Rising Eyes of Texas 2024
29 Artists, 17 Texas Schools
Each year, undergraduate and graduate students in the visual arts take center stage in the Rising Eyes of Texas, a juried exhibition now celebrating its seventeenth year at Rockport Center for the Arts.
Rising Eyes of Texas, a yearly collegiate juried exhibition showcasing paintings, sculptures, video art, prints, and more by select Texas undergraduate and graduate visual arts students, returns Feb. 16–March 31.
Hosted annually since 2007, this year’s show features the work of 29 artists from 17 universities and colleges across Texas, including Abilene Christian University, Baylor University, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Houston Christian University, and the University of North Texas. The exhibition will be held in the McKelvey Charitable Fund Gallery and is free and open to the public.
“Rising Eyes of Texas has become a showcase for many students who are primed for to have successful art careers,” said Catey Arnold, interim curator of exhibitions for Rockport Center for the Arts. “We are proud to provide the opportunity for these emerging artists to get the exposure they deserve and to give our guests a glimpse into the future of contemporary art in Texas.”
Juror Tracy Saucier, Director of the Beeville Art Museum, will select the top three “best in show” who will share in the $2,000 purse supplied by the Christopher and Jessica Giesey Rising Eyes of Texas Scholarship Fund. The show also includes two additional awards: The “Barrow Foundation Curator of Exhibitions Award,” a $500 prize recognizing the artwork and artist statement, selected by Rockport Center for the Arts; and the “Giesey Award,” also a $500 cash prize, awarded by the Giesey family for creativity, originality, and artistic merit.
A public reception with the participating art students, their faculty, and Saucier will be held at RCA on March 9, 2024, from 5–7 p.m., which coincides with the monthly Austin Street Art Walk a free, alfresco, walkable art experience featuring RCA and other galleries located in downtown Rockport.
Event benefactors Jean and Charles Giesey are long-time patrons of the arts and donors to Rockport Center for the Arts, including the scholarship fund which provides Rising Eyes of Texas prize money and assists students with submission fees to provide opportunities to all, regardless of means. A member of the RCA board of directors for six years (2014–2019), Jean served as board chair in 2017, leading a 100-day recovery campaign to successfully restore operations after the RCA facility was destroyed that year by Hurricane Harvey.
This year’s juror, Tracy Saucier, serves as the Director of the Beeville Art Museum in Beeville, Texas. In addition to curating and designing its many exhibitions, she works closely with the Beeville Independent School District on the development and implementation of the museum’s extensive educational art program, providing events and activities designed to stimulate the imaginations of the young people in Bee County. She also serves as executive director of the Joe Barnhart Foundation, which continues to create and fund new opportunities for the people of Beeville and the surrounding areas, including the Beeville Art Museum.
In 2018, due to the lack of exhibition space in Rockport following Hurricane Harvey, Saucier and RCA Executive Director Luis Purón collaborated on an exhibition held at the Beeville Art Museum celebrating Rockport artists, underwritten by the Joe Barnhart Foundation.
Saucier joins a list of esteemed jurors for past events including Tanja Peterson, author and gallery director, Redbud Arts Center (2023); Joseph Cohen, artist, and founder of Davis Cohen Fine Art (2022); Rigoberto Luna, co-owner Presa House (2021); Rebecca Gomez, independent curator, former curator Mexic-arte Museum (2020); Hollis Hammonds, professor of art, St. Edwards University (2019); and Rainey Knudson, founder of Glasstire (2018).