May 24, 2023, Filed Under: From the Executive DirectorSave the Date: Aspen, July 18-19 Dear Advisory Council, Parents Council, and Friends, The College of Fine Arts and Advisory Council member Meredith Luskey invite you to meet us in Aspen, Colorado this July for socializing and some exclusive events highlighting the vibrant arts and music scene in this region. A special thanks to Meredith for helping us to organize an exciting itinerary. In the coming weeks we will be sending out a detailed schedule with a formal RSVP request. If you have any questions, please reach out to Assistant Director of Development Lauren Cunningham at lauren.cunningham@austin.utexas.edu. I look forward to seeing you in Aspen! Warm Regards, Sondra Lomax Executive Director of Development
May 22, 2023, Filed Under: Council Business, From the Executive Director2023-2024 New Members Dear Advisory Council Members, I am pleased to welcome the newest members of the Fine Arts Advisory Council! Thanks again to all who submitted nominations for the 2023-2024 cohort. Additionally, I would like to once again recognize the Nominating Committee for their dedicated service to the council in this important capacity. The 2022-2023 Nominating Committee members are: Stephanie Goodman (Austin), Nancy Ginsburg (Fort Worth), Amy Hofland (Dallas), Aynsley Letzerich (Houston), and Caroline Schupbach (San Antonio). Please join me in welcoming to the council: Charles Hardy, Dallas Nominated by Sondra Lomax Charles retired in 2013 after 33 years as General Counsel of Austin Industries, Inc., one of the largest construction companies in the U.S. Since retiring, he has been Of Counsel at Slates Harwell LLP, serving as an arbitrator in construction disputes and litigation. Before joining Austin Industries in 1980, Charles was an assistant district attorney and felony prosecutor in the Travis County District Attorney’s office. Charles received a Bachelor of Journalism from UT-Austin in 1971 and his J.D. from St. Mary’s University School of Law in 1975. He enjoys theatre and the visual arts, and he is a supporter of the T Department of Theatre and Dance. Charles was born and raised in Hondo, Texas and his family traces its ancestry back to the earliest Texas settlers. Sheri Henriksen, Austin Nominated by Aynsley Letzerich and Cynthia Coulson Sheri holds degrees in journalism from Texas Tech and petroleum engineering from UT-Austin, as well as a Master of Liberal Arts from Rice University. She is an active volunteer, serving on the advisory board of the Glasscock School of Continuing Education at Rice University, UTHealth Houston, UTHealth School of Nursing in Houston, and the Center for Medicine After the Holocaust in Houston. Sheri recently moved to Austin after living in Houston for 38 years and is “just getting started” on her community involvement through memberships with KUT, KMFA, Texas Performing Arts Inner Circle, and the Austin Chamber Music Center.Sarah Bartholow Hsu, Austin Nominated by Vicki Bartholow After obtaining a BA in Art History from UT-Austin in 2004, Sarah, a Dallas native, moved to New York City. She applied her degree in the commercial and entrepreneurial spaces of luxury fashion and consumer brand development at a prominent agency. Sarah returned to Austin in 2009 to pursue her career in strategic brand development and design. With a profound curiosity in the contemporary arts, in addition to Sarah’s brand consulting practice, she is presently retained by a handful of commercial and private residential clients to source and procure art. Art and design have forever saturated Sarah’s career, and her ceaseless desire to explore and learn about new art and design approaches navigates her own practice today. Brent Jackson, Dallas Nominated by Stephen Austin Brent received his BFA in Studio Art in 1993 and his MBA in 2005 from UT-Austin. He is the founder and CEO of Oaxaca Interests, LLC, a real estate operator, developer, and investment firm focused on the urban core of key high-growth Texas markets. In September 2022, Brent founded Oaxaca Interests’ newest venture, HiFAB, a new manufacturing plant located in Grand Prairie, Texas that will be dedicated to creating high-end modular homes. Haciendas, homes designed by San Antonio’s celebrated architecture firm Lake|Flato, will be HiFAB’s first product. Mary Kehoe, Santa Fe, NM Nominated by Malee Helm Dallas was Mary’s home until she moved to Santa Fe, NM 20 years ago. Mary studied art history and studio art in college (UT-Austin) and high school (Hockaday/Dallas). She is a painter and clothing designer using her hand-painted fabrics. She has also sold fabrics to designers to use for upholstery and decorative pieces. Currently, Mary is a Real Estate Broker with Sotheby’s in Santa Fe. In Dallas, Mary was an active volunteer with Crystal Charity Ball, Junior League, the Dallas SPCA, and was co-chairman of the Cattle Baron’s Ball. In Santa Fe, Mary and her husband Chuck are members of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Laura Matz, Austin Nominated by Janis Brous Laura is a respected public policy strategist and strategic communicator with more than 15 years of experience in developing and executing highly effective legislative