TAMU art academy funds faculty projects for artistic enrichment

Humanity’s multilayered relationship with the sun will be further explored by visual artist Krista Steinke, instructional assistant professor of visualization, with a $7,500 grant from the Academy for the Visual and Performing Arts at Texas A&M University.

Hers is one of three 2018 AVPA Arts Enhancement Grants totaling $23,000 supporting art exhibits, musical events and dance classes headed by university faculty. The grants were announced recently by Weiling He, AVPA director and associate professor of architecture.

Steinke will explore the physical and psychological impact of our nearest star in “Good Luck with the Sun,” a new phase in her ongoing sun-based work incorporating scientific imagery, personal narrative, video and experimental photographic processes.

“The work creates a multi-layered dialogue about our dual relationship with the sun; essential for life on this planet while also, a potential threat of doom and destruction,” Steinke said.

With the grant, Steinke will create five prints displayed inside light boxes and two video works to be showcased in upcoming exhibitions including the [Currents New Media Festival] (https://currentsnewmedia.org/festivals/2018/) , set for June 8 – 24 in Santa Fe, N.M. She also plans to submit the new series to other art and photography festivals, publications and conferences.

Her previous sun-based art is currently featured in a solo [exhibit] (http://one.arch.tamu.edu/news/2018/4/26/steinke-exhibit/) at the Women and their Work Art Gallery, [ 1710 Lavaca St.] (https://goo.gl/maps/UA7xYvYhtQ42) in Austin through June 7, 2018.

Additional AVPA awards

Isaac Bustos, instructional assistant professor of performance studies, will spearhead The Texas A&M International Guitar Symposium and Competition, a biannual event bringing guitarists of international prominence to College Station for educational and artistic development.

The symposium, now in its fifth edition, features concerts, master classes, lectures, and an international solo and ensemble competitions. The AVPA grant will also help fund a resident artists program connected with the symposium.

“These cross-disciplinary mixtures of theoretical and practical elements highlight and enhance the uniqueness of our students’ experiences with the arts at Texas A&M,” Bustos said.

The other arts enhancement grant funds a guest artist dance program featuring noted dancers who will offer expert instruction in courses like “Health Practices for Dancers,” “Partnering,” “Pilates,” “Composition” and “Technique.”

“By bringing in guest artists from a variety of backgrounds, our students will gain unique perspectives which complement the current instruction within the dance science program,” said APVA grant awardee Christine Bergeron, clinical professor of Health and Kinesiology. “Guests will conduct expert lecture and movement sessions which explore and apply the concepts of dance science within the studio setting.”

In addition to the arts enhancement grants, the AVPA presented two student grants to Margaret Cook, a master of visualization student who is developing an “Interactive Textbook Platform” proposal, and Courtney Kiolbassa, a senior English major who is performing ethnographic and field research in El Santuraio de Chimayo, New Mexico.

Sarah Wilson
swilson@arch.tamu.edu