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Monday, February 2, 2026

Cornerstone Grant Award Advances CVAD Faculty Research and Teaching in Chile

CVAD faculty member Rachel Black participated in an international field experience in sub-Antarctic Chile, supported by a Cornerstone Grant that advances interdisciplinary research, creative practice and teaching.

Rachel Black is facing forward and smiling. She has blonde hair and wears a green top.
Rachel Black, M.F.A., principal lecturer in CVAD Foundations.
The College of Visual Arts and Design at the University of North Texas supports and celebrates research and scholarship in many forms. In addition to traditional academic inquiry, research in CVAD includes creative activity, innovative practice and community-engaged work.
 
In 2022, CVAD launched its first college-level competitive funding program to support faculty research. Since its inception, the program has seed-funded numerous faculty projects, underscoring the breadth, relevance and impact of scholarship across the college.
 
In spring 2025, Rachel Black, principal lecturer in Foundations, received a $1,000 CVAD Cornerstone Grant to support travel to the Cape Horn International Center in Puerto Williams, sub-Antarctic Chile, during the area's peak of summer.
 
In January 2026, Black served as guest faculty at the center, collaborating with international researchers and students from UNT and the University of Magallanes in Punta Arenas, Chile. Additional invited faculty included Elaine Pawlowicz, CVAD associate professor of studio art: drawing and painting, and Raina Joines, principal lecturer in English in UNT’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences.
 
The UNT study abroad course Tracing Darwin’s Path was led by Chilean-born Ricardo Rozzi, professor of philosophy and religion, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and Zacchaeus Compson, assistant professor of biology, College of Science. During the annual two-week field-experience course, UNT participants worked closely with faculty from the University of Magallanes as well as graduate and doctoral students.
 
Students participated in art workshops and field sketching activities and joined scientists in the field conducting environmental DNA, or eDNA, water sampling, bird population studies and invasive rodent research. Course activities also included visits to Magellanic penguin colonies on Isla Magdalena, a tour of the studio of Chilean artist Paola Vezzani, a visit to a replica of the HMS Beagle and camping at Peninsula Gil on Navarino Island.
 
The HMS Beagle was a 10-gun Cherokee-class brig-sloop launched in 1820 and is best known for its role in the 1831–36 circumnavigation that informed the scientific work of Charles Darwin.
 
“My experiences in Chile will enrich and inspire my artwork and my teaching,” said Black. “Most notably, I’m interested in applying Rozzi’s field environmental philosophy methodology, a transdisciplinary, four-step methodology that integrates ecological sciences, ethics, and arts to reconnect people with local ecosystems. It also includes recognition and appreciation of the three H’s — habitat, habits and co-inhabitants. I am very thankful to CVAD for funding this opportunity. My travel was also graciously supported by the CVAD Foundations program and CHIC.”
 
FEP is an interdisciplinary educational and research methodology that bridges ecology and ethics to foster a “biocultural ethic” that reconnects citizens with nature. 
 
Black, a 2006 CVAD alumna, holds an M.F.A. in Studio Art: Drawing and Painting and has taught at UNT since 2003. She has also taught workshops at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, and the Irving Arts Center, Irving, Texas, worked as a staff member at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas, and exhibited her work throughout the Dallas-Fort Worth region. Black served as the inaugural Artist-in-Residence at Valles Caldera National Preserve in Jemez Springs, New Mexico, in 2025.

Trip Photos

Courtesy of Rachel Black

  • 1. Students at work in a drawing workshop.
  • 2. Rachel Black and Elaine Pawlowicz are standing in Punta Gusano, Chile. The ocean and mountains are in the background
  • 3. Rachel Black is seated next to Raina Joines with the ocean and mountains in the background.
  • 4. A group of people surrounds a large sign that says "Chile."
  • 5. Rachel Black holds a sketch she created at the Magallanes Reserve.
  • 6. A person is crouching on the sand, holding a camera pointed at the ocean.
  • 7. A view of Terra del Fuego from the Cape Horn International Center.
  • 8. Students conducting field work at Omora Park, Chile.
  • 9. Pencil sketch on paper of penguins.
  • 10. Painting of a rocky seascape
  • 11. Foreground shows a rocky seascape with a view of a glacier in the background.
  • 12. Four people hiking up a hill.
  • 13. Sketch of a Patagonian Sierra Finch by Rachel Black.