“I want to see more color, flavor and life at UHCL. Art is the way this can be accomplished,” Moya said. “For the Hispanic Heritage Month kick-off event, the Art School teachers and art education students will be facilitating activities with the Hispanic Heritage Fair.”

UHCL alumna Elizabeth Unmazor, is one of the artists painting for Hispanic Heritage Month. She graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Grades EC-12 Art Certification in 2019. Since then, Unmazor has taught as an elementary art school teacher and now works as a full-time professional artist. Moya said he wanted to recruit someone whose work and work ethic he was familiar with.

“Liz was a former student of mine. She stood out and I always admired the quality of work Liz displayed while at UHCL,” Moya said. “Over the years, I have been able to see her progress more and more.”

As a first-generation college student, Unmazor said she is honored to give back to the UHCL community. With her Salvadoran roots, she wanted to create a painting that best defined who she is.

“It’s really cool that a piece of me gets to stay at UHCL. It feels great to give back where I spent a lot of my time in my early twenties,” Unmazor said. “Hispanic Heritage Month to me means, not forgetting where I come from. Although I was born in the U.S., my parents being from El Salvador is a huge part of me.”

Unmazor added that her ‘The Explorer’ painting, is a self-portrait she took in Peru while solo-traveling. It embodies who she is, and she loves being surrounded by nature and exploring new places.

“I included the animals from Central America because that’s where my family is from. I was born in Houston, so that is why I included the cactus and blue bonnet.”

Jake Messa, the other artist painting for Hispanic Heritage Month, previously collaborated with the Art School on the ‘Transcendent Dreams’ mural located in the Arbor Building. Moya said he brought Messa back for this project because he believes in his work and talent.

“We talk about how sometimes he feels like an underdog, but I know it is only a matter of time until he’s the top dog,” Moya said. “His dedication and talent were only emphasized with his work on the mural in our hallway.”

Jake said his ‘The Nomad: A Huichol Style Astronaut’ painting is a combination of the past and the future, done in a style that best represented him.

“When I first started doing murals again, I got this big gig that I had to do Huichol style, which led me into digging into my Mexican roots. I wanted to do that again. My painting is a Huichol style astronaut done in my style,” Messa said.

Huichol art broadly groups the most traditional and most recent innovations in the folk art and handcrafts produced by the Huichol people, who live in the states of Jalisco, Durango, Zacatecas and Nayarit in Mexico. The unifying factor of the work is the colorful decoration using symbols and designs which date back centuries.

“To create a fusion, I drew inspiration from Aztec and Huichol expressions,” Messa said. “I added an astronaut to represent Houston's connection with space. It's a unique blend of history and possibility.” 

Messa said for a long time, he ran from who he was and wanted to be somebody else. As he got back into art again and finding himself, he embraces his past and culture through his work.

“This is who I am. I wanted to inspire the students here at UHCL with this painting and it’s the first time I get to do something I really want to do," he said.

Both artists attended the Hispanic Heritage Month Kick-Off Event this past Saturday, Sep 16. They served on the artist panel and engaged with the community for an evening of fun and tradition. ‘The Explorer’ will be housed in the Arbor Building near the Art School, and ‘The Nomad: A Huichol Style Astronaut’ will be in the Bayou Building. The university is a designated Hispanic Serving Institution and Minority Serving Institution, and is committed to every student feeling a sense of belonging.

For more information about UHCL’s upcoming Hispanic Heritage Month events, visit www.uhcl.edu/hispanic-heritage-month. For more information about the Art School visit, www.uhcl.edu/childrens-art-school/

Since University of Houston- Clear Lake opened its doors nearly 50 years ago, it has demonstrated a commitment to making higher education available to everyone, including those in the criminal justice system. In celebration of the College of Human Sciences and Humanities ‘Transforming Lives by Degrees Program,’ the Art Gallery is presenting a retrospective of the history, evolution and important milestones of the university’s involvement with prison reform through education. Associate Professor of Art History Beth Merfish said it has always been among UH-Clear Lake’s primary missions to be involved with prison education reform.

“TLD is at the heart of the work of a public university. That is, to make higher education accessible to all, and to provide transformational educational experiences,” Merfish said. “These exhibitions will allow visitors and members of the university community to engage with the program, and the issues that intersect with it.”

