The Southwest School of Art has announced that its academic director, San Antonio artist Justin Boyd, is a recipient of the 2018-2019 Emerging Arts Administration Fellowship from the National Council of Arts Administrators (NCAA). The fellowship comes with a one-year membership to the organization along with access to its members, who act as mentors to its fellows. The award also includes the opportunity to present at the NCAA’s annual conference, a program that convenes the organization’s members to foster discussion around what it means to be an effective arts administrator.
Boyd has long been an active member of the Texas art scene. He has had solo shows at Blue Star Contemporary, Lawndale Art Center, the Southwest School of Art, Artpace, The Old Jail Art Center, and The Visual Art Center at UT Austin. In 2015, he completed Play, a public artwork for San Antonio’s Hemisfair Park. He has also performed at numerous venues, including Arthouse (now The Contemporary Austin), the Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Sala Diaz, and No Idea Festival, among others. Boyd told Glasstire of his award:
“I was honored to be nominated and very excited to receive the Emerging Arts Administration Fellowship. I am taking up the Academic Director position to help work on our accreditation and academic goals. The NCAA conference will help to introduce me to mentors and colleagues who have been where we are. I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can and applying it to the good work to be done here at SSA.”
Kevin Conlon, the Southwest School of Art’s Provost and Vice President of Finance, commented on Boyd’s process and contributions to the school as an administrator:
“We are so glad that Justin has been recognized for his work. He continues to impress me with his approach to this thing we call administration. It’s such a alien word, but he very naturally extends this idea of creativity into the role. What that means, is that he’s approaching it as an artist might, with curiosity and an open mind. From that curiosity, he asks great questions and then experiments and prototypes his ideas. Afterward, we reflect on the outcome through a process that feels very much like critique. It’s extremely collaborative and will serve both him and Southwest School of Art very well!”
Other national 2018-2019 Emerging Arts Administration Fellowship awardees include:
Bree Edwards, Director of the Northeastern Center for the Arts’ College of Arts, Media and Design at Northeastern University
Pia Johnson, Co-Owner of Good Details Gallery, Chicago
Sandra Murchison, Director of the School of Art & Design at Eastern Michigan University
Brooke White, Assistant Chair and Professor Department of Art & Art History at the University of Mississippi
Paige Williams, Chair of the Studio Art Program at the Art Academy of Cincinnati
2018-2019 Emerging Arts Administration Fellows will attend the 2018 NCAA Annual Conference from September 26-29 at the Kendall College of Art and Design of Ferris State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
To learn more about Justin Boyd, go here.