News

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