Human Expression
Humanities and Creative Arts
First Semilla Fest
Students from the Texas State Department of Theatre and Dance rehearse a piece by faculty member Nadine Mozon. The dance is part of the Semilla Festival, an Interdisciplinary Performing Arts Festival, held June 25-26, 2021 in San Marcos, TX.
The first Semilla Fest — a partnership between the Department of Theatre and Dance and the city of San Marcos — was held June 25 and 26 at the Outdoor Plaza Park Stage.
Semilla means ‘seed’ in Spanish. Texas State University professor of dance Ana Baer Carrillo has planted this seed along with colleagues and students in the College of Fine Arts.
This unique festival links Texas State with the San Marcos performing arts community for exploration, experimentation, and interdisciplinarity work. It also encourages meaningful conversations between under-represented communities and advances the integration of arts and culture within our marginalized sectors.
Research in Action
Beale-Rivaya named NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor in Humanities for 2021-2024
Yasmine Beale-Rivaya
Yasmine Beale-Rivaya, a professor in the Department of World Languages and Literature at Texas State University, has been named Distinguished Teaching Professor in the Humanities for 2021-2024, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
During her three-year appointment, Beale-Rivaya will implement a project, “Minority Languages and Communities in Contact,” which focuses on minority languages and communities that coexist with another language that is preferred by the majority. Activities will include guest speakers, student mentoring events, a symposium, and the production of teaching modules based on the presentations that will be published in an open-access platform for repeated use both on campus and at large.
Human Expression
Black and Latino Playwrights
Celebration
This project expands and extends Texas State's trailblazing Black and Latino Playwrights Celebration.
Additional plays and an extension of the Celebration's calendar will exponentially amplify the Celebration's footprint for all playwrights, audience members, and participants. Gifts directly expand the power and impact of Black and Latino stories in American theater.
The project gives voice to our Black and Hispanic students majoring in Theatre, fosters new plays by Black and Brown voices, and engenders palpable pride in the students performing the work of featured artists.
Interdisciplinary Performing
Arts Festival of the African, Hispanic, and Latin American Diasporas
Our Hispanic Serving Institution is launching a brand new annual performing arts festival to celebrate the artistic voices of traditionally underrepresented peoples from the African, Hispanic, and Latin American experience.
Through a competitive proposal process, select artists will be chosen in each discipline of music, theater, and dance.
This 4-5 day festival on the San Marcos campus will see visiting artists and Texas State faculty/students collaborate to create new works in a laboratory-like environment, participate in workshops on techniques and practices. The festival will take place in the summer and utilize the Performing Arts Center, the Theatre Center, and Jowers Dance studio to host workshops, classes, presentations, and the culminating showcase.
Texas State New Music Festival
Celebrating New and Recent Music
This project inaugurates the first annual festival of new and recent music, showcasing internationally-recognized guest composers and performers alongside the creative work of Texas State's top 10-ranked music faculty and students. This weeklong festival will include concerts, masterclasses, and collaborative projects held on and off-campus emphasizing the music of our time and presenting Texas State as a hub of artistic innovation.
The startup funding will procure one "anchor" artist/ensemble plus one composer, while School of Music resources will fill out the remainder of performer slots and activities. Additional funding will underwrite paying of commissions creating original purpose-composed music plus interdisciplinary projects extending the scope and reach of the New Music Festival throughout the region.
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Funding Opportunities
Students
- Support undergraduate scholarships to help Texas State recruit and retain high-achieving students who can engage in research with faculty
- Endow graduate fellowships to fund student research with faculty
Faculty
- Provide seed funding to support interdisciplinary teams to pursue new learning opportunities
- Invest in faculty fellowship to fund human expression specific grants
- Fund an endowed chair to support departmental leadership in the future of teaching and research
Programs
- Endow the Creative and Human Expression Program Fund to provide flexible resources to implement and sustain this initiative
- Naming opportunities are available