SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 680
WHEREAS, The Texas Commission on the Arts has announced the
2016 appointments for the positions of State Poet Laureate, State
Musician, State Two-Dimensional Artist, and State
Three-Dimensional Artist; and
WHEREAS, The state's highest accolade for excellence in the
arts, designation as a Texas State Artist is conferred on those
individuals who represent the best of our rich and diverse
artistic community and who inspire others through their unique
creative expression; and
WHEREAS, San Antonio native Laurie Ann Guerrero has been
named the 2016 State Poet Laureate; while an undergraduate at
Smith College, she received the prestigious Academy of American
Poets Prize, and her first full-length collection of poems, A
Tongue in the Mouth of the Dying, was selected for the 2012 Andrés
Montoya Poetry Prize and an International Latino Book Award and
was chosen as one of 14 must-read works of Chicano literature by
Rigoberto González; she has also been recognized with the
Panhandler Chapbook Award and with grants from the Artist
Foundation of San Antonio and the Alfredo Cisneros del Moral
Foundation, and she was appointed poet laureate of San Antonio by
Mayor Julian Castro in 2014; her latest book, A Crown for
Gumecindo, was released by Aztlan Libre Press in April 2015; and
WHEREAS, The 2016 State Musician is Joe Ely, an Americana
music pioneer whose songs are infused with a mixture of rock,
country, blues, and folk influences; over the course of his
four-decade career, he has performed thousands of shows
worldwide and has been honored with a Grammy Award, a Country
Music Association Award, and the Americana Music Association's
Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance; he has further
distinguished himself through his collaboration in the country
supergroup The Flatlanders, which includes fellow songwriters
Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock; and
WHEREAS, Dornith Doherty has been selected as the 2016
State Two-Dimensional Artist; born in Houston, she has produced
an impressive body of work that has been exhibited and collected
across the globe, and she is widely known for her examinations of
the relationship between the natural environment and human
agency; moreover, she was named a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial
Foundation Fellow in 2012 and has received grants from the
Fulbright Program, the Japan Foundation, the Society for
Contemporary Photography, the Indiana Arts Commission, and the
United States Department of the Interior; today, she serves as
the Distinguished Research Professor of Art at the University of
North Texas; and
WHEREAS, Named the 2016 State Three-Dimensional Artist,
Dario Robleto is an Artist Research Fellow at Rice University; he
uses esoteric materials and processes to create sculptures,
prints, and installations that investigate unexplored corners of
history, art, and science; since 1997, his work has been featured
in more than 30 solo exhibitions, the most recent of which were
held at the Menil Collection and Inman Gallery in Houston and at
the Baltimore Museum of Art, and he was awarded the 2011
Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, the 2009 USA Rasmuson
Fellowship, and the 2007 Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant; and
WHEREAS, The artists who have been selected to hold these
prestigious posts have all greatly contributed to the vibrant
cultural life of the Lone Star State, and Texas is indeed
fortunate to be home to these talented individuals; now,
therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the Senate of the State of Texas, 84th
Legislature, hereby congratulate the 2016 Texas Commission on
the Arts honorees and extend to them sincere best wishes for
continued fulfillment in their creative endeavors.
Menéndez
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President of the Senate
I hereby certify that the
above Resolution was adopted by
the Senate on May 4, 2015.
________________________________
Secretary of the Senate
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Member, Texas Senate