Merfish said UHCL’s faculty and staff have been essential for a successful TLD program for 50 years, and the TLD art exhibition will be a video highlighting that success.

“We have a dedicated faculty and staff who have persevered despite challenges,” she said. “We are fortunate to have the support of  our Dean of the College of Human Sciences and Humanities,  Glenn Sanford, and our university administrators. We also have incredible students.”

Merfish added that UHCL’s vision for expansion into other prisons to educate more incarcerated people is being discussed. 

“We currently offer the only graduate degree available to incarcerated students in Texas. In addition to the Master of Arts in Humanities, we offer the Bachelor of Arts in Humanities and the Bachelor of Science in Behavioral Sciences,” she said.

For more information about UHCL’s TLD initiatives visit, www.uhcl.edu/human-sciences-humanities/centers-initiatives/academics-for-offenders. For more information about upcoming exhibitions in UHCL’s Art Gallery visit, www.uhcl.edu/art-gallery/

Created and performed by acclaimed artist and activist Bryonn Bain, the theatrical hip-hop and multimedia production, “Lyrics from Lockdown” conveys a powerful and evocative message inspired by Bain’s life-altering experience with New York police officers who wrongfully arrested and incarcerated him multiple times, beginning when he was a second-year law student at Harvard University. The performance, which spotlights the devastating impact of prison injustice and racial profiling, will take place Saturday, Sept. 30 at 7:30 p.m. in the Bayou Theater at University of Houston-Clear Lake.

Along with visuals choreographed on stage, Bain fuses hip hop lyrics, calypso, jazz, and blues singing, as well as poetry, comedy and the spoken word to tell the story of his arrest, his interaction with the police, his experience with public defenders and judges, and the ultimate dismissal of his case.

After his release, one of his Harvard law professors encouraged him to write about racial profiling and law enforcement. His exposé, entitled “Walking While Black,” was published in the Village Voice. It became the most widely-read article in the paper’s history. The response from others sharing similar experiences nearly overwhelmed him, and it planted the seeds that grew into “Lyrics from Lockdown.”

“This is my life’s work,” Bain said. “This has evolved from Rikers Island and Sing Sing, to the National Black Theater, to Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and the Apollo Theater, with feedback from people incarcerated all over the world. There are three musicians playing live, and a video DJ who is mixing images in real time from images that have been curated over the last 20 years. It's a visual journey that we go on, as I tell two stories of wrongful incarceration—my own and that of a friend who was sentenced to death row at age 17.”

The difference, Bain said, is that he got out quickly, but the other person remains incarcerated.

“One of the most important takeaways for the audience is to learn how the justice system works,” he explained. “This is the civil rights and human rights issues of our time. Fifty years from now, they will be asking, what did you do to address the caging of human beings? Were you part of the problem or part of the solution? Coming to this show is a step towards answering those questions.”

Bain’s subsequent work linking prisons with institutions of higher education, including Columbia University and New York University and University of California at Los Angeles, focuses on applying the arts and activism to create movements for criminal justice and social reform. He is currently associate professor and founder of the UCLA Prison Education Program and co-director of the Center for Justice.

“I think this is a great time to come to UHCL because it’s the 50^th anniversary of your Transforming Lives by Degrees program, which coincides with the 50^th anniversary of hip hop,” Bain said. “The two have a lot in common. Hip hop emerged in the 1970s in New York and became the voice of people others had given up on—black and brown people, those whom the media did not see as humans, and those who were written off as hopeless.”

What emerged from that culture, Bain continued, is a multibillion-dollar phenomenon that is now among the most listened-to music on the planet.

 “This music is about people who are considered less than human, just as people in prison are,” he said. “Hip hop culture is linked to the same humanity that prison education programs shine a light on. The graffiti, the music centered around a DJ, the poetry, the lyricist, the storyteller—it’s all included in the movement. The show embodies all elements, along with a world-class band and world-class beat boxers, a bassist, a cellist, a guitarist.”

He said the piece would speak to all those who have been written off by humanity. “We are all created by a creator who has made us creative,” he said. “Our creativity comes alive in the arts.”

