September 2024

RESEARCH THAT MATTERS: FACULTY EARN HSI GRANTS

Marcos Serafim's “Membrana Semipermeable" | frame from video components

Assistant Professor Marcos Serafim wants to make sense out of the senseless when it comes to how we process data and information with his art installation, “Membrana Semipermeable: Data, the ongoing HIV/AIDS Crisis and the U.S.-Mexico Border.” Serafim's project received funds from the university's 2024 Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) Faculty Seed Grant Program, as did a research project with School of Art faculty members Amy Kraehe and Carissa DiCindio and AVCE alumna Denisse Brito called “The Arts, Health and Binational Resilience: A Photovoice Conversation on Immigration Journeys through the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.”

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Four artists, scholars
highlight VASE series

Celebrating its 18^th season, the University of Arizona School of Art’s Visiting Artists and Scholars Endowment (VASE) series will feature acclaimed artists and educators Ala Ebtekar (Oct. 10, 2024), Ronald Rael (Nov. 14, 2024), Rujeko Hockley (Feb. 13, 2025) and José Villalobos (March 20, 2025). The free VASE presentations will be held on Thursdays at 5:30 p.m. at the Center for Creative Photography, 1030 N. Olive Road. "Our 2024-2025 guests will tackle critical issues such as the social, political, and environmental impacts of architecture, borders and migration, as well as the intersection of identity, place and memory,” Regents Professor Sama Alshaibi says.

Meet the artists

Community artist groups
part of 'Neighbor' show

From Sept. 19 to Dec. 20, the Joseph Gross Gallery’s doors will be opened wide for community partner artist groups to collaborate, play and co-create an exhibition, "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" while building capacity with the students and staff in the School of Art galleries program. Featuring artists from ArtWorks, the Projects, Tiny Town Surplus/Tanline Printing, the Tohono O'odham Nation, and Snakebite, the free public show will highlight stewardship, belonging and notions of home.

More upcoming events

DAP student helping foster
tribal entrepreneurs

Nicolette Gomez, a Design, Arts & Practice (DAP) major and a member of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, is helping others learn how to start a business. She's executive director of a startup that teaches web design, marketing and other technology-based skills to aspiring entrepreneurs, especially those in tribal communities. Gomez also created a tandem lab program to foster Pascua Yaqui entrepreneurs.

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After sabbatical, DiCindio
receives Resilience Grant

Art & Visual Culture Education Associate Professor Carissa DiCindio and her team members received the second annual Resilience Theme Grant award for their project, "Building Hydro-Local Community Through Music, Art and Watershed Science," from the university's Arizona Institute for Resilience. DiCindio also completed her spring sabbatical as a visiting scholar at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, where she co-taught an honors course, “Making ‘sense’ of cultural ecosystems."

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TMA centennial exhibition
includes alums, emeriti

Ten artists with School of Art ties are among those featured in “Time Travelers,” as the Tucson Museum of Art celebrates its 100th anniversary with an exhibition through Oct. 6, 2024. Included are alums Cristina Cárdenas, Karlito Espinosa Miller, Tom Philabaum, Howard Post, Alfred Quiroz and Jim Waid. Late faculty members Robert Colescott, Maurice Grossman and Luis Alfonso Jiménez Jr. are also featured along with late alum Fritz Scholder.

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Student leads workshop
in Mapping Q's 10th year

MFA candidate Galen Dara is leading a workshop on risograph printing for Mapping Q, an art-based program for LGBTQ youth founded by alumna Chelsea Farrar at the University of Arizona Museum of Art 10 years ago. Dara also is part of the exhibit, "Still Queer After All These Years," which features works of art created by program participants and teachers over the last decade at UAMA.

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Sculpture Tucson video
features 2 recent grads

A recent Arizona Illustrated video on Sculpture Tucson features interviews with recent School of Art graduates Sabrina Mendivil and Eden Squires, and alumna Barbara Grygutis. Also in the video is Associate Professor Joseph Farbrook, who curated a student exhibition, "Dystopian Dreams," which is on display this summer at The Post House at Sculpture Tucson, 3240 E. River Road, Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Watch the video

Alum Pagac reflects on his
3 favorite Tucson murals

Joe Pagac (BFA '05) decided to study art at the University of Arizona his sophomore year. Now he's one of

the city's most beloved muralists. He recently rated his three favorite local murals for "This is Tucson." They include a cycling javalina, flying whales and cactus-shaped hot air balloons. "So much of my art is tied to the outdoors and to nature and to adventure," Pagac said.

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School of Art faculty,
staff in the news

• Assistant Professor Alejandro Macias participated in a UnCool Artist Residency in Brooklyn, was accepted into the 2024 Texas Biennel and saw his “Nopal en la Frente (con Bud Light)” painting acquired by the El Paso Museum of Art.

• Professor Karen Zimmermann was interviewed by the Washington Post and a Tucson radio station (Aug. 5 episode) after being featured in a UA News story on Olympic icons for the 2024 Paris Summer Games.

• Professor Larry Gipe reviewed L.A. painter Frank Ryan's "Lived Perspective" exhibition.

• Galleries Director lydia see was interviewed by Lenscratch about her project to honor COVID-19 victims.

More faculty news

'Where are they now?':
Send us alumni updates

We're highlighting our alums on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin on Wednesdays. Recent "Where are they now?" profiles were Maria Bressler (BFA '15), Roslyn Norman (Minor '20), Io Palmer (MFA ’00), Andrea Reynosa (MFA ’94), Ben Rosenthal (BFA ’18), Franzie Weldgen (MFA ’99), Kareem-Anthony Ferreira (MFA ’20), Mary Meyer (MFA ’05), Gregory Sale (MFA ’95), Tori Arpad-Cotta (MFA ’96), Elizabeth Burden (BFA ’07) and Chris McGinnis (MFA ’10). Click to read about them, and fill out the "Share your updates" form to be featured.

Where are they now?

School has new Instagram
handle, LinkedIn page

The School of Art created a new Instagram page in June, so please follow us at @uazschoolofart. And while you're at it, please help us also grow our School of Art LinkedIn membership. We created the LinkedIn page to let students and faculty connect with alums, professionals and former faculty in the field.