Category Archives: Previous Exhibits

Featured image of LUPE 20th anniversary

El Movimiento Continúa by LUPE & the Center for Mexican American Studies at UTRGV

Lupe 20th anniversary blog imageClosing reception: Feb. 28, 5 – 6 p.m. | Flag-making workshop: Feb. 28, 3 – 4 p.m. at the Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery.

The South Texas College Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery, in collaboration with La Unión del Pueblo Entero (LUPE), proudly presents “El Movimiento Continúa: Cultivando Nuestras Semillas.” This exhibit explores key themes that illuminate the under-told stories of the farm worker movement in South Texas and participate in a broader conversation about the lasting impact of these stories on our understanding of social justice, labor rights, and the rich cultural tapestry of South Texas. Join us in this enriching experience as we honor the past, celebrate the present, and collectively shape a more informed future.

Title: LUPE 20th ‘EL MOVIMIENTO CONTINÚA’ Venue: South Texas College Pecan Campus Library Dates: January 16th to February 28th, 2024 Event Highlights: The exhibition explores 8 prominent themes related to the under-told stories of history, culture, and the present-day influence of the farm worker movement in South Texas. Workshop: February 28th, 3 - 4 p.m. (Building F - Room 102) Reception: February 28th, 5 - 6 p.m. (Building F – Library) Description: Don’t miss this unique showcase as part of LUPE’s 20th anniversary series. For more information, contact 956-872-3488 or visit library.southtexascollege.edu.A creative flag-making workshop will take place on Feb. 28 from 3 to 4 p.m., providing an interactive opportunity for attendees to engage with the content personally. Following the workshop, a closing reception will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. at the Pecan Campus Library located at 3201 W Pecan Blvd., Bldg. F in McAllen, TX. This occasion connects individuals passionate about preserving and understanding the diverse stories that contribute to the region’s history and identity.

On display from Jan. 16 – Feb. 28, 2024. Admission is free and open to the public.

STC’s Library Art Gallery Program organizes exhibitions and educational programs to engage students’ understanding of art and its role in culture, support the academic curriculum, and inspire continued education through direct engagement with artists, scholars, and original works of art.

For more information, call 956-872-8330, email gotvos@southtexascollege.edu, or visit https://library.southtexascollege.edu/libraryart.

Washed Up Texas: Saving the Ocean One Sculpture at a Time

The South Texas College Library Art Gallery has teamed up with Washed Up Texas and artist Connie Lovell to present a captivating eight-foot Great Blue Heron sculpture made from discarded plastic trash found at South Padre Island and Boca Chica beach. The artist, Connie Lovell, has utilized plastic bottles, toy brushes, phone parts, and other items to create intricate details on her approximately 300-pound sculpture. The organization collaborates with various state programs and volunteers who participate in beach cleanups to create thought-provoking artwork that promotes awareness and education. As of August 2023, approximately 3,653 pounds of trash has been picked up from the beach at South Padre Island.

The sculpture was on display at the STC Pecan Campus Library, 3201 W. Pecan Blvd Bldg. F in McAllen, TX from September 18 to November 14, 2023. 

The South Texas College Library Art Gallery organizes exhibitions and educational programs to engage students understanding of art, support the academic curriculum, and inspire continued education through direct engagement with artists, scholars, and original works of art.

For more information, call (956) 872-3488, email gotvos@southtexascollege.edu, or visit https://library.southtexascollege.edu/libraryart.

Handmade paper sculptures of churches

STC Alumni Series: Karla Gabriela De La Fuente

Two handmade paper church sculpturesArtist Talk: November 28, 3 – 4:30 p.m. with a reception to follow at the STC Technology Campus Library

The South Texas College Technology Campus Library Art Gallery celebrates its annual STC Alumni Series, featuring “Hecho a Mano: Paperworks,” an exhibition of handmade paper by artist and alumna Karla Gabriela De La Fuente. The series aims to support artists who began their education at STC and have since continued their work in the arts.

