Welcome, Friends, to your CVAD Update!

 Alumni in Touch

 Alumni Challenge: Can you name that faculty member?

 Strategic National Arts Alumni Project, SNAAP

 Meet our New Advancement Board Member

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Philip Samson

Alum: M.F.A., 2022, Studio Art: Scultpure
CVAD Advancement Board
Instagram: Phil Samson Art
Research & Innovation: Creating Sculptures

From the farm fields in Nebraska, sifting and cultivating through data at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, to gardening and plant science exploration, biodiversity has turned into Phil Samson's muse.

He serves on four boards, including his recent nomination and unanimous approval to join the College of Visual Arts and Design Board of Directors. He also volunteered to be a part of the alumni relations committee of the board. Phil credits his first important career decision to enter the business consulting industry to his mother and father. They challenged his active mind during his formative years with significant science, art, history, and nature exposure.  His second big career decision to retire from his consulting practice and pursue a formal art education came after realizing that his passion for expressing complex ideas through artmaking brought him the most joy.  As is his process, he consulted with his spouse, UNT art faculty and administration, and friends in the North Texas art community before enrolling in 2017 as a full-time UNT CVAD art student.

Phil's client engagements with PricewaterhouseCoopers often involved extensive travel. He often sought out local art museums, galleries and public art during client trips.  He was fortunate to have one of the largest global art auction houses as a client, giving him a behind-the-scenes view of an art world participant.  He also had large clients with extensive corporate art collections, which he often found a way to tour.

Post-retirement, Phil returned to college to earn another degree. Phil graduated from Texas A&M, College Station, Texas, in 1984 with a B.B.A. in business analysis and research, but upon his return to college, he chose to pursue his passion for art. From 2019-2022, he was enrolled at the College of Visual Arts and Design, pursuing an M.F.A. in Studio Art with a concentration in Sculpture.

His art practice is focused on visually stimulating scientific bodies with partially abstracted biological shapes. He said his goal is to expound upon scientists' minds' creative and innovative capacities as they work to impact our future positively.

Phil currently interacts with UNT‘s genetic engineering scientists as they seek to make plants more resilient, useful and bountiful. Using their research, processes, and results to influence his sculpture's design, Phil manipulates, massages, and mixes contemporary mediums, such as acrylic plastic and resin, with traditional sculpture, fiber, and paint. 

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Jerry Aul

B.A.A.S., 2023
Senior Administrative Coordinator, CVAD

If you worked here or graduated in 1998 or later, you may know Jerry Aul, our senior administrative coordinator providing yeoman's work in the Dean's Office. If you need some help, Jerry is tenacious and can be counted on to see the job through. He was with us through the name change from the School of Visual Arts to the College of Visual Arts and Design in 2004, working in the Department of Design and briefly in Advising before moving to the Dean's Office. Jerry is known for his friendly voice, ready smile, and determination to get work done.

Not only providing yeoman's work for CVAD, Jerry was an actual yeoman for the U.S. Navy as a petty officer aboard the USS Curtis Wilbur, a guided missile destroyer named after the 43rd Secretary of the Navy. After the ship was built in Bath, Maine, it was underway to San Diego, Calif., for commissioning in March 1994, allowing Jerry to go through the Panama Canal, a highlight of his Navy career, he said. One detriment to shipbuilding can be exposure to hazardous materials, which, along with military downsizing at the time, hastened Jerry's separation from the Navy and eventually brought him to Denton, Texas, to be near family.

In 2002, with GI Bill benefits, Jerry started his college career at UNT — until the benefits ran out in three years. He was a bachelor out of college until he met and married Tracey in 2005 and continued his work at CVAD.

