Dear College of Fine Arts Faculty and Staff,
After almost three decades of service at UT, Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion John Yancey will retire on Aug. 31. Please join me in thanking John for his extraordinary service in our college, as a faculty member, department chair and a critical leader on issues around diversity, equity and inclusion.
The College of Fine Arts is firmly committed to the diversity, equity and inclusion portfolio and the work it advances in our community. We’ll be working on interim and more permanent appointment plans for this position in the coming weeks and will be in touch with an update soon.
John joined the Department of Art and Art History 29 years ago as a faculty member in the Studio Art division. He’s served in multiple administrative and leadership roles in the department, first as associate chair and later as department chair. In partnership with the dean, faculty and staff, some of the key accomplishments during his time leading the department include:
- Creating new programs, such as the Center for Latin American Visual Studies and overseeing exciting new faculty hires that diversified both faculty demographics and disciplinary concentrations to expand beyond the Eurocentric focus on art
- With the dean, provost, key faculty and staff, the creation of the Casa Herrera center for research and teaching in Antigua, Guatemala
- Kickstarting a complete revision of the department’s core curriculum program to better serve and prepare students for their academic and professional trajectories
- The renovation of the gallery spaces to create the Visual Arts Center in 2010 after the Blanton Museum opened and moved their galleries to their new building.
- Establishing the Courtyard Gallery in the AT&T Hotel and Conference Center, which showcases artwork of alumni of the department
- Construction of a new administrative suite and new graduate studios in Art Building
- Procuring funding to renovate the suite in the Doty Fine Arts Building for Art History faculty
As a professor, he’s been honored with multiple teaching awards, including the Texas Exes Teaching Excellence Award and the Dad’s Centennial Teaching Award. Other awards include the Co-op Creative Research Excellence Award and the Texas Exes Legacy Award from the Texas Exes Black Alumni Steering Committee.
His artistic practice focuses on three main areas: paintings and drawings; community-based mural painting; and ceramic tile mosaic public art works. He directed his first community-based mural in 1976 and has completed numerous public art projects and commissions since that time. His murals are extensively featured in Walls of Heritage, Walls of Pride: African American Murals 1850–1995 by Robin Dunitz and James Prighoff, Urban Art: Chicago by Olivia Gude and Jeff Huebner and Austin Urban Art by J Muzacz. His most recent projects include permanent public artworks in the Stop Six community in the City of Fort Worth’s Rosedale Park, the Austin Convention Center and the monumental history and culture art wall “Rhapsody” that occupies the Charles Urdy Plaza at 11th and Waller streets as part of the restoration and revitalization of this historic street on Austin's East Side.
Throughout his career, John has been a true leader in our college’s efforts around diversity, equity and inclusion. In 2012, he co-chaired the college’s newly created Fine Arts Diversity Committee, which was charged with creating a strategic plan to address issues around diversity in the college—the first of its kind at the college level at UT. Over two years, the committee conducted a climate survey and organized focus groups and interviews with internal stakeholders to inform the strategic plan. In 2014, the College of Fine Arts Diversity Strategic Plan outlined goals in three focused areas: Culture & Climate, Recruitment & Retention and Curriculum & Creative Programming. Then-Dean Dempster charged the committee with carrying out the goals set forth in the strategic plan, an effort John has led for many years.
In July 2020, John was appointed to the newly created role of associate dean of diversity, equity and inclusion in the college.
He’s been an invaluable advisor to me in my first year as dean, as his institutional knowledge and memory are both broad and deep. I’m especially grateful to him for chairing the search committee to recruit four senior faculty members in a cluster hire organized around the theme Expanding Approaches to American Art and Design. This transformational hiring initiative in our college will help expand our disciplinary practices and open new connections between disciplines.
Please join me in expressing warmest congratulations and gratitude to John for his incredible service to the College of Fine Arts community in his extraordinary career at the university.
Sincerely,