Flyer for Karla. All information in blog post.De La Fuente is in her last semester of the Master of Fine Arts Program at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. In her handmade paper art, De La Fuente investigates the human experience on the border, incorporating Rio Grande Valley organic materials and traditional Mexican techniques developed by the Otomi people from Central Mexico.

De La Fuente will lead an artist talk on November 28, from 3 – 4:30 p.m., where participants can learn about her process, techniques and inspiration behind her artwork.

Admission is free and open to the public.

STC’s Library Art Gallery Program organizes exhibitions and educational programs to engage students’ understanding of art and its role in culture, support the academic curriculum and inspire continued education through direct engagement with artists, scholars and original works of art.

For more information, call 956-872-6120, email gotvos@southtexascollege.edu, or visit https://library.southtexascollege.edu/libraryart.

Showcase by Roma High School Art Teacher at the STC Starr Co. Library


Artist Talk: Oct. 19, 10 – 11 a.m. at the Starr Co. Library Art Gallery.

The South Texas College Starr County campus Library Art Gallery proudly presents a new exhibition featuring artwork by STC alumna, local painter and Roma High School Art Teacher Yesenia Toscano. The exhibit opened September 12 and will be on view until December 7, 2023.

An artist talk and reception with Toscano will be held on October 19 from 10 to 11 a.m. at the STC Starr County Library Art Gallery, Bldg. K, located at 142 FM 3167 in Rio Grande City. Admission is free and open to the public.

Toscano is an artist and educator who earned her Master of Fine Arts and Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Toscano is also an STC graduate, receiving her associate degree in Elementary Education. She said, “At South Texas College, I took my first art class, where I discovered myself as a painter.” She leads the Roma ISD art program and encourages her students to submit artwork to the Visual Art Scholastic Event (VASE), with students often advancing to the state-level event.

Toscano’s paintings are a means of expressing herself and overcoming fears and uncertainties in life. Influenced by Giorgio de Chirico’s metaphysical paintings, she uses familiar objects to represent mystery, dreams and childhood.

The South Texas College Library Art Gallery organizes exhibitions and educational programs to engage students’ understanding of art, support the academic curriculum and inspire continued education through direct engagement with artists, scholars and original works of art.

For more information, call 956-488-5820, email gotvos@southtexascollege.edu or visit https://library.southtexascollege.edu/libraryart.

 

Don’t Be Hasty: Large-scale Landscape Paintings Give Local Surroundings a Fresh Look


Artist Talk: Oct. 4, 10 – 11 a.m.  |  Exhibit Reception: Oct. 4, 5:30 – 7:00 p.m.

South Texas College Library Art Gallery presents “Don’t Be Hasty,” a new exhibition by Tenured Associate Professor of Art at UTRGV, Jerry Lyles. The exhibition begins on August 28 through December 7, 2023, on the first floor of the STC Pecan Library Art Gallery located at 3201 W. Pecan Blvd., Bldg. F, in McAllen, TX. 

 Jerry Lyles received his Master of Fine Arts in Painting from the American University in Washington, D.C. This body of work includes large-scale paintings, which include outdoor observational or plein air pieces.  Lyles explores the relationships between space, forms in the given space, and our reaction to them. He poses the question, “How does space impact our sense of identity, and when that space is altered, what is negotiated in order to retain a sense of self?” Through his skilled still-life paintings incorporating color, form, value, shape, and space, Lyles searches for visual metaphors that discuss these relationships. 

The LAG will host an art talk on October 4 from 10 – 11 a.m. in the Student Union in U 2.100 and an exhibition reception the same day from 5:30 – 7 p.m. at the Pecan Library Bldg. F. This exhibit is shown concurrently with the community exhibit, “Ka-Ching! Art About Economics & Money” and will share the reception.

Couldn’t join us in person? View the art talk on YouTube: https://youtu.be/85W9vok_p70?feature=shared

 Admission is free and open to the public. 

