News

As I near my one-year anniversary as dean of the College of Fine Arts, I’ve had the pleasure of learning about the breadth and depth of research in our college. I’ve been especially impressed with the historical range of research, from the ancient Roman empire and pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to some of the pioneering work we see at the intersection of arts and technologies today.

The arts archive and embody traditions we continue to mine, uphold and reinvent, as well as the new forms that will express our imagination into the future. While we preserve and uphold our history and traditional repertoires, our faculty are also exploring new forms in transmedia and performance, advancing experimentation and innovation in music composition and developing new theatre and dance works. In doing so, they push both at the formal conventions of each medium represented in the college and expand the notion of creativity at the core of an arts education. We look to the past, as we constantly move forward.

We employ cutting-edge technologies to uncover new insights and animate ancient history. The use of LIDAR technologies has helped uncover whole new settlements obscured by thick jungle cover for centuries in Central America. We create 3-D models of excavated Roman villas buried by a volcano eruption in 79 AD. Our faculty conduct archival research for new insights that inform how we think about our disciplines and how to move our practices forward.

And our faculty and students are constantly exploring new ways to adapt new technologies to execute their creative visions. From designing new experiences for virtual and augmented reality to incorporating projection design into an opera set, our community is pushing the boundaries of what technology can do to create narratives.

Our college’s greatest strengths are our scale, size and interdisciplinarity, and I’ve been impressed by the dynamism of our college and its temporal span between the past, present and future. I’m excited to see what’s next as we engage with history and make history for our fields.

Sincerely,

We’ve all heard the University’s tagline, “What starts here changes the world.” And I wanted to take a moment to highlight the global impact of our faculty’s research and creative work in this issue.

Our students are learning from scholars, artists, curators and performers whose work is reaching global audiences and advancing conversations in their respective disciplines around the world. Below are just a few examples that I’m proud to share from the College of Fine Arts.

• Design Associate Professor Kate Catterall recently returned from Belfast, Ireland after staging her project “Drawing the Ring of Steel” at Belfast Festival of Ideas and Politics. The project, which drew international press in The Irish News and ITV, facilitated public recollection of the Troubles by recreating the “Ring of Steel,” a security cordon that once encircled Belfast City center, protecting, while rendering suspect, an entire population.
• Associate Professor of Theatre Katie Dawson continues to train educators all over the world in the use of drama-based pedagogy. Originally developed in Central Texas schools, she has brought her innovative approach to creative teaching to multi-year projects in Australia and Taiwan, and to extended research partnerships with the U.S. Embassy System in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Poland.
• Studio Art Professor Beili Liu is currently on research leave in Norway as the 2021–2022 Fulbright Arctic Chair, one of Fulbright’s Distinguished Scholars programs, to support her project Dreams of the High North: Between Survival and Belonging. Liu was also just named a 2022 Andrew Carnegie Fellow for her project Dreams of the High North: Between Survival and Belonging, Sculptural Exploration of Environmental Challenges Facing the Circumpolar North. She’s been sharing stunning images of her time in Norway on her Instagram account this year, and I’m eager to see the work that emerges from this project.
• Butler School of Music Professor Robin Moore recently received a faculty research seed grant from Texas Global to support a partnership with University of Guadalajara, Mexico to cultivate faculty teaching and research, offer students international cultural learning opportunities and strengthen the university’s regional and global connections.
• The University of Texas at Austin was recently recognized as being a top producer of Fulbright Students. Twelve Longhorns received Fulbright awards this academic year, making the university No. 17 overall and No. 2 among public universities. Butler School of Music Associate Professor Sonia Seeman has served as UT Austin’s Fulbright Chair since 2018, helping shepherd the success of this dynamic global program for students.

And this list only scratches the surface of the many ways our faculty are engaging with and reaching worldwide audiences in their work. I’m so proud of the global impact of our faculty in the College of Fine Arts.

Sincerely,

This past week, I had the great honor of gathering with many friends to celebrate the recipients of the College of Fine Arts’ 2022 Doty Awards. This was my first time participating in this event in the college, and I loved learning more about the incredible impact of the work of our recipients.

The E. William Doty Award, named for the founding dean of the College of Fine Arts, is the highest honor given by our college. This year, we honored the Still Water Foundation, which has long been a key supporter of Landmarks, the University’s public art program. With the continued generous support of the Foundation, Landmarks has become one of the most prestigious university public art collections in the country, inspiring students and scholars from disciplines across the Forty Acres.

