3 minute read
CASETA 2023
CASETA 2023
Center for the Advancement & Study of Early Texas Art
Sandy and John Barnett
John is an avid art collector and serves on LMFA's Exhibition Committee.
As always, the 2023 CASETA Symposium and Texas Art Fair was a three-day event showcasing the best of Texas art and culture. The symposium featured lectures, panel discussions, workshops, and tours led by experts and scholars on various topics related to Texas art history, preservation, and education. The 2023 CASETA event offered a unique opportunity to browse and buy artworks from galleries specializing in Texas art from the early 19th century to the present. Texas A&M University Press was on hand to help complete your art book, artist biography and 1st edition collections. The event was held at San Antonio’s Witte Museum from June 9 - 11, 2023.
This gathering never fails to amaze me. Over the last five years, I’ve made lasting friendships and continued to learn about my own collection and the amazing people that made it, preserved it and continue to research and keep texas art alive and viable.
CASETA organizers always gather speakers who are passionate about their subject and engage with the audience in follow up Q&A sessions. All were filmed and will eventually be available on YouTube this fall or winter. For information about this and future CASETA symposiums, visit www.caseta.org.
My wife’s favorite was Judy Deaton, Chief Curator of The Grace Museum in Abilene. Her presentation revealed a collective of artists from the 1960’s that first engaged in trying to amuse each other with everyday items. This is not collage art but is known as assemblage art. Over time, their efforts reveal an intellect and purpose in their unique forms and presentation known as Jomo Boards.
I appreciated the recent focus of Michael Grauer, the Chair of Cowboy Culture and Curator of Cowboy Collections & Western Art, National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum located in Oklahoma City, regarding his presentation of the importance and overlooked talent of Texas women artists. Often taking the back seat and support role to their male counterparts, his 2023 presentation of the life and times of Florence Elliott White McClung, reveals the mindset and accepted gender rolls indicative of the times these women (and men) were born in. He is a welcomed revelator of women artists past and hopefully yet to be revealed.