STC’s Library Art Gallery Program organizes exhibitions and educational programs to engage student’s understanding of art and its role in culture, support the academic curriculum, and inspire continued education through direct engagement with artists, scholars, and original works of art. 

For more information, call 956-447-6663, email gotvos@southtexascollege.edu, or visit https://library.southtexascollege.edu/libraryart.

image of a mouse sculpture

Ecology Inspires Art Exhibition at STC’s Mid-Valley Library Art Gallery

Banner with mouse sculpture and print of a turtle with a house on its back.

Artist Talk: November 1, 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. with reception to follow at the STC Mid-Valley Campus Library 

The STC Mid-Valley Campus Library Art Gallery presents “An Allegory of Abundance,” a mixed-media exhibition by artists Calder Kamin (Austin, TX) and Cecilia Sierra (Brownsville, TX).

Kamin earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Kansas City Art Institute in 2009. Her artwork has been featured in museums such as The American Museum of Natural History, The Contemporary Austin and the DoSeum. Kamin transforms trash into beautifully crafted creatures to inspire others to be creative and proactive about the future. As an environmental advocate, Calder is motivated by nature’s endless ability to reuse and adapt.

Sierra earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. She has been active in South Texas creating Keep McAllen Beautiful murals, enhancing McAllen’s hike and bike trails and helping to organize a Steam Roller event that demonstrated large woodblock printing. Sierra’s work is heavily inspired by South Texas’ ecology, community and nostalgia from growing up in a Hispanic household.

If you were unable to attend in person, view the video on our YouTube page
https://youtu.be/L2hdTwnIz6w?si=2T2sYCmCaql-O0Dj

The STC Library Art Gallery organizes exhibitions and educational programs to engage student understanding of art, support the academic curriculum and inspire continued education through direct engagement with artists, scholars and original works of art.

For more information, call 956-447-6663, email gotvos@southtexascollege.edu, or visit https://library.southtexascollege.edu/libraryart.

 

 

 

Featured Image

Ka-Ching! Community Artwork About Economics & Money

Call for Art Web Banner
Reception: October 4, 2023 from 5:30 – 7:00 p.m. at the Pecan Campus Library

The STC Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery hosts a community art exhibition, “Ka-Ching! Art About Economics & Money,” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of E.F. Schumacher’s book “Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered.”

Ka-Ching

KaChing Exhibit Poster

The book, a New York Times bestseller, poses the question of whether it’s possible to balance economic growth with community needs and environmental sustainability. It has been listed as one of the Times Literary Supplement’s 100 Most Influential Books since World War II.

“Ka-Ching” features STC Students, Faculty and Staff, Community Members, and STC Alumni and will be on view from August 28 through December 7, 2023. The exhibition is free and open to the public and features artwork that all explore the theme of economics and incorporate the color gold. 

Missed out on the exhibit in person? View it online in our online 360 gallery tour: https://my.nicheacademy.com/stclibrarytutorials/course/66592

For more information, email gotvos@southtexascollege.edu or visit https://library.southtexascollege.edu/ka-ching.

 

15! Angela Dominguez Has Something To Say

South Texas College Library Art Gallery presents “15! Angela Dominguez Has Something To Say,” an exhibit showcasing 15 years of bilingual children’s books written and illustrated by Angela Dominguez.

Illustrator and Author Angela Dominguez was born in Mexico City and earned a Master of Fine Arts at the Academy of Art University in California. She recently illustrated the New York Times Bestseller, “Just Help! How to Build a Better World,” written by Sonia Sotomayor.

15! Angela Dominguez Has Something to Say opened February 6 and will be on view through June 6, 2023, at the STC Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery Building F.
 
All events are free and open to the public.
 
