Rivera-Servera
Dean, College of Fine Arts

Dear Friends,

Thank you so much for joining me, Susan Rather, and the College of Fine Arts Development Team for the Fine Arts Advisory Council Spring Meeting in Santa Fe! I am especially grateful for your meaningful engagement throughout the entire program and your enthusiastic and well thought out feedback. I cannot express how much I enjoyed getting to experience art and all of the social experiences together in such a beautiful and historic setting – and I hope you enjoyed it too!

A huge thank you to Caroline Schupbach for her seemingly limitless hospitality. Thank you so much for welcoming us into your second home, showing us your favorite spots, and leading your fellow council members in thinking about the ways they might best impact the future of the arts and higher education in Texas and beyond.

Thank you to Mary Kehoe for opening your beautiful home to us on the final night of our trip. The view was spectacular and the company was even better!

Finally, this trip would not have been possible without the fantastic work of Sondra Lomax and her team, especially Gina Hollis, Blake Turner, Natalie Seeboth, and Lauren Cunningham.

I hope to see you all again soon and certainly on campus this fall.

Sincerely,

Ramón H. Rivera-Servera
Dean

Dear Friends,

Austin is buzzing with visitors this week for SXSW, and UT has a bold presence there this year.

At the larger conference and festival, we had multiple faculty members sharing their work and expertise on panels throughout the week. Assistant Professor of Design Jiabao Li had three events at SXSW, including two panels and a screening of Once a Glacier, an XR film she directed.

On Saturday, I dropped by Discover Texas: UT@SXSW in the Rainey Street neighborhood. UT Austin took over the popular venue Bangers for the day to showcase the many ways that our faculty, students and alumni make a positive impact in our city, state and beyond.
President Hartzell marched into the venue with the Longhorn Band, and our college had amazing work on view at the event, including a 10-foot replica of the UT Tower. The model was built in Texas Performing Arts’ Fabrication Studios and with projection design by students in the Department of Arts and Entertainment Technologies. A life-size model of a Lamborghini with projection design by our students was also on view at the event.

Thanks to everyone who made the UT@SXSW event possible. I was so proud to see our students’ creativity and work on such prominent display.

Ramón H. Rivera-Servera
Dean, College of Fine Arts