We also honored two prolific and inspiring alumni in our college:

Arts executive, curator and designer Fairfax Dorn (B.F.A., Studio Art, 1997; B.A., Art History, 1998) received the E. William Doty Distinguished Alumna Award. Dorn is the co-founder of Ballroom Marfa, an internationally-recognized contemporary non-profit art space located in West Texas, where she served as the executive director until 2013.

Playwright and screenwriter Isaac Gómez (B.A., Theatre and Dance, 2013) received the E. William Doty Young Alumnus Award. Gómez grew up in El Paso, Texas/Ciudad Juárez, Mexico and is currently based in Chicago and Los Angeles. As a playwright, they are currently under commission with LCT3, Steppenwolf Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, Denver Center for the Performing Arts and IAMA Theatre Company. Gómez’s television credits include the Netflix Original Series Narcos: Mexico, among other exciting upcoming projects for AppleTV, Netflix and Paramount TV+.

Each of these recipients continues to do important work to support visual and performing arts and lift up new voices and tell new stories through art. We’re honored they’re part of our College of Fine Arts community, and I hope you’ll join me in sending warmest congratulations and gratitude to the Still Water Foundation, Fairfax Dorn and Isaac Gómez.

Sincerely,

As we launch into this new year, I’ve had a wonderful stack of reading on my nightstand that I wanted to share with you.

I was delighted to receive a copy of the winter issue of Aperture Magazine, which is the first issue ever devoted entirely to Latinx photography. This rich issue was guest edited by UT alumna Pilar Tompkins Rivas, who is also the chief curator and deputy director of curatorial and collections at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art.

I also have been enjoying enlightening new publications by our College of Fine Arts faculty members:

• Professors Teresa Hubbard and Alexander Birchler recently published Flora Redux (Radius Books, 2022), a richly illustrated book that chronicles their process of creating their acclaimed work, Flora. The book includes the transcript of the film installation, a visual chronology of Flora Mayo’s life and conversations with the artists.
• Associate Professor Nassos Papalexandrou’s Bronze Monsters and the Cultures of Wonder: Griffin Cauldrons in the Preclassical Mediterraneanwas published by UT Press this fall. The book is an enlightening study of griffin cauldrons in the preclassical Mediterranean, uncovering the origins of illusionism in Greek art and exploring the social significance of a changing visual culture.
• Associate Professor Luisa Nardini’s book Chants, Hypertext, Prosulas: Re-Texting the Proper of the Mass in Beneventan Manuscripts was published by Oxford Press this fall. The book provides a model for future studies of liturgical music and illustrates the interconnectedness of modern and ancient modes of human learning, teaching, and communicating.

This is just a small sampling of the great work our alumni and faculty members have been producing recently on the publication front. We will be featuring a full slate of publications for this academic year in our forthcoming issue of Arts Next.

Sincerely,

This month, we were so excited to welcome our College of Fine Arts Advisory Council members back to campus for an in-person meeting for the first time since fall 2019. This was my first chance to interact live with this important group, and it was my first state-of-the-college address. (Spoiler alert: The state of the College of Fine Arts is strong, and our programs are thriving!)

We spent much of our time together talking about collaboration. We showcased engaging collaborative projects that integrate our scholarly research with our public-facing role in a city with a robust creative economy. As a research university, we want not just to excel in our disciplinary fields, but to create field-changing practitioners and visionaries.

First up, Associate Professor Adele Nelson presented her collaboration with Visual Arts Center Director Mackenzie Stevens for the upcoming exhibition Social Fabric: Art and Activism in Contemporary Brazil. This ambitious exhibition, which opens in fall 2022 at the VAC, will showcase a stellar slate of contemporary Brazilian artists, including Rosana Paulino and Jaime Lauriano. The exhibition will fill more than 6,000 square feet of gallery space and is the result of a multiyear collaboration between the faculty, graduate students, the VAC and campus and global partners. This innovative show pushes our programming in new directions and exposes our students and our audiences to important voices in contemporary art.

Michael Baker, chair of the Department of Arts and Entertainment Technologies, highlighted vital collaborations with industry partners that give our students valuable hands-on learning opportunities working with real-world companies to design amazing experiences. The department has partnered with global design and architecture firm Gensler for an experiential design course to create content that will be presented on an LED screen in Gensler’s lobby in Austin.

As I settle into my role as dean and learn more about our college, I’m so energized and inspired by the amazing collaborations already happening among our faculty, students, staff and with community and industry partners. We’re well-positioned as we begin working on the strategic plan for our college’s future, and we’re grateful for the support of our friends of the college as we shape our vision together.

Sincerely,