News

Hello members of the College of Fine Arts Advisory Council!

I’m looking forward to seeing you again on Thursday, October 22 at 10:30 a.m. CST.

In this age of COVID-19 and Zoom, we’ve exchanged our convivial in-person Advisory Council meetings for more frequent Zoom sessions. The disadvantages of not being together a few times a year is clear enough, but video conferencing lets us share more views into the college more frequently. And we’re going to make the most of that silver lining in this pandemic cloud.

The really great, encouraging thing that I want you to know is that teaching and learning and creative invention and discovery and debate and collaboration are going on still every day. In short, education and creativity carry on! We just have to zoom in a little closer to find it.

And we’re going to make this as educational and as interesting for you as we can. If we do this right, each of our council meetings should be a little slice of college life for you to share in—at least virtually.

So, to prepare you for our meeting on the 22nd, I’ve included the following links for your homework! (And no, you won’t be quizzed or graded!)

In addition to my usual scintillating updates on what’s happening in the college, you’re going to learn about the creative and production challenges of mounting a dance performance in the age of COVID by choreographer and faculty member, Charles Anderson, head of our Dance program. Professor Anderson’s choreography is “Afro-contemporary” or “Afrocentric,” which makes his work especially timely in a period when we as a campus and nation are once again coming to grips with issues of race.

Professor Anderson’s piece, (Re)current Unrest, is in socially distanced rehearsal right now, as I write you, on the stage of Bass Concert Hall—with financial and operational support from Texas Performing Arts—in preparation for a live-streaming performance this coming Friday and Saturday (Oct. 16/17) at 7:30 p.m. CST.

Your first homework assignment is to watch the streamed performance if you can. To watch, go to this link on either evening and enter the password 2020TAD_Recurrent. Your “tickets” are free, as we will underwrite your attendance from Advisory Council dues.

Next Thursday, during our council meeting you’ll get to meet and ask questions of Professor Anderson and, I hope, one or more of his dancers. They’ll be interviewed by Robert Ramirez, chair of Theatre and Dance.

And if you’d like to do some extra-credit homework, I’ll suggest you read this article from SMU’s DataArts called “Choreographing the Future: How Dance Companies are Turning Crisis into Opportunity,” which focuses coincidentally on how the famed Dallas Black Dance Theater is responding to the pandemic.

And if you can’t do your homework, come to the Advisory Council meeting anyway and be part of the conversation.

Looking forward to seeing you! Excelsior!

Doug Dempster
Dean

Dear Advisory Council members,

What is exciting about gathering online, for our students and faculty, but also for the council, is that it provides the opportunity to explore new and interesting ways of engaging with each other using this technology.

Thanks to those of you who offered your feedback after the Sept. 25 fall meeting and the Oct. 5 spotlight session. We will continue to offer surveys following each of our meetings, which I hope you will complete, to help us make these events as interesting and productive as possible.

With that in mind, I invite you to join us for our second virtual fall meeting on Thursday, Oct. 22, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. CST, and I am looking forward to introducing some new features to this meeting, including more time to interact with your fellow members via small breakout discussions.

Additionally, we have all wished for the opportunity to return to college and classroom learning, so I hope you’ll also indulge me in assigning a little bit of homework before Oct. 22. Look for more details in an upcoming email.

Finally, don’t forget to RSVP to cofarsvp@austin.utexas.edu so we know to expect you, and feel free to contact Sondra Lomax or Natalie Schuessler with any questions.

See you Oct. 22, and thank you for your continued support and enthusiasm.

Excelsior!

Doug Dempster
Dean

Dear Advisory Council Members,

Thank you again to those of you who joined us Friday for our first fall virtual meeting of the season. As I mentioned on the call, to supplement those meetings, we are introducing a new Spotlight Series for this academic year, with each session highlighting one of the college’s departments or programs.

I am pleased to invite you to the first session on Monday, October 5, at 10:30 a.m. CST, which will feature Chair Susan Rather of the Department of Art and Art History.

As you know, the Department of Art and Art History is one of the largest and most diverse in the country, with programs in Studio Art, Art History, and Art Education, as well as projects like the internationally renowned Mesoamerica Center and the popular long-running Learning Tuscany summer program. Susan Rather has served for nearly three decades on the Art History faculty and was named chair this February. Some of our San Antonio members had a chance to meet her this spring and hear about her vision for the department as well as her own research.

As always, we appreciate your RSVP to cofarsvp@austin.utexas.edu so we know to expect you. Please also send any questions you may have for Susan.

I hope you will join us for this special opportunity to learn more about the Department of Art and Art History, its programs, and its faculty.

Warm Regards,

Sondra Lomax
Executive Director of Development

Dear Advisory Council members,

I continue to be grateful for the time and attention you’ve given to the college over the last several months, especially now as so many of you are navigating the complexities of safe summer travel or are preparing to send your children back to school.

My thanks again to everyone who was able to attend our third videoconference call last Thursday. What in April felt strange and challenging about gathering online now feels like a new normal routine. Features like the live poll you took are exactly what our professors are using in their online courses to keep students engaged in the material, so look for more of those techniques and tools in our future meetings.

If you could not join us, please take some time to watch the recording of the meeting. Roxanne Schroeder-Arce gave an excellent presentation on our UTeach Fine Arts program and all of the ways she, our faculty, and our students are leading the conversation about innovation in arts education in the state of Texas.

Continue Reading August 6 Virtual Meeting Recap

Dear Advisory Council members,

I write with two important updates to the council’s schedule for the 2020-2021 academic year.

First, to protect the health and safety of you, our members, as well as our students, faculty, and staff, we will not be gathering in person for our usual on-campus meeting this fall. Instead, we will host a series of short virtual meetings, similar to our popular sessions this summer. Please mark your calendars for the first virtual Advisory Council meeting on Friday, September 25. 

This decision is in compliance with the policies announced last week by UT’s Interim President Jay Hartzell as part of the new Protect Texas Together initiative, in which university officials are advising against large in-person gatherings in favor of online events.

However, we do expect to see you in person in the spring! Please save the date for a special, spring meeting as we gather together on campus on Friday, March 5, 2021. This meeting will be in conjunction with several other special university events, and we will have more information about those spring festivities in the coming months. We will also hold our usual regional meetings next spring to give you the opportunity to celebrate and say farewell to Doug before he retires.

Continue Reading Important Update on 2020-2021 Advisory Council Events

Dear Advisory Council members,

We are facing difficult challenges created by COVID-19, but I’m finding that there are also silver linings. Just a few months ago, the Fine Arts Advisory Council had never held a virtual meeting, and now, we’ve completed our second Zoom meeting where we once again had nearly a third of our council join us. I think the days of only connecting with you once or twice a year at meetings are gone, and that is a change I can embrace enthusiastically.

For those of you unable to attend, I hope you’ll take some time to watch the recording of the meeting, especially the presentations by Robert Ramirez, our chair of the Department of Theatre and Dance, and Julie Schell, our assistant dean for instructional continuity and innovation. The surprise video message from Renee Fleming to our opera students is not to be missed, and here are links to the other student work we featured:

• The Butler School’s Mariachi Ensemble performs together online
• Dance students find creative places to perform when the studios close
• The 2020 B.F.A. Design exhibition went virtual, with stunning results

Continue Reading May 20 Virtual Meeting Recap