By Victoria Brito Morales

RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – The UTRGV Center for Latin American Arts (CLAA) has been awarded $20,000 by the Alice Kleberg Reynolds Foundation to host a new project titled “A La Música y Arte: A Series of Flamenco Concerts and Workshops and Student Art Exhibitions in the Rio Grande Valley in 2022-2023.”                                                                                             

This is CLAA’s second grant from the Alice Kleberg Reynolds (AKR) Foundation, and comes on the heels of the successful AKR Foundation-funded project titled “Uncovered Spaces,” an art exhibition at the International Museum of Art & Science (IMAS) in McAllen that focused on female and LGBTQIA+ artists in 2022.

The La Música y Arte series will invite art, music and dance professionals to the Rio Grande Valley to work with UTRGV students to enhance education in those respective disciplines. The flamenco grant also will fund travel opportunities for flamenco dance students to study dance in Spain, and for art students to travel within the United States to visit art exhibitions and competitions that will enhance their knowledge. 

“This grant will fund student art exhibitions and also flamenco dance concerts on both campuses,” said Dr. Katherine Moore McAllen, associate professor of Art History and director of the UTRGV CLAA. “A big part of the grant funds will be for travel for our students to Spain and other cities in the United States to visit important art collections and work with dance instructors and mentors in Spain this summer.”

Students from IDEA, and the Edinburg and PSJA school districts will be invited to the art exhibitions and concerts as part of the CLAA’s efforts to recruit new students to the UTRGV College of Fine Arts. 

The Spanish dance performances are scheduled for Feb. 13-14, 2023, and art exhibitions in March will be open to the public.

“The Flamenco events will be serving our community by giving them this opportunity to appreciate dancers who visit from Spain,” Moore McAllen said. “The concerts will showcase our UTRGV students in performances with Spanish dancers. They also will participate in master class workshops to create special international collaborations in the arts, which is the mission of the CLAA.” 

Sonia Chapa, lecturer II of dance and director of the UTRGV Ballet Español, will be working with Moore McAllen and the CLAA to arrange the concerts and help UTRGV dance students visit Spain. 

Additionally, Romeo Di Loreto, UTRGV assistant professor of Photography, will be leading the efforts with Moore McAllen to create student art exhibitions and provide travel opportunities. 

The grant also will support Keatan McKeever, a UTRGV presidential research fellow and graduate student in the College of Fine Arts, in her student workshop and exhibition project, RGV PERENNIAL, an ongoing collaboration with the CLAA formerly titled RGV x Art For Change. 

For more information, contact the CLAA at claa@utrgv.edu or visit utrgv.edu/claa.