This exhibit is part of She Roars: A Series of Lectures, Workshops & Exhibitions that Celebrate Women’s Contributions to the Humanities.  The She Roars program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
 
This program of exhibitions and educational programs are meant to engage student understanding of art and its role in culture, support the academic curriculum, and inspire continued education through direct engagement with artists, scholars, and original works of art.
 
For more information, email gotvos@southtexascollege.edu, or visit https://library.southtexascollege.edu/libraryart.

 

She Roars

She Roars: A Series of Lectures, Workshops & Exhibitions that Celebrate Women’s Contributions to the Humanities

South Texas College celebrates community partnerships in an arts and humanities series, She Roars.

She Roars banner

The South Texas College Library Art Gallery and Art Department, in collaboration with community partners at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley – School of Interdisciplinary Programs and Community Engagement, International Museum of Art & Science, and the McAllen Public Library, collectively present She Roars: A Series of Lectures, Workshops, and Exhibitions Celebrating Women’s Contributions to the Humanities.

This four-day program starts with a self-defense class taught by STC Kinesiology Instructor Rodrigo Martinez and includes four exhibitions, a documentary, story-time, and workshops and lectures by founding member of the 1985-present artist collective, The Guerrilla Girls and illustrator and author Angela Dominguez.

The schedule for the event is as follows:

 

DAY 1 | Monday, March 6 Location: South Texas College
10 – 11 a.m. Self-Defense Workshop with STC Kinesiology Instructor, Rodrigo Martinez  (Pecan Plaza B-2511 Dojo Room)
12 – 1 p.m. Film Documentary: Finding Vivian Maier (Library F-102)
 
DAY 2 | Tuesday, March 7
 

Location: South Texas College

10 – 11 a.m. Talk: Angela Dominguez– 15 Years of Bilingual Children’s Book Illustration (Bldg. U – 2.100)
6 – 7 p.m. Talk:Guerrilla Girls w founding member Käthe Kollwitz (Bldg. U – 2.100)
5 – 8 p.m. She RoarsOpening Reception (Library Art & Bldg. B Gallery)
 
DAY 3 | Wednesday, March 8
 
 
Location: McAllen Public Library
11 a.m. – 12 p.m. Reading by Angela Dominguez
  Location: International Museum of Art & Science (Clark Gallery)
5 – 5:30 p.m. Poetry by Priscilla Celina Suarez
5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Uproar! The Art of Social Engagement: A Community Workshop (Kollwitz)
6:30 – 7:30 Humanities Roundtable led by Kathe Kollwitz (GG), Dr. Silvia Solis (UTRGV Gender & Women’s Studies and Environmental Studies), and Guadalupe Pardo (Trucha Cultural Fellow)
DAY 4 | Tuesday, March 21 Location: The Gremlin, Downtown McAllen
6 – 7 p.m. Oh, How They Roar: Women in the Humanities with Dr. Friederike Bruehoefener, Dr. Linda English (UTRGV), Dr. Carolina Monsivais (STC), Dr. Cathryn Merla-Watson (UTRGV), Dr. Marisa Palacios Knox (UTRGV), Melissa Arjona (STC)

 

“We’re thrilled about the community partnerships we’ve built with other organizations in the valley as we celebrate Women’s History Month at STC,” said STC Art History Faculty and Co-Organizer of ‘She Roars’ Melissa Terry. “We hope the ‘She Roars’ series of events will inspire students and community members to think deeply about collaborative and creative solutions to social issues, locally and globally.”

The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous collective of artists who, since 1985, have utilized humor and stark visuals to spread awareness about the bias within art film, and popular culture to ignite the sparks of social change.

Illustrator and Author Angela Dominguez was born in Mexico City and earned a Master of Fine Arts at the Academy of Art University in California. She recently illustrated the New York Times Bestseller, “Just Help! How to Build a Better World,” written by Sonia Sotomayor.

“When I saw the Guerrilla Girls speak years ago, while in graduate school, it struck me as an exciting example of critical thinking and performative art activism. We hope the exhibition, art talk, and workshop will do the same for our community,” said Terry.

