Thursday | October 19

1:00—3:00 pm Pre-Conference Board Meeting | Holiday Inn Express Hotel | Conference Room
4:00—7:00 pm Conference Registration and Graduate Portfolio Review | Holiday Inn Express Hotel | Conference Room
7:00—9:00 pm Meet & Greet Reception - Youngs Pizza & Bar (625 W Santa Gertrudis St)

Friday | October 20

Bus leaving every 15 minutes starting at 8:15am ending at 9:30am

6:00—9:00 am Breakfast | Holiday Inn Express Hotel
9:00—11:00 am Registration | Texas A&M Kingsville–Bailey Art Building
9:30—11:00 am Breakout Sessions | Texas A&M Kingsville–Bailey Art Building

• Session 1 – Jason Bly: Now and Then: Use of Machine Cut Stencils in Traditional Practice (workshop)

• Session 2 – Fulden Wissinger and Robert Pena: Ceramic Tile (workshop)

11:00 am—12:00 pm Business Meeting and Sandwich Buffet | Student Memorial Union Rm. 219
12:30 pm – Frida Theatrical production | Little Theatre
2:00—3:00 pm Excellence in the Field Award: HER.MOSA Collective: Unlocking the Power of Collaboration: A Case Study of Transformative Murals | Music Recital Hall
3:30—5:00 pm Breakout Sessions | Texas A&M Kingsville–Bailey Art Building

• Session 3 – Dr. Liz Kim: Practical Aspects of Working with Magazines (art criticism workshop)

• Session 4 – Fulden Wissinger and Robert Pena: Ceramic Tile (workshop)

5:30—7:00 pm Keynote Speaker: Claudia Zapata in Conversation with Jesus De La Rosa: A Rasquache Guide to the Art World | Music Recital Hall
7:00—8:30 pm Reception: One-Foot Faculty Exhibition | Connor Museum

Saturday | October 21

6:00—9:00 am Breakfast | Holiday Inn Express Hotel
9:30—11:00 am Breakout Sessions | Texas A&M Kingsville–Bailey Art Building

• Session 5 – Dr. Jing Zhang: Infusing Narrative Design and Creative Storytelling into Senior Design Classrooms (student outcomes presentation)

• Session 6 – Panel Discussion: AI in Art with Robert Peña, Dr. Ayush Goyal, Dr. Brian Robinson, Pindar Van Arman, Emmanuel Sanchez & representative(s) from Chat GPT | Music Recital Hall

11:30 am—12:30 pm Banquet Luncheon | Student Memorial Union Rm. 219
12:30 pm Paul Hanna Award Speaker: Prince Varughese Thomas: The Spectacle Unveiled: Exploring the Intersection of Art, Politics, and Social Media | Student Memorial Union
1:30—3:00 pm Breakout Sessions Texas A&M Kingsville–Ben Bailey Art Building

• Session 7 – Carol Flueckiger: Drawing Water/Printing Solar (workshop)

• Session 8 – Beaman Floyd and Vicki VanNest from the Texas Community College Teachers Association: Texas Senate Bills Impacting Higher Education: A Q&A With TCCTA | Music Recital Hall

3:30—5:00 pm Breakout Sessions | Texas A&M Kingsville–Bailey Art Building

• Session 9  – Gina Palacios:  Arts & Sciences Research Experience for Undergraduates (case study explained with participating students) | Music Recital Hall

• Session 10 – Omar Gonzalez: The Value of a Steamroller (studio lecture)

6:00—8:00 pm Incoming TASA Board Meeting | Youngs Pizza & Bar (625 W Santa Gertrudis St)

Claudia Zapata in Conversation with Jesus De La Rosa:

A Rasquache Guide to the Art World

Friday | October 20 | 5:30—7:00 pm

Claudia E. Zapata (they/them) earned their Ph.D. in art history at Southern Methodist University’s RASC/a: Rhetorics of Art, Space, and Culture program. Their dissertation is titled “Chicano Art is Not Dead: The Politics of Curating Chicano Art in Major U.S. Exhibitions, 2008-2012.” They received their BA and MA in art history from the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in Maya art from the Classic period (250-900 CE). Their research interests include curatorial methodologies of identity-based exhibitions, Chicanx and Latinx art, digital humanities, BIPOC zines, and designer toys. Zapata was the curator of exhibitions and programs at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin. They curated several Texas exhibitions, including A Viva Voz: Carmen Lomas Garza (2009), Sam Coronado: A Retrospective (2011), and Fantastic & Grotesque: José Clemente Orozco in Print (2014). From 2018-2022, Claudia was the curatorial assistant of Latinx art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, working on the award-winning exhibition, ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965-Now.

They have published articles in Panhandle-Plains Historical Review, JOLLAS: Journal of Latino/Latin American Studies, El Mundo Zurdo: Selected Works from the Meetings of the Society for the Study of Gloria Anzaldúa, Hemisphere: Visual Cultures of the Americas, and Aztlán: A Journal of Chicano Studies. Their recent essay "Chicanx Art in the Digital Age” is featured in the ¡Printing the Revolution! The Rise and Impact of Chicano Graphics, 1965-Now exhibition catalogue, published by Princeton University Press in association with the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Their essay, “The Future is Feminist: How the Maestras Atelier Transformed Self Help Graphics,” is part of the anthology Self Help Graphics & Art at Fifty.

