Alumni in the News

A new choral work by Joshua Shank’s (D.M.A., Composition, 2016, Musicology, 2019) was performed by 34 choirs in a nation-wide effort to raise money for professional musicians decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The consortium of choirs from 21 states raised more than $10,000 for relief.

Laura August (Ph.D., Art History, 2012) is a 2021 inaugural Mellon Arts + Practitioner Fellow at Yale's Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity and Transnational Migration. She will be developing new writing that expands upon one of the exhibitions she curated in 2020. The work, To Weave Blue: poema al tejido, on view from January to April in the Fogelman Galleries of The University of Memphis, was the first exhibition in the United States to center contemporary Maya art and philosophy.

Carlos Rosales-Silva (B.F.A., Studio Art, 2017) will be featured in his first New York City solo exhibition at Ruiz Healy Art in Manhattan. The exhibition, Sunland Park, uses landscape and architecture to express changes in artistic and cultural histories throughout time along the border of Texas, Mexico and El Paso.

Kimberly Archer (D.M.A., Composition, 2003) has been selected by the president’s own Marine Band to compose a new work to be premiered during the presidential Inauguration ceremony. The work, “Fanfare Politeia,” celebrates the traditions of a free and fair election and a peaceful transfer of power. Photo courtesy of Murphy Music Press

Emily Edwards (B.F.A., Art History, 2015) has been promoted to assistant curator at the Dallas Contemporary. Her latest curatorial project opens in late January alongside a video, titled Doubt & Imagination, created by alumna Ariel Rene Jackson (M.F.A., Studo Art, 2019). Photo by Ariel Rene Jackson

Mary Paynter (B.A., Art History, 2007) launched the site ILostMyGig.com in the wake of SXSW's cancellation due to the pandemic. The site is a peer to peer mutual aid space that documented the individual losses of gig workers, creatives, freelancers, and contractors from Austin dependent on SXSW for income. The site was profiled and I was featured in the New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and CNN, among others and has provided $750M in funds. Photo by Ben Sklar

Shaun Lane (B.F.A., Visual Art Studies, 2014) was featured by the National Art Education Association/Professional Learning Through Research Committee in their webinar, Equitable Access: Removing Barriers to Learning in Digital Spaces. 

Megan Rabuse (B.A., Theatre & Dance, 2019) stars in new online production titled Human Resources: The Musical. The work is an internet-based livestream through Zoom and YouTube. Photo courtesy of Human Resources: The Musical

Clare Croft (Ph.D., Theatre, 2010) has been awarded the 2020 Oscar G. Brockett Book Prize for excellence in dance research from the Dance Studies Association, the leading organization in dance studies research. Croft’s work, “Queer Dance: Meanings and Makings,” was commended by the award committee for its boldness in demonstrating and embodying the generative potential of coalitional and collaborative Dance Studies work on queer dance.