Bain said that he imagined a world in which human beings aren’t put in cages because they’re poor, drug addicted, or from communities that have been marginalized. “Let’s think about creating a more humane society. Education and the arts are proven vehicles to change the experience in prison,” he said.

“Over 95% of people who are in prison will be released,” he continued. “Don’t we want them to have more education? Shouldn’t we allow them to be inspired by art and creativity? No matter where you fall on the political spectrum, we should all be interested in those who are incarcerated, in building communities where everyone is safe, and in finding ways to support the reintegration of incarcerated people into society.”

The performance will culminate in a panel discussion about advocacy for criminal justice reform and prison education, featuring Bain and Rob Reiner, Emmy-winning actor and Oscar-nominated director of blockbuster movies including, “When Harry Met Sally,” “The Princess Bride,” “A Few Good Men,” and “Spinal Tap.” Reiner devotes considerable time to causes related to social justice, and the advocacy of more just and equitable laws. 

The event is adjacent to the opening reception for Texas Appleseed’s “I HeArt Justice” poster exhibition, and UH-Clear Lake’s 50^th anniversary celebration of its Transforming Lives By Degrees program, which is committed to offering higher education opportunities to incarcerated students. The exhibitions are from 6-7:30 p.m. in the Art Gallery located in the Bayou Building.

For more information, or for tickets to “Lyrics from Lockdown,” visit www.uhcl.edu/bayou-theater/. For information about Art Gallery exhibitions and upcoming events, visit www.uhcl.edu/art-gallery/

Texas Appleseed, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating at the state and local levels for fair, equitable laws, has a history of working with Texas artists to develop a collection of posters that shine a light on social justice issues related to Appleseed’s specific policy areas. The result of their collaboration, referred to as “I Heart Justice,”  is an exhibition of 15 posters, opening Monday, Sept. 11 at University of Houston-Clear Lake’s main Art Gallery. The opening reception will take place Saturday, Sept. 30 from 5-7 p.m.

The Art Gallery’s opening event is adjacent to a groundbreaking, multi-media theater production entitled, “Lyrics from Lockdown” to take place in the Bayou Theater at 7:30 p.m. the same evening. The performance aims to expose legal and social inequities in prisons in America. Following the performance, there will be a panel discussion featuring the actors, community members, and Emmy Award-winning actor, writer, producer and director Rob Reiner.

Texas Appleseed’s focal policy issues are aimed at supporting children and families in Texas, as well as other vulnerable populations, through systemic reform work. The nonprofit works on nine broad areas, such as inequities in public schools, unfair eviction and housing matters, preventing financial abuse, and other related policy and legal problems.

“Each artist created a poster related to an issue that Appleseed works on that spoke to them personally,” said Texas Appleseed Executive Director Deborah Fowler. “Some are about criminal justice, or injustices in the educational system, or whatever the artist felt strongly about. We left it to each individual artist to pursue their own design.”

Fowler added that the exhibition at UH-Clear Lake’s Art Gallery is the first time the I Heart Justice collection had ever been shown outside Austin.

Among the artists in the exhibition is Edith Valle, whose depiction of monarch butterflies soaring out of the Statue of Liberty’s torch was inspired by the difficulties faced by immigrants in America. In her artist’s statement, Valle said that the monarch butterfly is a symbol of immigration due to its ability to move freely across borders, but in the current political climate, immigrants who are both documented and undocumented feel threatened by deportation and are stereotyped as criminals.

The Art Gallery is also showcasing an exhibition of the history of UHCL’s Transforming Lives by Degrees program, which started with the university’s founding in 1974. The program offers bachelor’s and master’s degree programs to incarcerated students in Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities. 

For more information about UHCL’s Art Gallery, visit www.uhcl.edu/art-gallery/. To learn more about the Bayou Theater’s upcoming performances, or to reserve tickets to “Lyrics from Lockdown,” visit www.uhcl.edu/bayou-theater/

But there are many other works of art, large and small, that don’t always get the same recognition.  Some are tucked away in areas of campus that don’t receive a lot of foot traffic or in buildings that many students and employees never have a reason to visit. Others do receive a lot of traffic, but only from a distance.

