The DreamPanel Series brings together speakers with the goal to further conversations related to important topics that impact our community.
Bill FitzGibbons- Moderator
Bill FitzGibbons has received over thirty public art commissions in five countries, including projects in Seattle, Rhode Island, Texas, Reykjavík, Stockholm, and Helsinki. He has had sixteen solo exhibitions and has been in over sixty group exhibitions over the past twenty-five years- most recently in the Texas! exhibition at the National Academy of Art in New Delhi, India.
Art in America recognized his Day Star Archway, located at the San Antonio International Airport, as one of the most prominent public art projects in 2000. In 2012, he was selected by the Texas State Legislature as The Texas State Artist (sculpture). Recently, FitzGibbons’s LightRails, a dynamically lit underpass in Birmingham, AL, was named a 2014 CODAaward, an international public art award winner for the transportation category.
Bill is a former board member of the International Sculpture Center (ISC) and currently is a founding board member of the Texas Sculpture Group (TSG).
Bill earned his undergraduate degree in sculpture at the University of Tennessee and his MFA in sculpture at Washington University in St. Louis.
Panelists:
- Cruz Ortiz ,Cruz Ortiz is an American Contemporary Artist who uses multiple mediums examining historical social political narratives through bold graphic screen prints, figurative abstract portraiture and dream-like landscapes. Ortiz has committed himself to creatively collaborating with cultural arts organizations and social justice organizations for most of his career. He was also a public high school instructor for 15 years, working with diverse urban students. Cruz Ortiz has had solo exhibitions at: ARTPACE in San Antonio, Texas; the Contemporary Art Museum in Houston, Texas; the University of Texas in Austin; The Museum of Contemporary Art in Santa Barbara, in Santa Barbara, California. He has been invited to participate in many major international exhibitions and institutions such as: the Louvre in Paris, France; EV-A in Limerick, Ireland; the traveling exhibition Phantom Sightings with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California; the San Juan Triennial in San Juan, Puerto Rico; and at The Blue Coat Museum, in Liverpool, England. His work is in the permanent collections of Ruby City, the San Antonio Museum of Art, the University of Texas at San Antonio Library Special Collections, the Arizona State University Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery.
- Barbara Felix,Barbara Felix, is an interdisciplinary artist who often uses dance as a theme for social expression on the diversity of beauty, in her paintings of women. Her most recent large scale multi-image portrait series, the Glorious Way She Moves, celebrates Black women. Felix is self-taught in animation, video and audio editing, often incorporating audio as part of her 2D work, and her video works have been screened in festivals and exhibitions across San Antonio, United States and Germany. Felix serves on the Executive Board of Contemporary Art Month Executive Board, and is a member of the San Antonio Ethnic Art Society, GAGA Women Artists, and the National Council of Negro Women. She just completed a collaborative Dreamweek workshop on Colorism, based on her animated film, Liminality of Self, Transitioning Reflections of Color and Culture. Passionate about promoting other artists, Felix is currently curating work Black Texas creatives for Beautifully Black Film Screenings at Slab Cinema Arthouse in the Blue Star Art Complex in honor of Black History Month 2022.
- Marisela Barrera ,Marisela Barrera is a Tejana writer and teatrista. She has a BFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University and MA/MFA degrees in Creative Writing, Literature and Social Justice from Our Lady of the Lake University. Marisela writes short stories and turns them into transmedia performances. Her work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, HowlRound, San Antonio Report, Concho River Review, Latina Critical Feminism, Out in SA, Texas Matters, The San Antonio Current, Radio Esperanza 101.5 LP-FM, and Theater Jones, among others. She was Artistic Director of Cara Mia Theater, Theater Director at the Guadalupe, and has performed in Latino cultural centers in Dallas, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. She has written, directed, and acted in 100+ projects. Barrera spins and eats fire with Jump-Start Performance Co. and teaches writing at Northwest Vista College. She is a recipient of artist awards from NALAC, Luminaria and the City of San Antonio.
- Roberto Livar ,San Antonio based musician, band-leader & organizer Roberto Livar is a unique Texas talent whose music mixes a wide range of musical genres with progressive frontera politics, leaving an audience informed and empowered wherever he travels. On stage he leads the 11-piece cumbia-funk band Bombasta, whose wild post-modern mix of traditional rhythms, horns, and electronics sounds loaded and dangerous. Off stage he can be found engaging and building with his community on multiple levels, most recently as the production director for the annual city-wide arts festival Luminaria, where he was responsible for coordinating all production and installations for the entire event attended by thousands.
