From Sept. 22- 29, academic departments will host art exhibitions, student projects and faculty panel discussions as part of TCU’s sesquicentennial celebration.  

Research and Creative Activities Week encourages students, alumni and faculty members to participate in creative and scholarly projects, said Brad Thompson, director of student activities.

“This is a great opportunity to showcase student research to a broader audience on campus,” said Thompson.

That audience is even broader this weekend.

“I especially like that this year we are connecting with Family Weekend, so students’ families can see the great work being done by students in the classroom,” he said.   

Kicking off the week on Sept. 22, a poster session will be held from 1-3 p.m. in the Brown Lupton University-Union ballroom. Undergraduate and graduate students as well as postdoctoral scholars, faculty and staff will showcase ongoing and completed research activities.  

“I am really looking forward to the poster presentations as we kick off Family Weekend,” said Thompson.  

What to see

The week will also include the exhibition “In Passing” by Vietnamese artists Ann Le and Trinh Mai and the TCU Wind Symphony Concert conducted by Bobbi Frances. There will also be an Entreneurship and Innovation Showcase.

The Vietnamese art exhibition will be open from Sept. 27-30 in the Fort Worth Contemporary Arts Gallery. Sara- Jayne Parsons, director and curator of the art galleries at TCU, reached out to guest curator Kim Phan Nguyen to organize the exhibit.  

“We were excited to work with Kim and support her research,” said Parsons. “We’re especially grateful that she introduced us to the work of Ann and Trinh.”

“It created an exhibition that features affective work and diverse perspectives,” Parsons added. “The show is such a unique experience for our students.”   

Nguyen appreciated how artists Le and Mai used different mediums to express their experiences as Vietnamese American women. While Le includes visual pieces from her father’s photography studio or family pictures to provide a sense of nostalgia in her art, Mai features labor and materials in her work to represent migration experiences.  

“I hope that people can find some sense of connection in this exhibition,” said Nguyen. “We’re offering a Vietnamese American perspective, but these experiences of tradition, pain and love are universal.”

“I believe we have this impulse to know who we are, and oftentimes the starting point is knowing where we came from,” added Nguyen.