Jennifer Wijangco left the Texas Cultural Trust in October to join Arthouse at the Jones Center as Director of Development. Jennifer was an invaluable asset to the Trust and will be greatly missed. She was very instrumental in the success of the Texas Cultural Trust since joining the staff in August of 2005 as Deputy Director. She was integral to Create Texas, Put Your ART in It, Texas Women for the Arts, Texas Medal of Arts Awards and all programs at the Trust. strataTX was her concept and creation, involving a cross-section of young professionals in the vast art scene in Austin. We are truly thankful for the years of enthusiasm and passion she put into her job.
On November 2, Jennifer started her new job as Director of Development for Arthouse at the Jones Center, a contemporary visual arts space in Austin. This position allows her to return to her visual art, museum roots. Arthouse is undergoing major renovations, also giving Jennifer an opportunity to be involved in a new beginning. Everyone at the Trust wishes Jennifer the best of luck in her new endeavor.
Jennifer Ransom Rice joins the Texas Cultural Trust as Director of Development.
Jennifer has a decade of marketing and communications experience in public relations and state government. As chief of staff for state Senator Florence Shapiro, Jennifer was afforded the opportunity to utilize her skills in politics, government, communications and management. She previously served as Communications Director for the Texas Comptroller and as Press Secretary to then-state Senator Tom Haywood. Other prior professional experience includes authoring a weekly column in The Citizen’s Journal, a newspaper in East Texas; working as News Director for a small radio station; serving as Assistant Director of Public Relations at Wadley Regional Medical Center Foundation in Texarkana; and assisting the president of a public affairs firm in Austin. Jennifer has worked on several local and state political campaigns. She is actively involved in her community, serving on numerous boards and volunteering with a variety of organizations in Austin. Jennifer has served as chair for Art Alliance Austin’s Art After Dark (4 years) and Stage Hands for Zach Scott Theatre (2 years). She serves on the board of directors of Inherit Austin, is in the Director’s Circle at Ballet Austin and Texas Performing Arts, and is a past board member for Art Alliance Austin. She holds a bachelor’s degree in mass communications from Midwestern State University, and her master’s degree in journalism from The University of Texas, where she serves on the advisory council for the College of Fine Arts. She is a graduate of Leadership Austin and is in the 2010 class of Power Pipeline, administered by Leadership Texas.
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Classical Guitarists convene in Austin
On June 22-27, 2010, the Austin Classical Guitar Society will host the
Guitar Foundation of America’s National Convention. Austin Goes Classical will consist of over fifty events to be held at Austin’s Long Center for the Performing Arts. With participants from over twenty-five countries and an anticipated attendance of 2000 each night, the festival promises to be the world’s most prestigious classical guitar competition. The festival will include performances by many of the world's most inspiring classical guitarists including Pepe Romero, the Grammy-award winning Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, the Miró Quartet with guitarist Adam Holzman, Jorge Caballero, and more. Local organizations including the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Chamber Music Center, and the Texas Early Music Project will collaborate on some of the performances as well. The festival will also partner with the Alamo Drafthouse Rolling Roadshow for free presentations of Master Pancake Theatre on the Long Center’s City Terrace. Students from the Austin Classical Guitar Society and other students from around the country will take part in a three-day Youth Mini-Festival, which will culminate in a group performance on the Dell Hall Stage at the Long Center. The youth festival will build on the strength of the Austin Classical Guitar Society’s curriculum-driven program that has grown to approximately 650 students in 14 Austin schools. For sponsorship information please contact Matt Hinsley, Executive Director of the Austin Classical Guitar Society at Matt@AustinClassicalGuitar.org. Current sponsors include: KMFA, KUT, KLRU, News 8 Austin, Kodosky Foundation, Austin, Asset Management Company, Ameriprise Financial, and the UT Butler School of Music.
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Texas Commission on the Arts Officially Designates Cultural Districts
In September, the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) officially designated the first State of Texas Cultural Districts in seven communities. The Cultural Districts include the African American Cultural Heritage District in Austin, Denison Arts and Cultural District, Huntsville Cultural District, Lubbock Cultural District, McAllen Cultural District, San Angelo Historic City Center Cultural District, and Winnsboro Cultural Arts District.
A Cultural District is a well-recognized, labeled, mixed-use area of a community in which a high concentration of cultural facilities serves as the anchor of attraction. These districts can be found in all sized communities from small and rural to large and urban. Cultural Districts boost urban revitalization in many ways, and no two Cultural Districts are alike. Each one reflects the community’s unique environment, history, and use of land, growth and cultural development.
Cultural Districts in Texas communities have become focal points for generating business, attracting tourists, stimulating cultural development and fostering civic pride. More information on the program is available on the TCA website at
www.arts.state.tx.us. Activities in the Cultural Districts are also featured on TCA’s cultural tourism blog at
www.artonart.com.
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Texas Women for the Arts Travel to Santa Fe
On October 21-24, 18 Texas Women for the Arts members and friends traveled to Santa Fe to experience the best the city had to offer in art, food and fun. Our Texas Women stayed at the Inn of the Anasazi, and their activities included tours of the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Nedra Matteucci Gallery and Fine Art, LewAllen Contemporary with artist Forrest Moses, as well as events at private homes.