15! Angela Dominguez Has Something to Say opens February 6 and will be on view through June 6, 2023, at the STC Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery Building F.

The Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly exhibit opens March 7 and will be on view until April 5, 2023, at the STC Art Department Gallery Building B.

There will also be a student and community poster exhibit inspired by the work of the Guerrilla Girls and civic engagement at the South Texas College Art Department.

All events are free and open to the public.

To register for this event, visit: Workshop registration link

The She Roars program is made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

This program of exhibitions and educational programs are meant to engage student understanding of art and its role in culture, support the academic curriculum, and inspire continued education through direct engagement with artists, scholars, and original works of art.

For more information, contact gotvos@southtexascollege.edu or visit https://library.southtexascollege.edu/sheroars.

Life and Death featured image

Life & Death on the Border 1910-1920

Life & Death on the Border image

The South Texas College Pecan Campus Library Art Gallery, History Department, and the Center for Mexican American Studies proudly present “Life and Death on the Border: 1910-1920,” a panel exhibit that includes photographs, postcards, court documents and rare artifacts that tell the story of daily life and re-examines Texas historical events of the early 1900s in the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas.

STC History Professor and co-founder of the Refusing to Forget project Trinidad Gonzales, Ph.D., worked alongside colleagues throughout the state and nation to help research and put together this exhibit and event series. These histories inspired Tejano literature, art, and music and influenced the creation of the Mexican American civil rights movement.

“It is a historical exhibit that STC is fortunate enough to exhibit for the first time since 2016,” said Gonzales. “The legacies of these histories are intertwined with the local history of the Rio Grande Valley and are finally getting told to a wider audience.”

The exhibit will be on view from February 9 – June 6 at the STC Pecan Campus Library. A playlist put together by the Bullock Museum to accompany the exhibit, Música Tejana, is a “collection of musical forms, styles, and genres that evolved primarily in South Texas during the 19th century and narrated the lives and challenges of people living along the south Texas-northern Mexican border.”

“The exhibit of Life and Death Along the Border, 1910-1920 is important because it is the first attempt by the state of Texas to tell the tragic history of the Matanza of 1915 and the Porvenir Massacre of 1918 and the heroic efforts by ethnic Mexicans to have those killings addressed at the time and the present,” said Gonzales.

If you go:

Opening session: February 9th, BLDG. U, East Ballroom – 2.100

5:30 – 6:00 pm Opening Remarks
6:00 – 7:30 pm Roundtable: Landmark Exhibit
Margaret Koch, Bullock Museum Director
Monica Martinez, UT-Austin, Refusing to Forget
Sonia Hernandez, Texas A&M, Refusing to Forget
John Moran Gonzalez, UT-Austin, Refusing to Forget
Benjamin Johnson, Chicago Loyola University
Moderation by: Trinidad Gonzales, STC, Refusing to Forget

March 9th, BLDG. D, Auditorium

6:00 – 7:00 pm Family Resistencia: The Story of a Family That Survived Rinche Violences
Christopher Carmona, UTRGV, Refusing to Forget
Juan P. Carmona, STC, Refusing to Forget

Bullock Texas State History Museum is located in Austin, Texas, and works to preserve and exhibit Texas history and culture. Refusing to Forget is a multifaceted public history project that seeks to spread awareness of violence against Mexicans and Mexican Americans at the hands of both vigilante groups and state agents, such as the Texas Rangers.

“Life and Death on the Border” was originally produced by the Bullock Texas State History Museum in collaboration with Refusing to Forget. The “Life and Death on the Border” exhibit has been made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities: Sustaining Humanities through the American Rescue Plan in partnership with the American Historical Association. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the American Historical Association or the National Endowment of the Humanities.

Life and Death – List of Names: Life and Death on the Border list of names

If you were unable to attend in person, view the video on our YouTube page

For more information, contact gotvos@southtexascollege.edu