February 07, 2024

Congressman Castro Announces $25,000 for UTSA Exhibition Featuring Texas-Based Printmaker Delita Martin

WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20) announced that his office secured a $25,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the University of Texas at San Antonio to hold a solo exhibition by Delita Martin, a master printmaker known for creating representations of Black women in complex and luxuriant narrative portraits.

Delita Martin is an artist currently based in Huffman, Texas. She received a BFA in drawing from Texas Southern University and an MFA in printmaking from Purdue University. Formerly a member of the fine arts faculty at University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Martin currently works as a full-time artist in her studio, Black Box Press Studio.

“As we kick off Black History Month, I’m proud to have gotten this funding to support this important retrospective for Delita Martin, a Texas-based printmaker and visionary artist,” said Congressman Joaquin Castro. “Black artists have had a distinct role in shaping our country’s history and culture, but they’re not always given the opportunities for representation they deserve. I’m glad that through this grant, UTSA will be able to share works from Martin’s acclaimed career with our San Antonio community.”

“Delita Martin’s work welcomes all viewers to consider how we engage with others and how actual—and even imagined—conversations with friends and loved ones may influence our present-day lives and futures,” said Dr. Scott Sherer, Director of Galleries and Professor of Art History in the UTSA School of Art. “Martin’s dynamic emphasis on the experiences of Black women contributes to important efforts to diversify the contexts of cultural programs for everyone.”

The exhibition, which runs through March 22, 2024 in the Russell Hill Rogers Galleries at the UTSA Southwest Campus, features a retrospective of Delita Martin’s career with an interactive installation. The exhibition can be viewed between 12 p.m. and 5 p.m. The Galleries will be closed during Spring Break, March 9 – 17. For more information, click here.

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