Over the years, Jerry has always been tenacious about learning new technology, adapting to change and helping new employees. He said he has seen tremendous growth in the college, especially in the number of faculty, staff and students. The biggest change of all, he said, is the $70 million renovation and construction of the Art Building that was completed in 2019. Working constantly with faculty and higher education students motivated Jerry again to take up where he left off in his senior year of college. But the biggest motivators, he said, were to complete a long-term goal and be a good role model for his granddaughters, Ava, 12, and Alexandria, 9, who now live with Tracey and him.

"I wanted to show my granddaughters that taking up a difficult challenge at any age and seeing it through is worth the hard work and effort." Congratulations, Jerry Aul, Class of 2023! We salute you! #CVADproud

Caption: The guided-missile destroyer USS Curtis Wilbur, DDG 54, is underway in the Pacific Ocean. Curtis Wilbur is assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group, 7th Fleet. U.S. Navy photo by Photographer's Mate Airman Stephen W. Rowe

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In June 2023, CVAD launched its first-ever summer arts program Creative U. The program, in development at the college over the last few years, is a collaboration between the CVAD Foundations program and the Onstead Institute for Education in the Visual Arts and Design.

The Foundations program encompasses a coursework track to provide a framework for visual problem-solving and critical-thinking strategies. It incorporates the study of culture, history, and practices of various art and design forms across disciplines to prepare students for rigorous college courses in visual art, design, art education and art history. The Onstead Institute provides services and resources for the college's K-12 art and design education efforts. The two units partnered to establish Creative U, which welcomed 20 aspiring high-school artists to the college for two weeks of studio activities and on-campus excursions.

Creative U students undertook several projects in the program, allowing them to gain exposure to various aspects of drawing, color theory, collage, design, and production of small artbooks called zines and other artistic elements, techniques, and practices. Students were enthusiastic about their experiences in the program. One student remarked, “This camp has helped me improve how I see art. I often move too fast. I am learning to slow down and fully analyze the piece I am looking at.” Another observed, “The program is so interactive and free to allow us to explore and connect. I love my instructors and peers.”

In addition to nurturing the talent of young artists, the program also allowed them to experience the university setting. Students had lunch daily at Bruce Hall, one of the campus's signature dining areas. They also enjoyed trips to Special Collections and The Spark, a maker's space within Willis Library, and the Texas Fashion Collection. CVAD Galleries Curator and Director Stefanie Dlugosz-Acton also met with students to discuss curatorial practices and exhibition spaces.

For making this inaugural event a success, special thanks go to Peter Hyland, Onstead Institute director; Binod Shrestha, associate professor and Foundations director; Eric Ligon, professor and senior associate dean for administrative affairs; Kim Willis, senior administrative coordinator; Jennifer Stanley, teaching fellow; and Marcela Reyes, adjunct faculty assistant.

Building on the success of the inaugural year, CVAD plans to offer Creative U annually each summer. Information about enrolling in 2024 will be available later this fall.

For students who have or need art and design supplies, CVAD has set up two locations in the Art Building where supplies can be dropped off or picked up. Donations of art and design supplies and books are gladly accepted.

Special thanks to our inaugural donors who made this project possible.

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Meow Wolf's newest immersive art experience in Grapevine, The Real Unreal, features the work of several students and alumni listed below."The North Texan" caught up with some of the UNT artists. "The North Texan" caught up with some of the UNT artists to learn more about their innovative works, which can be found everywhere in The Real Unreal, from the Glowquarium to the Neon Kingdom. Meow Wolf, founded in 2008 and headquartered in Santa Fe, N.M., is an arts and entertainment company that creates large-scale interactive and immersive art installations with its fourth permanent location in Grapevine, Texas.

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Aug. 21-Dec. 15: Fall Semester
Aug. 22-Dec. 15: Exhibition: "Cey Adams, Departure, 40 Years of Art and Design"
Oct. 28, 9 a.m.-3 p.m.: CVAD Celebrates 130/30!
CVAD Upcoming Events | UNT Alumni Calendar | UNT Events Calendar | Gallery Exhibitions

Gif courtesy of alumna Megan Lockhart, Class of 2010