In the 2018-2019 academic year, the Fine Arts Diversity Committee approved funding for 11 student projects as part of its Guest Artist Initiative program. The program provides funding for student and faculty projects that support the inclusion and diversity goals of the college.
In 2015 the FADC launched the Guest Artist Initiative, funded through dedicated funds from the Provost’s Office, to encourage cross-college collaboration on diversity and inclusion through sponsorship of distinguished visitors to the UT campus and College of Fine Arts. In 2017, the committee expanded the program and opened funding up to student proposals as well.
Learn more about the student projects that received funding from the Guest Artist Initiative:
- Jose Martinez, a graduate student in the Butler School of Music received funding for his newly created concert series, “Stack Overflow.” C3 (Colombian Composers Collective), an emerging collective of six Colombian composers currently based in the U.S., visited Austin for a residency and composed six new original works for the concert series in September.
- Keith Allegretti, a composition graduate student in Butler School of Music, received funding for a performance of his chamber opera Good Country. The grant allowed the production to bring in guest artist Holden Madagame to Austin from Berlin, Germany in April for a performance of Good Country as part of the 2019 Cohen New Works Festival.
- Laura Baglereau and Khristián Mendez-Aguirre, graduate students in Performance as Public Practice in the Department of Theatre and Dance, received funding for a production of The Tempest. The production concept, which focused on gentrification in East Austin, aimed to examine power relations in the rehearsal room and to consider the role Shakespeare plays in upholding hegemonic power in the 21st century.
- Adraint Bereal, a senior in the Department of Design, received funding for a photography project that explores the voices of black men on campus through interviews and by capturing the moments of their expressions through film and photography.
- Rebecca East, a Theatre Studies student in the Department of Theatre and Dance, received funding to direct a production of Patrick Shaw’s play Hamlettes.
- Jessica Pena Torres, a graduate student in Performance as Public Practice in the Department of Theatre and Dance, received funding for her project “Noche Latina,” an event on Cinco de May hosted by the Latinx Theatre Initiative to educate audiences (both Latinx and non-Latinx) about the Batalla de Puebla, Latinx theatre and dance and cultural traditions.
- Jeanelle Ramirez, a graduate student in Ethnomusicology in the Butler School of Music, received funding for her project “Future Traditions” a multimedia piece centered around traditional Latin American music and dance practices and their intersections with technology.
- Mason Rosenthal, a graduate student in Performance as Public Practice in the Department of Theatre and Dance, received funding for his project “Tent (Skin),” an interdisciplinary, autobiographical performance piece that addresses mental health, with the goal of destigmatizing conversations around mental illness.
- Ally Tufenkjan, a graduate student in Drama for Youth and Communities in the Department of Theatre and Dance, received funding for “Mr Burns: Future of Sustainability,” a community engagement symposium tied to the fall 2018 theatrical production of Mr. Burns: A Post-Electric Play.
- Sarah Lahasky, a graduate student in Ethnomusicology in the Butler School of Music, received funding for her project “World Music Guest Artists” to invite guest musicians to her course MUS 303M, Introduction to Music in World Culture, to perform and discuss the Javanese gamelan, South Korean sanjo, Taiwanese Aboriginal flute-playing, North Indian Classical Hindustani music and South Indian dance styles, Middle Eastern improvisatory styles, East African lamellophone traditions and popular folk music from the Andean region of South America.
- Jesse Quezada and Christian Leal, both Dance students in the Department of Theatre and Dance, received funding for their project “Hip-Hop Internship.”
Interested in applying for funding?
FADC accepts proposals from students and faculty on a rolling basis, with up to $1,000 available for each proposal submitted. Faculty/staff proposals involving collaboration between multiple departments/units may be funded up to an additional $1,000 for the project (for a $2,000 total maximum). Faculty/staff proposals must be submitted at least eight weeks before the proposed residency with complete information, and student proposals with complete information must be submitted at least four weeks before the proposed project.
Application for Faculty/Staff requesting funding for guest artist(s)
Application for Students requesting funding for student project(s)