Some of the art pieces on campus have a permanent home at UH-Clear Lake while others are on display temporarily as part of a public art exhibition. Regardless of how they got to UHCL, each tells a unique story. Each speaks to its audience in different ways, and all should be celebrated. Here are just a few of the secluded art pieces on campus worthy of a visit:

“Steel Study,” 1977

With its combination of round and straight edges and reflective surface, this sculpture sits boldly in the STEM Building lobby as part of Public Art of the University of Houston System’s temporary exhibition. Artist William Crovello created this stainless-steel structure in 1977 after learning classical calligraphy while serving in the U.S. Air Force in Japan and Korea in the ‘50s. Feeling inspired by the artistic elements in this writing style, he often included them in his sculptures, including his “Steel Study.”

“The Firebird,” 1978

Nestled on the lawn near the rear entrance to the Bayou Building is this sculpture made from welded cor-ten steel in 1978 by world-renowned sculptor Richard Hunt. Also a talented metalworker and welder, Hunt created this and other pieces to demonstrate his interest in forming hybrid figures “derived from anthromorphic, zoomorphic, or plant-based forms.”

His creations span over seven decades and have been featured all over the country. Dozens of cars drive past “The Firebird” daily, but since it can blend in with the adjacent trees, it takes some intentional observation, on foot, to truly appreciate it. This sculpture was added to the campus, courtesy of Public Art of University of Houston System.

Untitled running figure, circa 2008

This untitled artwork can be found behind the Arbor Central Building, courtesy of a UHCL student enrolled in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program.  Associate Professor of Art Jason Makepeace shared his recollection of the piece. “The running figure was created in ceramics by an international exchange student from Czech Republic more than 15 years ago,” he said. “He worked with former ceramic professor Nick de Vries and was a part of the former international arts consortium which was ran by Nick and Sandra Hu.”

Untitled metal sculptures, circa 2011

According to Makepeace, these sculptures were created about 12 years ago. “The figure was created by Jason Shaw, and the three folded paper style planes were created by Cameron Rowe,” he said. “Jason and Cameron are local and are BFA alumni, and their pieces were created under my guidance in ARTS 4311 Process Sculpture.”

The hollow figure features elements akin to a human skeleton, with a ribcage protecting a large heart. The airplanes portray the clever artistic contradiction of paper airplanes, made out of metal. Both can be found next to each other behind the Arbor Central Building.

“Moldable Subtractions,” 2014

Every student who has taken a course in any of the Arbor Buildings since 2014 has likely walked past this towering red figure near the Arbor Building sidewalks and parking lot. Others who have noticed it have seen only from the parking lot or street. Made of concrete and powder coated steel, this work of art reflects the personal interests of its creator,  who happens to be Makepeace.

An experienced kayaker, Makepeace fashioned this piece to celebrate his fascination with the continuity of the basic design of the kayak, despite centuries of technological advancements. “Representing the underlying structure of a modern kayak, Makepeace uses red to heighten and to give a bold and balanced contrast to its base, which has been made to resemble a tree stump. This juxtaposition of these two forms results in the illusion of the kayak being carved straight from the tree,” the plaque reads.

The Bayou Theater at University of Houston-Clear Lake will open its 2023-24 season with 21 performances highlighting artists representing a wide range of musical styles, including classical, blues, country western, jazz, and hip hop, but is also expanding into brand-new areas to interest an even wider audience.

Among the new season’s highlights is “Lyrics from Lockdown,” a theatrical hip-hop and multimedia production written and performed by renowned artist and social justice activist Bryonn Bain and will feature a post-show discussion with Emmy award-winning actor and film maker Rob Reiner. 

“This gives us the opportunity to showcase UH-Clear Lake’s Transforming Lives by Degrees program, which offers classes at Texas Department of Criminal Justice facilities, and highlight the need for prison reform on a national level,” said Cultural Arts Director Eric Despard. “A companion art exhibit will be shown in UHCL’s Art Gallery with a timeline of the university’s nearly 50-year history of having a prison education program in its smaller gallery.”

