Emerging Voices at AMA

The Annual Juried UTA Student Exhibition, on view at the Arlington Museum of Art from October 30, 2025, through February 22, 2026, features work by 27 graduate and undergraduate students mastering a wide range of mediums, including bronze, blown glass, painting, photography, sculpture, and video art.

This year’s exhibition was juried and curated by Clare Milliken, Assistant Curator at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. Reviewing a wide range of submissions, Milliken identified a strong experimental spirit across the cohort. “Throughout this exhibition, there is a willingness to explore,” she noted. “The students are willing to test their ideas, push their materials, and take risks – traits that all artists need in their practices.”

Milliken was equally struck by the technical and conceptual rigor of the work. “I was impressed by the technical proficiency of the students across media,” she said, emphasizing that the UTA studio program “holistically nurtures their artists, from craft to concept.” Across mediums that students have mastered, she observed recurring investigations into the human condition, expressed through nostalgia, surrealist painting techniques, and deeply personal explorations of the artists’ internal landscapes.

For the second year, the exhibition at the Arlington Museum of Art was coordinated by UTA painting faculty Benjamin Terry, with support from the Department of Art & Art History. Reflecting on how this year’s presentation compares to last year’s iteration, Terry pointed to the influence of different curatorial perspectives. “Last year’s selection leaned toward pieces with a strong sense of political immediacy,” he explained. “This year, the chosen works feel more introspective, foregrounding material exploration and formal curiosity rather than overt messaging.”

Terry also noted shifts in installation strategy, with this year’s exhibition favoring more structured groupings and clearer separations between bodies of work. For him, the ongoing partnership between AMA and UTA remains deeply motivating. “It created an invaluable incentive for students to push toward ambitious, museum-ready work,” he said. “Helping the students access real professional exposure and watching them rise to the occasion is one of the most rewarding aspects of teaching. Having their art shown in a large, beautiful museum space, juried by practicing curators, is an experience that will stay with them for a long time.”

The collaboration has been equally meaningful for the Arlington Museum of Art. “Partnering with UTA is a beautiful reflection of our belief in the next generation of artists,” said Hayden Howe, Exhibition Coordinator at the AMA. “Each work on view carries the voice of a young creator with something meaningful to say, and we’re so proud to give those voices a space to be heard.”

Open to the public, the UTA Annual Juried Student exhibition invites visitors to experience the breadth of contemporary student practice and the evolving conversations taking shape within UTA’s art studios. This initiative offers a compelling snapshot of emerging artistic voices in North Texas today.

Visit exhibition:
October 30, 2025 - February 22, 2026
Arlington Museum of Art - HELP Center Gallery
visit

Participating artists:
Sitar Balaban, Keila Beaty, David Cruz, Paula Currie, NoVa De Vries, Lucas Fitzparick, Brianna Gilpin, Emely Guerrero, Grace Hays, Marbella Hernandez, Vicente Hernandez, Chan Kim America Luna, Cecilia Mendoza, Janice Montes, Yasmine Muhammad, Slavi Nightingale, Conrad Nkamwesiga, Erin O’Brien, Amelia Pence, Sumaya Rahman, Cara Robbins, Tyson Shepherd, Emelie Stenhammar, Sean Suggs, Lauren Tallman, Emma Valenzuela, Phoenix Warren.