They co-founded the Latinx art project Puro Chingón Collective in 2012. This experimental art group develops zines, prints, apparel, designs, and art toys. The collective’s zines are part of the collections at the Thomas J. Watson Library at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) Library and Archives, Museum of Fine Arts-Houston, Mexic-Arte Museum, and London College of Communication Library, among many others. Zapata’s artwork has been featured at the Hawn Gallery in Dallas, the Blanton Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte Museum, and the Mexican American Cultural Center in Austin; the Carver Community Cultural Center and Lady Base Gallery in San Antonio; and the Trans-Pecos Festival in Marfa. Their designs have been part of Austin’s Fusebox Festival, Pachanga Music Festival, and the International Women's Day March in San Antonio.  

Since 2022, Zapata has been a Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA, mentored by Charlene Villaseñor Black, professor in the Departments of Art History and Chicana/o and Central American Studies. Their research topic is "Advancing to Web 3.0: Chicanx and Latine/x XR Immersive Environments, NFT Decentralization, and Experiential Visions in the Metaverse.”

In 2023, the Blanton Museum of Art appointed them as their first Associate Curator of Latino Art. There they oversee the Gilberto Cárdenas and Dolores Garcia Collection of Latino and Chicano art, consisting of over 6,000 works that were donated recently to the Blanton.

Friday | October 20 | 2:00—3:00 pm

HER.MOSA Collective
Alexandria Canchola, Monica Lugo, and Samantha Rawls 

Unlocking the Power of Collaboration: A Case Study of Transformative Murals 

In this talk, we, as members of the muralist group, will delve into the dynamic world of collaborative mural artistry, showcasing how our collective efforts have yielded murals that transcend traditional boundaries. With over 25 years of cumulative experience and a solid educational foundation in art and design, our belief in the transformative potential of our collaborative expertise has driven our mission to create murals that empower communities. 

Saturday | October 21 | 12:30 pm

Prince Varughese Thomas

The Spectacle Unveiled: Exploring the Intersection of Art, Politics, and Social Media

This lecture aims to explore the relevance of Guy Debord's "Society of the Spectacle" in the context of social media's influence on contemporary society, weaving in Prince Varughese Thomas' interdisciplinary body of work, "The Legacy of Narcissus," to examine the intricate interplay between art, politics, and social media, and shed light on our collective narcissism and the unexpected consequences of online engagement.

Jason Bly: Now and Then: Use of Machine Cut Stencils in Traditional Practice (Workshop)
Friday 9:30—11:00 am

In this workshop, I demonstrate the process of creating vinyl stencils for use in traditional works. This material demo combines elements of digital art and graphic design sensibilities with painting, drawing, printmaking, and select 3D surface manipulation like ceramic glaze application, sandblasting metals, etching, etc. Vinyl stencils allow for the creation of silhouette hard-edged imagery, repeated forms or pattern, text, unique geometric and organic shapes, resists, or protecting a previously applied portion of a painted, drawn, printed, or other surface.

Dr. Jing Zhang: Infusing Narrative Design and Creative Storytelling into Senior Design Classrooms
Saturday 9:30—11:00 am

In her senior design classrooms, specifically, Dr. Zhang has been working with her students in a series of social practice projects-- narrative graphics, across the subjects of motion graphics, animation shorts, moving images, graphic recording, information design, digital illustration, kinetic typography, and media collateral, etc.. These projects stress that the success is really a team effort. They also address the lived-experiences, plurality, and cultural aspects in a classroom/ semi-industrial setting. 

Robert Peña, Dr. Ayush Goyal, Dr. Brian Robinson, Pindar Van Arman, Emmanuel Sanchez & representative(s) from Chat GPT: AI in Art (panel discussion)
Saturday 9:30—11:00 am

Omar Gonzalez: The Value of a Steamroller (studio lecture)
Saturday 3:00—5:00 pm

The value of a steamroller gives a student the opportunity to gain confidence and engage art in a public lens. The event also educates the community in relief printmaking and bridges the gap between the solitary art major and an audience. These live demonstrations require multiple people to create a successful event which creates relationships amongst the artists and volunteers. This is why I feel a steamroller, a piece of construction equipment, holds value for a university.

Carol Flueckiger: Drawing Water/Printing Solar (workshop)
Saturday 1:30—3:00 pm

Drawing Water/printing Solar offers a short power point presentation, conversation and drawing workshop at the intersection of art, environment and sustainability. This presentation offers a strategy for bringing sustainability and climate change to the dynamic space of the art classroom. The idea is that Imagination and sustainability awareness, are both skills that are elemental to all majors.

Gina Palacios: Arts & Sciences Research Experience for Undergraduates (with participating students)
Saturday 3:30—5:00 pm

The National Science Foundation awarded the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Physics and Astronomy department a renewal of their summer Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU), award #2244167. In collaboration with Dr. Volker Quetschke (PI) we were able to include the Arts and I am listed as Faculty Mentor/Liaison as part of this half a million-dollar grant. This summer’s REU included 9 science students (5 visiting and 3 from the local region) and 3 School of Art & Design students! These REU students worked on a full-time research project with their mentors, attended seminars and research presentations by faculty, participated in visits to research labs and observatories (including the McDonald Observatory, Marfa’s Chinati Foundation, Turtle Sanctuary, and more).

Texas Senate Bills Impacting Higher Education: A Q&A With TCCTA (talk)
Saturday 1:30—3:00 pm

The Texas Community College Teachers Association
Comprised of educators from every teaching discipline, as well as counselors, librarians, and administrators, the Association’s approximately 5,000 members come from all public and independent community, junior, and technical colleges in the state of Texas. TCCTA is—by far—the largest organization of postsecondary educators in Texas… more than twice as large as all other such organizations combined. The annual convention of TCCTA is the largest gathering of community college faculty in the United States.