CoLA _Magazine_12_12_19

Local Teens
Find their Space within
UT Arlington’s Art Community
by Patricia Healy
Last fall, 85 enthusiastic students representing five regional
high schools gathered at The University of Texas at Arlington
for its Art and Art History Department’s fifth annual Find Your
Space event. The students arrived by the busload, from all over
the area, and convened in The Gallery at UTA for a quick tour
of the artwork on display there, before breaking out into interest
groups and meeting the faculty who would lead their specialized
workshops. Dispersing throughout the art studios, maker spaces
and computer labs of both the Fine Arts Building and the Studio
Art Center, the students began their hands-on adventures in
contemporary art making.
In September, high school visual arts coordinators from
around the metroplex were asked to bring their most passionate,
art-loving students to take part in a morning of specially-created
art and design workshops. The workshops, facilitated by UTA art
department faculty, covered a wide range of techniques intended
to engage students’ imagination and to welcome them to “find
their space” within the university’s art community. Sessions
including Digital Painting, Printmaking, Mixed Media Project:
Drawing and Painting, Experimental Typography and Lettering,
Product Photography, Cyanotype Self Portraits, Fine Art Digital
Printing, Digital Comic Book Art, and Design for Robots:
Making Vinyl Stickers with a CNC plotter were offered, along
with interactive sound and video experimentation workshops
such as The Loop and Chainsaw Choir and the K-Pop Green
Screen music video workshop. In addition, the sculpture and
glass areas collaborated to present an exciting demonstration of
glassblowing and experimental metal foundry work in a session
titled “Fire, Molten Metal, Molten Glass – Oh My!” Faculty
workshop leaders showcased their glass-blowing skills for
attendees.
After an intense morning of creative learning and practice,
the students met in the Studio Art Center courtyard for a pizza
lunch. Attendees took advantage of the opportunity to relax and
compare notes on their experiences before heading back to their
respective schools.
Robert Hower, chair of the Art and Art History Department,
summed up the day’s activities by stating, “Find Your Space is an
excellent opportunity to introduce high school students to the
wide array of possibilities open to them within the University
of Texas at Arlington’s Department of Art and Art History. We
hope the students were inspired by our outstanding faculty and
resources, and will consider joining us here when they begin
their college careers.” Hower shared, “in the meantime, we
enjoyed having them on campus and look forward to welcoming
a new group at next year’s event.”
New Book Foreshadows What
Female US Presidential
Candidates will Face in 2020
by Jonikka Davis
Dr. Dustin Harp, an associate professor of Communication
and Director of the Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS)
Program at UT Arlington, has written a new book that explores
the expansive and sometimes controversial topics of gender
and politics. The book, Gender in the 2016 US Presidential
Election: Trump, Clinton and Media Discourse, follows a
year’s worth of media—ranging from news to social media
and satire, talk shows and magazines—to illustrate how ideas
about gender intersected with politics during the 2016 US
Presidential election campaign.
Harp’s book offers informed, norm-challenging insight
into our societal struggle to define gender expectations and
roles at a time when women are pushing into typically maledominated
spaces like politics. Within the context of a historic
race for President of the United States, this book raises one
broad question: what do the public-mediated exchanges during
the 2016 presidential campaign say about gender, the cultural
struggle to define and regulate the roles of women and men,
and women’s relationship to power? Harp hopes that answering
this complex question will lead to a deeper understanding of
how and why gender matters culturally, what is expected of
women and men in contemporary American society, and how
gendered ideologies are at odds in a contemporary struggle for
meaning.
Reflecting on the potential impact of the book’s release, Harp
said, “I think people, and particularly women who aspire for
office, can learn a lot from the book about the common tropes
regarding men and women in the political public sphere and
the particular challenges women politicians face.”
Author, Dr. Dustin Harp
UTA Associate Professor—Communication
As preparation for the 2020 US Presidential Election heads into full swing, Harp’s
new release takes a closer look at the politics of gender during the 2016 election.
UT Arlington’s Women’s and Gender Studies (WGS) Program, which fosters the
examination of women and gender through an interdisciplinary lens, offers courses that
explore social norms and the ways in which race, class, nationality and history shape ideas
about women and gender. As author of this book and director of the WGS Program, Harp
has fully embraced her role as a maverick. The impact of her research and commitment are
evidenced, in part, by her regular inclusion as a subject matter expert and panelist on topics
of gender and politics for diverse media platforms.
15 Annual Magazine
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