Despard said that for the first time, the Bayou Theater lineup includes a comedy series. “Everyone loves to laugh,” he said. “With the help of Comedy Zone Worldwide, we’re producing a series of three up-and-coming, family-friendly comedians. Kevin Bozeman, Derrick Stroup, and Andy Woodhull  have appeared on Comedy Central, HBO and late-night shows, including ‘The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.”

Three Grammy-winning artists are also among the new season’s performers: Latin Grammy winner Hector Del Curto will perform Piazzolla with the Apollo Chamber Players, bluegrass Grammy winner Michael Cleveland, and jazz Grammy winners Ranky Tanky.

Despard said the 2023-24 Art Gallery season featured six exhibitions, including the Sustainable Stories Film Fest, the UHCL Art and Design Faculty Exhibition, and the Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition.

For performance dates, ticket reservations, and more information about the Bayou Theater, visit https://uhcl.universitytickets.com/.  For dates and information about opening receptions for Art Gallery exhibitions, visit www.uhcl.edu/art-gallery/

Army veteran Katie Graham’s work reflects her love of costume construction, design and performance. She loves to participate in the Texas Renaissance Festival, and created two intricate costumes that are on view.

Each costume took over four months to complete.

“I have Charles Brandon, the Duke of Suffolk who was also King Henry VIII’s good friend,” she said. “He was married to King Henry’s sister, Mary Tudor, who was his third wife. He was a scoundrel and a rogue, so he’s a lot of fun to play. I’ve played him at the Renaissance Festival for about a year.”

Graham said she’s worn the second costume for about three years at the festival as the Queen of Hearts. “There’s a lot of hand stitching and beadwork in this one,” she said. “It’s made of cotton velveteen and polyester brocade. You might not believe it, but it’s all machine washable!”

She added that she was very happy to be part of Artists in Arms. “It's cool to attack a project with other artists with similar experiences,” she said. “I feel connected to the other artists who are veterans as well, and it feels very comfortable to me.”

The works of five artist-veterans from across all media are on display in the exhibition.  Two of the artists are family members of veterans. For more information about UHCL’s Art Gallery, visit www.uhcl.edu/art-gallery/

Justin Hashaw, who will be receiving his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art and Design with Studio Concentration on May 13, has a set of two ceramic pots on display in the exhibition. He said he chose to transfer to UHCL after graduating from San Jacinto College mainly because he had become familiar with the work of (Assistant Professor of Ceramics) Clay Leonard and hoped to be taught and mentored by him.

“I have worked in ceramics and graphic design, but ceramics is my medium and it’s where my passion lies,” Hashaw said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor than Prof. Leonard.”

He said his courses at UHCL taught him how to exhibit his work, which is something he keeps in mind while he’s creating all his works. “I think about how these works will look when they leave the studio,” he said.

“I think about what my pots will do in the world, how they’ll be exhibited, how they’ll function, and how someone will eventually use them,” he continued. “I worked a lot with Prof. Leonard on documenting and exhibiting work. It’s really important to know how to do that well, because especially in ceramics, the majority of people who see your work will be online, so they’ll see an image of the work, not the real thing.”

Lighting, Hashaw said, was also something he learned was critical to taking good images of his work. “I spent a lot of time in the lighting studio, working with other professors on this,” he said. “We talked and thought a lot about how I wanted my final work to be seen. As the artist, I’m in control of that and I wanted to be sure my work is being seen in the right light. I learned so much about that from my professors.”

As a ceramic artist, Hashaw said his work was centered around creating vessels, with a particular interest in creating a specific glaze. “I like sets of things, and I like how they can be not identical but still cohesive,” he said. “I learned a lot about the Shino glaze with Prof. Leonard’s help. He’s really a glaze master.”

Shino is a kind of Japanese pottery glaze that was brought to the U.S. in the 1970s and features variations of reds, whites and grays. “That’s a glaze I predominantly use,” he said. “The pots I am showing in the exhibition are fiery red or orange. It’s a really versatile glaze. There’s a lot of trial and error to learning it.”

Accepting that trial and error is central to mastering ceramics is among the greatest lessons Hashaw said he’d learned during his coursework. “As art students, we are told, ‘Get to failure faster!’” he said. “In all those little failures, there are lessons to be learned and shared. Everything is hard, and everything we do is hard, but you’ll see the payout on the back end and get to the place where you can do what you want.”