campaigns. In 2006, the San Antonio Express-News named her one of the state’s top five lobbyists. Prior to starting her own private practice, Laura worked at an independent lobby firm where she represented a wide range of clients. She also worked at the international law firm of Thompson & Knight where she successfully represented corporate clients, organized an international trade mission and led a successful legislative effort to authorize groundwater contamination laws. Laura received her Bachelor of Science in Communication Studies from The University of Texas at Austin, and she is a member of Texas Women for the Arts, an arts advocacy group under the Texas Cultural Trust. Elisabeth McCabe, Houston Nominated by Caroline Finkelstein Elisabeth is a co-founder and principal designer at ecco interior design in Houston, TX. In addition to her thriving business, Elisabeth is an active volunteer with the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, serving in various roles and memberships in modern and contemporary art, art education, and the Family Circle, as well was a member of the Rice Design Alliance. Her past volunteer experience includes serving as a trustee of the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and a trustee of the Houston Symphony. Wayne McCullough, Dallas Nominated by Sharon McCullough Wayne is a Partner and Managing Director at Beacon Pointe Advisors and taps into his vast experience, industry acclaim and relationship-based partnerships with clients to provide top of the line service and expertise in wealth management. Prior to joining Beacon Pointe, Wayne served as the President and Managing Partner for Benchmark Private Wealth Management. Wayne, a sixth generation Texan, received his BA from the University of Texas at Austin and holds the Certified Financial Planner™ (CFP®) designation. Wayne, his wife and children reside in Dallas, where he serves various non-profit organizations. Tania Schwartz, El Paso Nominated by Sondra Lomax Following a career in K-12 education, Tania is an active advocate for the arts and education in El Paso, TX. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the University of Texas at El Paso and is currently in candidacy for a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Foundations also at UTEP. Tania currently serves on the boards of the Texas Cultural Trust, Texas Women for the Arts, the Tom Lea Institute: Arts & Culture Programming, Kids Excel El Paso, and the Cornudas Mountain Foundation. Her past community involvement includes work with the UTEP Development Board, the University of New Mexico School of Architecture, Junior League of El PASO and the Women’s Fund of El Paso. Helen Sharp, Austin Nominated by Susanna Showers Moldawer Helen Sharp is an innovator in the world of public relations and brand-story development for emerging, mission-driven brands. She’s worked with impactful, sustainable businesses such as the Surfrider Foundation, 1% for the Planet, Repurpose and LastObject. She is the founder of Be Influential, a specialized public relations agency for a better world. Helen also maintains a ceramics studio out of her home and sells her work to stores around Texas. Laura Spence, Austin Nominated by Judy Tate Laura is the founder and president of Rosebud Meal Kits and executive director of its nonprofit arm, Rosebud Eastside Alliance, providing fresh, high-quality meal kits to underserved families in Austin. Laura was also involved in the development of two murals in East Austin. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in social work from UT-Austin. Megan Zafereo, Austin Nominated by Janis Brous Megan was born and raised in Fort Worth before attending UT-Austin and earning a Bachelor of Nursing in 2004. Upon graduating, she worked at Memorial Herman in the Houston Medical Center. In 2006 Megan married her husband and moved to Greenwich, CT where they lived and worked before moving to the UK. The Zafereo family lived in London for 13 years and during that time welcomed three children and enjoyed lots of travel. In 2020 they returned to Texas. Megan is continuing her nursing career at St. David’s in the recovery room. Outside of work, Megan enjoys spending time with her children and volunteering at the Assistance League of Austin. As always, my sincere thanks to each and every one of you for all you do for the College of Fine Arts. Warm regards, Sondra Lomax Executive Director of Development
May 18, 2023, Filed Under: From the Executive DirectorTake the 2023 Member Survey Dear Friends, Before you retreat for the summer, we ask that you please take ten minutes to complete a short survey to help us improve your experience as a member of the College of Fine Arts Advisory Council. Ramón and I are so grateful for the hard work of the Executive Committee this spring, who met to brainstorm and discuss ideas to update council procedures and events. Now we turn to the council at large for your feedback on some of our most common questions. Take the Survey Again, the survey should take approximately ten minutes. We greatly appreciate your thoughts. Thank you for your participation! Warm Regards, Sondra Lomax Executive Director of Development
