The Office for Community Engagement and Public Practice in the College of Fine Arts has selected seven student-led projects for the inaugural round of Artistic Citizenship Collaborative Creative Project Grants. These grants were created to foster artistic citizenship among Fine Arts students by supporting student-led multidisciplinary creative projects.
The framework of artistic citizenship enables Fine Arts students to consider their work as an essential part of the wider artistic ecology — locally, nationally and internationally — and helps mobilize students to work in teams to involve practice and praxis, while developing methods and implementing practices on creative projects that advance their own interpretation of artistic citizenship.
“These selected projects reflect the innumerable talents and interdisciplinary approaches of our Fine Arts students, from performance and design to dance and installation art,” said Laura Gutiérrez, associate dean for Community Engagement and Public Practice in the College of Fine Arts.
Musicology Professor Charles Carson will mentor the student teams as they work to bring their projects through fruition through collaboration, creativity and community-engaged research and practice.
SELECTED PROJECTS
Escenografía Viva
Daniel Ruiz Bustos (M.F.A. candidate, Theatre, Live Design and Production) and Ceren Özgen (M.F.A. candidate, Design)
This collaboration between rural regional planning/industrial designer Ceren Özgen and scenic design/film/performance artist Daniel Ruiz Bustos explores the dynamic interaction between human bodies and materials. Escenografía Viva challenges traditional scenographic practices by investigating how bodies engage with their environments to forge new narratives, advancing the boundaries of storytelling and performance.
The Tiger and The Spigot Consider the Stars
Javier Robelo Castillo (M.F.A. candidate, Studio Art) and Leo Briggs (M.F.A. candidate, Dance)
The Tiger and The Spigot Considers the Stars is a performance piece that integrates costume, movement, sound and sculpture to create a poetic dialogue on world-building and storytelling. Drawing on queer phenomenology as articulated by scholars like Sarah Ahmed and José Esteban Muñoz, Robelo Castillo and Briggs’ work explores how performance can manufacture queer experiences as monuments, thereby expanding methods of connecting and existing within shared spaces.
Estorbo Público
Katie Concannon (M.F.A. candidate, Theatre, Live Design and Production), Angel Blanco (M.F.A. candidate, Dance), and Joshua Martin (M.F.A. candidate, Theatre, Live Design and Production)
Dance and performance will be used to make a critical commentary on political squatting in Puerto Rico, specifically the detrimental effects of foreign investment on local communities. The performance, which may be staged in an abandoned building in a future moment, will symbolize resistance to gentrification and reflect broader struggles over land and resource control.
The Serpents Fly at Sundown
Khristián Eduardo Méndez Aguirre (Ph.D. graduate student, Performance as Public Practice) and Laura Camacho (Ph.D. graduate student, Ethnomusicology)
Made from bamboo and other sustainable materials, this artistic collaboration begins with the construction of a large-scale puppet lantern that will be paraded across The University of Texas campus and parts of Austin. This project seeks to raise awareness about environmental injustices, particularly focusing on the effects of excessive heat, flooding, power outages and air pollution, with calls for urgent climate action.
XOCHICUICATL
Demian Chavez (Theatre and Dance senior) and Carolina Arredondo (Design senior)
This project aims to promote and revitalize Nahuatl theatre, a culturally significant art form that has seen a resurgence in recent years. Through Chavez and Arredondo’s collaboration, the project will introduce audiences to important themes of indigenous cultural traditions. The project will have both a performance component and will also be in a printed book form.
Hysteria, Hysteria
Leah Austin (Theatre and Dance senior), Julia Yelvington (Theatre and Dance senior), and Elizabeth Banda (Design senior)
Designers and fabricators Leah Austin, Julia Yelvington and Elizabeth Banda will create an interactive sculptural installation that invites community engagement with the concept of invisible illnesses. This installation will provide a platform for participants to imprint their personal experiences of mental or physical health conditions, fostering reflection and dialogue on these often-overlooked topics.
And Then We’ll Dance
Lily Odekirk (M.F.A. candidate, Theatre Education) and Joshua Martin (M.F.A. candidate, Theatre, Live Design and Production)
The collaboration between applied theatre-maker Lily Odekirk and multidisciplinary designer Joshua Martin will engage young artists, both those recently released from juvenile detention and those still incarcerated, in a project that centers personal storytelling, narrative justice and youth re-entry. Using movement and theatre, And Then We’ll Dance aims to empower these young artists by providing them with a platform to share their experiences and cultivate their artistic voices.