Episode 3: Should I or Shouldn't I Get an MFA?

Each city is its own ecosystem of artists, organizations, and revenue with particular notions of identity and value. For example, Austin is known as the music capital of Texas, but Houston boasts one of the largest & most diverse populations in the United States. Should a Houston musician move to Austin to capitalize on that reputation? Should any artist move to another city for the sake of their art? Artists can find success in either scenario dependent on several circumstances. We will have two guests to offer their experiences of moving to and/or staying in cities for their creative practice and succeeding as a result.

Ashley DeHoyos is a cultural producer and educator born and raised in Baytown, TX. She received a BFA from Sam Houston State University (2013) and MFA in Curatorial Practice from Maryland Institute College of Art (2016). As of 2018, they have served as the Curator at DiverseWorks in Houston, TX, where they have organizes a full range of visual, performing, and public arts programming. Through their curatorial practice, Dehoyos is focused on creating cultural platforms with intersectional perspectives and speculative futures as they relate to history and the environment. Recent projects include the performance Jefferson Pinder: Fire & Movement; the 2019 Bayou City Be All LGBTQ+ performance festival; and the group exhibition Collective Presence. In addition to their role as curator at DiverseWorks DeHoyos also manages the Diverse Discourse and The Idea Fund, a regranting program co-adminsitrated by DiverseWorks, Aurora Picture Show, and Project Row Houses, supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation.

Artist, Mario E. Figueroa, Jr., artistically known as GONZO247, was born and raised in Houston, Texas. He is a self-taught multidisciplinary artist with over 25 years of experience in street art, public, and private art commissions. Community involvement has been a considerable component of his activities as an artist. His experiences as a youth in the Houston community and his ancestors’ culture artistically inspire GONZO247. His early on admiration of the arts was the public art mural, The Rebirth of our Nationality (1973), by Leo Tanguma located in East End Houston, Texas, where he spent most of his childhood. He realized later on in life that the mural was the spark of his becoming a future artist. In his teens, he discovered and realized his artist identity through the visual language of Hip Hop, the graffiti art culture. The culture of Hip Hop was artistic expression by kids who were his age, and looked like him, more so than the examples he was being shown in school those days. He produced an Aerosol Warfare video series, established the Houston Wall of Fame in the 1990s (the city’s first and significant art production of its kind of that time), and has participated in projects working with top brand campaigns that speak to urban communities. He is known to be a key figure in pioneering the graffiti and street art culture as a leading underground art movement in Houston. Although he fully embraced, breathed, and participated in the Hip Hop culture, the primary element he practiced was graffiti art, and today he gives nod to his roots in his current works that have evolved overtime. In addition to public and private commissions, he strives to make time for independent studio work and on-going and longer-term collaborative endeavors through Aerosol Warfare, The Graffiti and Street Art Museum of Texas, and the Houston Urban Experience (HUE) Biennial Mural Festival. He continues to educate communities through civic art engagement, leading by example, and meaningful large-scale creative activities.

Intro music: "Ike is Gone" by Nick Gaitan.

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