Texas Women for the Arts Annual meeting is scheduled for April 28, 2010 at the home of Marsland Moncrief in Fort Worth. Join Texas Women for the Arts and participate in the granting process to realize the vision to
awaken and nurture the artist in every Texas child. Currently there are over 160 members statewide - the more members, the more money we have to contribute to the arts! Since its inception three years ago, Texas Women for the Arts has donated over $440,000 to worthy programs across the state. To find out more information about how you can be a part of Texas Women for the Arts, please contact Amy Barbee at
abarbee@txculturaltrust.org or visit
http://www.txculturaltrust.org/programs
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Window on a Wider World Hosts 2nd Annual Science Collaborative
Sponsored in part by Texas Commission on the Arts and B&W Pantex,
Window On a Wider World hosted the second annual WOWW Science Collaborative at the Globe-News Center for the Performing Arts in Amarillo, Texas for all 5th graders of Region 16 in the Texas Panhandle. This event is part of the Joseph & Arlene Pool Education Series for Window On a Wider World and was attended by over 1,400 fifth graders and their teachers on September 18th and 21st.
In collaboration with Xcel Energy, B&W Pantex, West Texas A&M University department of Agriculture, Alternative Energy Institute at WTAMU, and Palo Duro Canyon State Parks & Wildlife, students were able to experience engaged learning opportunities that enriched their understanding of the science curriculum of earth and energy. New this year was a theatre experience from West Texas A&M University’s Branding Iron Theatre, under the direction of Royal Brantley, written and performed exclusively for the event titled “Eric and Emily’s E Adventure” performed in the world-class facility of the Globe-News Center. This
production gave students the artistically rich experience of theatre, dance and music focused on earth and energy through the ages and performed by university students in the theatre arts program at WTAMU.
WOWW provided pre and post materials and activities for all educators in attendance and hopes to continue this opportunity annually to help students make lifelong learning connections through hands-on and artistic experiences as it relates to science.
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strataTX's Third Anniversary
On 11/11, strataTX celebrated its third anniversary at the
Mexican American Cultural Center. strataTX is a giving group of the Texas Cultural Trust, bringing together young professionals to support creativity in the arts, culture and economy. To showcase the diversity of the arts in Austin, strataTX has featured a variety of art forms at this annual event, such as poetry slam, classical violin, modern dance, turntablism, breakdancing, and digital art, just to name a few. This year’s anniversary party got down with long-time Austin favorite DJ Mel and renegade dance by The Sheep Army.
The Mexican American Cultural Center (MACC) officially opened in September 2007, dedicated to the creation, preservation, presentation, and promotion of Mexican-American cultural arts and heritage. The crescent-shaped building faces Lady Bird Lake and was created by renowned architects CasaBella, Del Campo and Maru, and Teodoro Gonzalea de Leon. The concrete panels that clad the structure were all manufactured in Mexico City and hand-chiseled by Mexican craftsmen. We were excited to be able to bring the strataTX party to this amazing Austin facility!
strataTX has its finger on the pulse of all the best Austin has to offer in the arts and creativity. For more information on joining strataTX, visit our website at
www.stratatx.org.
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Creative Conversations: Create Texas and Advocacy
strataTX partnered with Americans for the Arts to host an Emerging Leader Creative Conversation in Austin on Monday, October 19, 2009. Creative Conversations bring together local emerging arts leaders to discuss challenges specific to their age group and experience and issues regarding the arts in their communities. Creative Conversations are part of National Arts and Humanities Month programs coordinated by Americans for the Arts.
This year’s Creative Conversation featured the economic study released by the Texas Cultural Trust as part of Create Texas titled, The Role of the Innovation Workforce & Creative Sector in the Texas Economy. Travis James, Vice President of TXP, the economic firm who drafted the study, presented the key findings. Dave Shaw, Principal of Russell Shaw, discussed how people could use this study in advocacy efforts, both local and statewide. Monica Williams, Editor of GivingCity Austin, facilitated the discussion.
Last year, more than 1,500 emerging arts leaders participated in 43 locally hosted Creative Conversations held throughout the country. An interactive Google map is available online at
http://maps.artsusa.org/creativeconversations detailing where Creative Conversations are taking place. Visit the website to read summary reports of the events and learn what next steps to take in your community.
To download the full economic report, please visit
www.createtexas.org.
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Adair Margo and Alice Carrington Foultz bring unprecedented experience to the Texas Medal of Arts Awards. Adair served as chairman of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities from 2000-2008, focusing on international cultural diplomacy. Since 1985, Adair has owned the Adair Margo Gallery in El Paso (now Adair Margo Fine Art), that has exhibited over 400 individual artists from a dozen countries, and has placed the work of regional artists in the collections of national museums, the Oval Office of the White House, and in U.S. Embassies worldwide. Alice is president of the art consulting firm Carrington Gallery, Ltd and has over twenty years of experience in the visual arts. She has served in the capacities of art consultant, curator, educator, gallery owner, radio host and entrepreneur. She currently serves on the San Antonio Public Art Board and the White House Historical Association and has been the curator for San Antonio Spurs Sports and Entertainment since 2001.Both women have extensive experience serving on various boards and commissions including the Texas Commission on the Arts.
We are entering a new world of communication that is no longer dominated by the written word. We need to teach our children to communicate in this new medium that includes music, color, spatial relationships, movement, and drama. Digital communication touches everyone from corporations to individuals. It is the future of communication and commerce. The arts are to digital communication what grammar and spelling are to the written word. The children of Texas need to be prepared to excel in a creative world, as well as a technological one. The Texas Cultural Trust, in partnership with educators and industry representatives, is creating a curriculum that directly links traditional arts education with digital media.
Jennifer Wijangco left the Texas Cultural Trust in October to join Arthouse at the Jones Center as Director of Development. Jennifer was an invaluable asset to the Trust and will be greatly missed. She was very instrumental in the success of the Texas Cultural Trust since joining the staff in August of 2005 as Deputy Director. She was integral to Create Texas, Put Your ART in It, Texas Women for the Arts, Texas Medal of Arts Awards and all programs at the Trust. strataTX was her concept and creation, involving a cross-section of young professionals in the vast art scene in Austin. We are truly thankful for the years of enthusiasm and passion she put into her job.