He said there are so many steps in ceramics, so failure can be in anything. “You’re working with the elements, like fire, water, earth. It’s not in your control. Anything can go wrong, and it does, a lot.”

Hashaw said that with his graphic design and art background, he was able to enter the job market with two resumes. “I got a degree so I could do what I wanted, so I would like to move forward with ceramics,” he said. “I walk the line between the graphic and the studio side, but I owe so much personally and artistically to Prof. Leonard. If I had gone to school elsewhere, I might not have found this level of success.”

The works of Tara Laughery and Courtney Maulding, both UHCL alumni from the same program, are also on display in the exhibition.

To learn more about events at UHCL's Art Gallery, visit www.uhcl.edu/art-gallery/.  UHCL offers a Bachelor of Fine Arts with concentrations in graphic design, studio arts, and early childhood through 12^th grade education. For more information about the Art and Design program, visit www.uhcl.edu/human-sciences-humanities/departments/communication-studio-arts/art-design/. 

Twenty-three students in the Bachelor of Fine Arts program at University of Houston-Clear Lake will be displaying their work in the annual Bachelor of Fine Arts Exhibition, opening April 6 at 4 p.m. in the Art Gallery, located in the Bayou Building.

“It’s more than just creating the art,” said Assistant Professor of Art and Design Clay Leonard. “It’s about the entire process of being prepared and mentored through actually installing the work in the gallery.”

He said that students would play a central role in curating the show. “From the start, we try to encourage students to think about a body of work with a common theme,” he explained. “When they graduate, they will have had a comprehensive experience in which they learned to plan, prepare, hang or install their art. They learn how to approach a gallery, how to think about their work in a gallery space, and in the end, bask in the success and the culmination of work.”

Leonard said that means feeling a sense of satisfaction of what can come out of a lot of thought and hard work, and also being supportive of the work of others whose work is also featured in the exhibition.

“The show is juried by faculty in order to continue their involvement in students’ work,” he said. “The show is a continuation of the conversations that students and faculty are already having in class. Each student who plans to be in the exhibition chooses a mentor, either in their discipline or outside, who will prepare and coach them for what work should go in. This is not about trying to figure out what the jurors will like—this is something that’s been refined and supports the development of the students over time.”

The exhibition runs through April 28. For more information about UHCL’s Art Gallery and exhibitions, go online. 

The Art Gallery at University of Houston-Clear Lake is commemorating Black History Month with an exhibition entitled, “The Way Forward: The Chronicles of Our Culture,” with an opening reception Friday, Feb. 3 from 6-7:30 p.m. The show, which features the work of 10 local African American artists, examines the past, present and future of African American life through paintings, drawings, sculptures and photography.

UH-Clear Lake double-alumnus Eddie Filer, Jr. collaborated with the other artists to create the show, intended to highlight specific experiences and personal insights as African Americans and as artists.

Filer said that among his work in the exhibition, the depiction of his father on the porch with the red cooler resonated most. The painting, Filer said, is called “Good Life.”

“That is about my time with my father on his porch,” he said. “He had the dreaded disease of dementia. He had been a heavy smoker, and in the summer, he did not run his air conditioner. The house was full of heat and smoke, so our meeting place was on the porch.”

The red cooler in the corner holds particular significance to the story of the painting.

“That red cooler represents the ‘good life,’” he explained. “My father used to cook and he would cater parties when he retired. His coolers were always huge. He had several of them that were filled with beer, meat, and good food. Everything came out of those coolers, and for him, they were part of his good life.”

He said those times sitting on the porch with his father represented some of his best memories. “We sat out there and had the best conversations,” he said. “This painting is about those times and about him having dementia. That’s something that can affect anyone.”

Filer said that he and his artist collaborators decided to name the exhibition “The Way Forward” to communicate their experiences as African American artists in all phases of life.

As a Black History Month event, Filer said he hoped that people visiting the exhibition would gain insight into each artist’s world and recognize the messages they intended to communicate through their work.

“Each artist in the show has tackled a certain time period in their lives, and they all want to express that if you want to deal with the present, then it’s necessary to understand the past,” he said. “In order to understand the way forward, you have to know where you came from. Then you have to be a willing participant in moving things forward.”

