Art has been a vital part of UNT since it was first taught in 1894, just four years after the institution was founded. Dr. Cora Stafford, an imaginative leader who served on the faculty and as director for four decades before retiring in 1964, played a major role in guiding the art program to the reputation it maintains today. Determined to keep the program aligned with new ideas, she hired young innovators on the faculty. These included James Prestini and Gyorgy Kepes, two early proponents, in the United States, of the Bauhaus system which endeavored to relate a new design approach to the world of technology and craft. Also on the faculty were Carlos Merida, the internationally known Guatemalan painter and muralist, as well as Octavio Medellin, the celebrated Mexican sculptor and painter. Students included Ray Gough, who became a noted interior designer and UNT professor, and O'Neil Ford, who became one of Texas' most famous architects.

Masters degrees were initiated in the 1930s and the first MS degree in art was awarded in 1937 to Ms. Ann Bookman Williams, a long-time art teacher in the campus demonstration school. UNT's modern art program has been one of continual growth. After World War II, professional pograms in advertising art, fashion design and interior design supplemented traditional studio and art education programs. Following an extensive study of the arts in Texas by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in the 1960s, North Texas was designated as a major visual arts program in the State and was approved to offer the BFA, MFA, and Ph.D. degrees beginning in 1971. With the Southwest's demographic population shift in the late 1970's and early 1980's, enrollment increased dramatically. At the same time, the department's comprehensive art programs were being recognized for their quality.

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Eric McGehearty

Eric McGehearty received his MFA in Sculpture from UNT in 2004. His work has been shown nationally in venues such as the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, the Museum of Fine Art at Florida State University and at the Piedmont Arts Museum in Virginia. Since graduation, he has been active in public art commissions for the City of Fort Worth with his "United We Stand" recognized by the Americans for the Arts as one of the forty best projects in 2007. In 2009 his sculpture will be included in the Armory Show in New York and in a one person show at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary in Dallas TX. McGehearty has struggled with dsylexia throughout his life. He has never, with his own eyes, read a book. As a child, he realized how differently he relates to the written word and to the process of reading. "I approach literature from the perspective of a person who cannot read or who does not have access to written material," says Eric. "By combining the logic embedded in language with the irrationality of thinking without words, my art work engages questions about how we understand the world." Eric's work has been exhibited at the JFK Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC and at the Dallas Museum of Art, as well as at a number of galleries and schools. His "United We Stand" - an outdoor bronze sculpture and window installation commissioned for Fort Worth's Fire Station #8 - was nationally recognized at the 2007 Public Art Year in Review as one of the 40 best public art projects of the year. He is an inspirational speaker working with Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D), a national nonprofit, volunteer organization, sharing his struggles and successes as a dyslexic. His art work reflects his difficulties reading and helps audiences see into the world of print disability.

A story about McGehearty's art and life was featured in this Sunday, February 15th issue of the Dallas Morning News in the Guide Daily Arts and Lifestyle section as well as the Dallas Morning News online. The story was written by staff writer Nancy Churnin. Also a video interview with Eric will be released on the Dallas Morning News website to coincide with the story. The story both describes Eric's newest work, "Locked Behind Words" Fort Worth, Texas as well as exploring Eric's life as a Dyslexic. In the article, Eric credits part of his success to his Sculpture Professor Mike Cunningham at UNT:

"It was in graduate school that he had a second breakthrough that inspired him to create many of his current pieces. He had sculpted a bronze statue of Sisyphus, who was condemned by the gods to a life of eternal struggle, pushing a rock up a mountain that was always doomed to roll back down to him. "My professor told me he could see the struggle in the piece but wanted to know where it was coming from in me. I told him about my dyslexia for the first time. And he said, 'I would like to see your struggle in the work - not just anyone's struggle.' I hadn't ever thought about doing art that was about me. But that gave me permission."

Eric's latest work and Installation "Locked Behind Words" (pictured) is also featured in the article. It is a special Installation by Eric McGehearty in the library of Tarrant County College Northwest Campus in Fort Worth curated by Winter Rusiloski.

The public is invited to attend any of three Artist lectures during the morning of February 18th at the TCC Walsh library in the WTLO Building in the center of the college campus. Take the elevators to the 3rd floor to the Walsh Library.
Lectures scheduled: 2/18/2009 at 8:10- 8:50am, 9:10-9:50am, 11:10-11:50am

Art Installation will be on view from Feb 18 - April 18, 2009 and is open to the public.
Walsh Library is open week days and Saturday's until 3:00 pm (817) 515-7725

Tarrant County College Northwest Campus
4801 Marine Creek Pkwy
Fort Worth, TX 76179

To learn more about Eric McGehearty and work visit his website www.ericmcgehearty.com and read the full article here.

Our other featured Alumni can be found here.

Mission:

To engage our diverse student population with issues of artistic heritage, stimulate their imagination and involvement with the world, foster their critical and analytical thinking, and inspire their creativity through educational opportunities in art education, art history, design, and studio arts, all supported by a vital program of creative research.

Goals: 

Access:
To provide undergraduate and graduate students, many of whom are first generation college students, access to outstanding programs;

Pursuit of Excellence:
To recruit and retain highly qualified students, to develop student potential, and to manage selective degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels, providing a high quality environment that prepares students to become leading professionals in their fields;

Service to the Region and the World:
To provide programming and access to resources in collaboration with educational, governmental, and cultural agencies, reflecting our role as part of a multi-campus university system integrated into the Dallas/Ft. Worth/ Denton metropolitan area and networked world-wide; and

Prominence:
To ensure the prominence of our students, faculty, programs, and institutes regionally, nationally, and internationally and to continue our role as leaders in visual arts education.

Currently in the Lightwell: Communication Design

2009 will be a pivotal year in world politics and economics. As everyone looks more and more to the creative sector for innovative ideas and methods of communicating, the College of Visual Arts and Design is meeting the challenge with new approaches and resources in all areas, presenting for our students and community the best range of options for the future. Traditionally strong CVAD programs in art education, design, and studio arts are being joined by new media arts, new programs at the graduate level in design, and expanded offerings in art history. We really understand that the best hope for the future is a creative, educated person who can function in a variety of settings internationally.

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