Alumni in the News

Jacqueline Lawton (M.F.A., Playwriting, 2003), an Assistant Professor in the Department of Dramatic Art at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has researched, developed, and presented a staged reading of her play Edges of Time, which will premiere at PlayMakers Repertory Company. This one woman show is about the life and times of Marvel Cooke, a pioneering journalist and activist, who was the first African-American woman writer to work for a mainstream newspaper. The play will run from Apr. 29–May 3, 2020. Photo by Jason Hornick. 

Juliana Castro (M.F.A., Design, 2018) was placed in the seventh cohort of Mozilla Open Leaders.

Erik Culver (B.F.A., Studio Art, 2008) has created ArtStartArt, an online business where student artists can sell their art. 

Leah Dyjak (M.F.A., Studio Art, 2015) has accepted a position with Wheaton College Massachusetts as an assistant professor of photography. 

Tamara Johnson (B.F.A., Studio Art, 2007) is the co-founder of the new outdoor sculpture venue, Sweet Pass Sculpture Park located at 402 Fabrication St. in Dallas. The park will present its third exhibition, Outdoor Cat, based on a shared nickname for sculptures that "live outside." The works will explore notions of landscape, environment, habitation and histories of site. Photo by Trey Burns. 

Dr. Noah Simblist (Ph.D., Art History, 2015) and artist Lauren Woods will lead a conversation at the Modern Art Museum of Forth Worth, titled "Reading Monuments: An Introduction." The discussion is in conjunction with the national project, Reading Monuments, where Dr. Simblist serves as artistic director. 

Gracelee Lawrence (M.F.A., Studio Art, 2016) is currently an artist-in-residence at Sculpture Space in New York, and will exhibit site-specific outdoor sculpture as part of Times Square Immersive. 

Jonas Criscoe's (B.F.A., Studio Art, 2006) work  featured at the two-person show "When Everything's Been Said," was reviewed by the Austin Chronicle.  

Emily Edwards (B.F.A., Art History, 2015) curated a solo presentation of Margarita Cabrera's work that opened January 2019 at the Dallas Contemporary, where she began as a curatorial assistant in June 2018. The Cabrera presentation was named a Critic's Pick by Artforum. 

Jim Friedhofer (B.M., Music Education, 1986) has spring 2019 performances scheduled as a member of the Houston Symphony Chorus (Orff, Carmina Burana; Rachmaninoff, The Bells) and as a member of the La Jolla Symphony Chorus (Bernstein, Symphony No. 3, Kaddish). In June 2019, he will participate in the Longhorn Alumni Band at the 75th D-Day anniversary ceremonies in Normandy, France. He also continues practicing as a civil litigation lawyer in Friedhofer PC in San Diego, California.