The exhibition also spotlights the works of Cedric Ingram, Rodney Butler, Romeo Clay Robinson, Dominic Clay, Shawn Artis, Earl Jones, Zsavon Butler, Christie Leday and Lee Carrier.

For more information about UHCL’s Art Gallery, and to learn more about this exhibition, go online. 

Austin’s ‘First Lady of Jazz’ Pamela Hart will share her artistry and passion for jazz in her second performance at University of Houston-Clear Lake’s Bayou Theater Friday, Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m. She will be accompanied by the Houston-based Darrell Lavine Quartet.

“I had such a good time when I was there last year, I’m so excited to be coming back,” she said.

Hart said her concerts were an expression of her desire to keep the genre alive. “I do jazz everything,” she said. “This music grabbed me from the age of five, when my mother used to sing it around the house. She loved all the greats—Charlie Parker, Nancy Wilson, Sarah Vaughn, John Coltrane, Johnny Mathis.  All their songs are the ones I know the most.”

She said the concert would begin with the standards. “I start out with the American songbook of jazz beginning in the 1930s and going through the 60s, and then the second half is more modern, smooth jazz,” she said. “I start with the jazz version of ‘Hello, Dolly.’”

For those who aren’t too familiar with the genre, she said she had some other selections. “I’ll be performing songs from my latest CD, ‘Happy Talk,’” she said. “There’s more for people to listen to so they can onboard with us and enjoy.”

Additional selections for the evening's show include, “Fever,” “Feeling Good,” and “Let’s Stay Together.”

For more information about the Bayou Theater’s upcoming events, or for tickets to Pamela Hart’s concert, go online. 

University of Houston-Clear Lake’s second annual Sustainable Stories Film Fest, spotlighting films and art focusing on themes of sustainability and environmental advocacy, will take place in the Bayou Theater and in the Art Gallery Nov. 10-11.

Associate Professor of Communications and Digital Media Michael Brims, the event’s co-founder and main organizer, said that the event received three times as many submissions as last year, with filmmakers and  artists from over 40 countries sending their work.

“I wanted to create an event showcasing ideas and stories of sustainability as well as empower filmmakers and artists around the world working on sustainability-related subjects and stories,” Brims said. “We received over 180 submissions in a variety of categories. This year’s special festival focus areas are the responsible use of water and environmental advocacy.”

In particular, the categories about the responsible use of water and environmental advocacy were chosen because the university’s 2022 First-Year Seminar Program Common Reader selection is “What the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City,” by Mona Hanna-Attisha. The novel explores the water crisis in Flint, Michigan from the author’s perspective as a pediatrician, and delves into the ways in which parents, researchers and community organizers combined efforts to fight for safe, clean drinking water.

The two-day event includes screenings of films, as well as a vendor expo, a concert in the Bayou Theater featuring the Free Radicals, and a panel discussion highlighting Chante Davis, who led a group of high school students on a march from New Orleans to Houston to raise awareness about climate change.

The gallery exhibition will continue through Dec. 9 with daily scheduled screenings in its adjacent black box cinema.

The festival is a joint effort by Brims and Senior Lecturer in Environmental Management Kathleen Garland, the Bayou Theater and the Art Gallery, the Institute for Human and Planetary Sustainability, and Houston-based Citizen’s Environmental Coalition. The festival is supported by the Texas Commission on the Arts/National Endowment for the Arts. 

For more information about the festival,  participating films and artwork as well as screening times, go online. 

The exhibition spotlights work displayed from the inception of the university’s art gallery in 1979.

“The small gallery is filled with posters spanning 40 years of exhibitions, highlighting the university’s decades-long interest in showcasing art,” said UHCL Cultural Arts Director Eric Despard. “The main gallery features works from ‘Birth Trinity,’ by renowned artist Judy Chicago. It’s a collection of quilted images from her work in the 1980s as well as items from her ‘Dinner Party’ exhibition. About 60,000 women from around Houston attended it at the time.”

Despard said he hoped people would see the UHCL’s collection was extensive and was indicative of its enduring commitment to supporting and exhibiting the arts.