May 1, 2023, Filed Under: Council Business, From the Executive DirectorSave the date: Fall Meeting October 26-27, 2023 View from Guadalupe Room event space in Rowling Hall. Dear Friends, We are excited to announce the dates for the 2023 Fine Arts Advisory Council Fall Meeting! Please save October 26-27, 2023 on you calendar. Information on a hotel block and the full schedule of events will be forthcoming. In the meantime we can provide the following schedule outline: Thursday, October 26 Afternoon: New Member Orientation and Executive Committee Meeting Evening: Full Council Reception, location TBD Friday, October 27 Full Council Meeting, Rowling Hall, Guadalupe Room (RH4), attached to the AT&T Center Please watch your inbox for updates and more information, and feel free to reach out to Assistant Director of Development Lauren Cunningham at lauren.cunningham@austin.utexas.edu with any questions. We look forward to seeing you on campus in October. Have a wonderful summer! Sincerely, Sondra Lomax Executive Director of Development
April 27, 2023, Filed Under: From the DeanDean’s Insider: Ambitious student projects dazzle and inspire in Cohen New Works Festival 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
April 7, 2023, Filed Under: From the DeanFine Arts Advisory Council in Santa Fe! 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
March 15, 2023, Filed Under: From the DeanDean’s Insider: College of Fine Arts at SXSW 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
February 22, 2023, Filed Under: From the DeanDean’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’s Leonardo! 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
February 16, 2023, Filed Under: From the Executive DirectorRegistration is Open: Santa Fe Spring Meeting Dear Advisory Council and Parents Council members, We are so excited to announce the itinerary and open registration for the College of Fine Arts 2023 Spring Advisory Council Meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico! Click Here to Register Now Schedule Thursday, March 30 Cocktail Reception at La Fonda on the Plaza Optional Group Dinner at Sazón*Friday, March 31 Coffee and Business Meeting at La Fonda on the Plaza Docent-led tour of the art collection at La Fonda on the Plaza Lunch on your own Historic walking tour of downtown Santa Fe Happy Hour and Gallery Tour at Shiprock Dinner on your own Saturday, April 1 Private tour of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum Optional Group Lunch at The Compund* Self-Guided tour of Canyon Road galleries with custom recommendations Sunset reception at the home of Caroline and Robert Schupbach *Per-person fee applies, see registration site for details Accommodations We have a group rate at La Fonda On the Plaza. 100 E. San Francisco Street, Santa Fe, NM 87501 Use this link to reserve your room now. Deadline to reserve is Tuesday, February 28. Exact times and locations for events are listed on the registration page. Please note that some optional events will require a per-person fee, and you may reach out to Assistant Director of Development Lauren Cunningham at lauren.cunningham@austin.utexas.edu with any questions. I hope to see you soon in Santa Fe! Warm Regards, Sondra Lomax Executive Director of Development
January 26, 2023, Filed Under: From the DeanDean’s Insider: Celebrating Dance on the Forty Acres Dear Friends, This spring, we’re seeing so much incredible energy around dance on campus, from ambitious programming at Texas Performing Arts to engaging creative and scholarly research happening in the Department of Theatre and Dance. This Saturday, Texas Performing Arts hosts Cullberg — Works by Deborah Hay, an internationally renowned choreographer based right here in Austin. Hay, who is recognized as a pivotal figure in the development of post-modern dance, was one of Texas Performing Arts’ artists-in-residence this year. Associate Professor of Dance Leah Cox will be moderating the talkbacks after each of the two performances on Saturday. And our Dance students will perform new works by student and professional choreographers in their spring show EMERGE, opening March 2. Exploring themes of emergence, EMERGE seeks to reflect on history to imagine a way forward, elevating the inventiveness and interconnectivity of moving art forms. The program will also feature the return of the Haruka Weiser Commission, which will be choreographed by Ido Tadmore. In research news, Associate Professor Rebecca Rossen received a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to support her research exploring dance about the Holocaust. Rossen is a dance historian, performance scholar and choreographer, and the grant supports her forthcoming monograph Moving Memories: Holocaust Representation in Contemporary Dance, the first monograph focused on dance about the Holocaust. As part of my own Puerto Rican Arts Initiative, we’ll be bringing performance artists, including dancemakers, from Puerto Rico to visit campus as part of Performance as Public Practice’s Fridays@2 speaker series. And we’re just getting started. We have more exciting news brewing around dance in our college, so stay tuned! Sincerely, Ramón H. Rivera-Servera Dean, College of Fine Arts
