Associate Professor Roxanne Schroeder-Arce has been named the new director of UTeach Fine Arts, the arts teacher preparation program in the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin.
UTeach Fine Arts offers teacher education programs in Visual Arts, Dance, Music and Theatre. UTeach Fine Arts students have the opportunity to work and study with some of the most highly respected and experienced educators in their field. UTeach Fine Arts provides valuable real-world, early teaching experience in many settings. The program graduates about 40 certified teachers each year and has a 100 percent placement rate for graduates who choose to teach in the schools of Texas.
Since its inception in 1938, the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin has been a leading college preparing students to become fine arts teachers in Texas schools. In 2017, the arts education program was rebranded as UTeach Fine Arts, under the leadership of Associate Dean for Arts Education Hunter March.
“Given her extensive experience in theatre education and working with youth, her expertise in bilingual education and her research on cultural inclusion in schools, Roxanne Schroeder-Arce is exactly the leader we’re looking for to carry on the important mission of UTeach Fine Arts,” said College of Fine Arts Dean Doug Dempster. “Graduates of the UTeach Fine Arts programs are well prepared to flourish in Texas schools where they have for generations been creating and leading the best fine arts education programs in the country. I’m grateful to Hunter March for developing and stewarding this program and leaving a strong foundation for Roxanne to build upon.”
Schroeder-Arce joined the faculty of the Department of Theatre and Dance in 2010, where she teaches courses in theatre pedagogy. Her research interests include culturally responsive theatre pedagogy, teaching across identity markers and Latinx theatre with and for youth. She is also a director and playwright, as well as a faculty affiliate in the Center for Mexican American Studies, the Teresa Lozano Long Institute of Latin American Studies and the Center for Women’s and Gender Studies at UT Austin. Her most recent play, Yana Wana’s Legend of the Bluebonnet, premiered at Dallas Children’s Theater last month.
Schroeder-Arce was the Theatre Director at McCallum Fine Arts Academy in Austin and at United South High School in Laredo for several years before she moved to higher education. She was also artistic and youth director of Teatro Humanidad, a bilingual theatre company in Austin. She currently serves on the board of directors of Teatro Vivo, UT Elementary School and the Indigenous Cultures Institute of San Marcos, and she is a member of the steering committee of the Latinx Theatre Commons of HowlRound. In addition, she is a cadre member of the Center for Educator Development in the Fine Arts, where she facilitates professional development with fine arts educators throughout the state.
Schroeder-Arce recently received the Higher Education Teacher of the Year Award from the Texas Educational Theatre Association and the Ann Flagg Multicultural Award from the American Alliance for Theatre & Education. Most recently, she was named a fellow of the Advocacy Leadership Institute of the National Association for Latino Arts and Culture.
Schroeder-Arce is a proud graduate of Emerson College and The University of Texas at Austin. She is also an alumna of the Keene State College Upward Bound Program.
“I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to lead UTeach Fine Arts and to continue to build upon the success of a well-respected program and to work with students in theatre, music, art and dance,” said Schroeder-Arce. “An arts education degree from The University of Texas means something to administrators in school districts across the state of Texas, and we will continue to train the teachers who will educate and mentor the artists, performers and musicians of tomorrow.”
Schroeder-Arce steps into her new position June 1. She will take over leadership of the UTeach Fine Arts program when March, after more than three decades of teaching and service in the College of Fine Arts, retires Aug. 31.