{"id":194767,"date":"2026-03-07T15:07:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-07T15:07:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/194767\/"},"modified":"2026-03-07T15:07:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T15:07:10","slug":"dallas-contemporary-awards-8000-to-unt-graduate-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/194767\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Contemporary Awards $8,000 to UNT Graduate Student"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas Contemporary (DC) has announced the recipient of its second annual NTX Graduate Program Award. The $8,000 award is given to an artist chosen from among the cohort of North Texas university students in the program\u2019s annual exhibition at the noncollecting contemporary art museum.<\/p>\n

Anna Katz, Senior Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles and guest curator for the 2026 exhibition, titled In the Works<\/a>, selected sculptor Nadin Nassar of the University of North Texas (UNT) to receive the award.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>Nadin Nassar with her artwork in the \u201cIn the Works\u201d exhibition at Dallas Contemporary. Photo: Kevin Todora for Dallas Contemporary<\/p>\n

Nassar was born in Cairo, Egypt, and received her BFA from the University of Houston (UH) and is preparing for her MFA thesis exhibition at UNT. Both universities are embroiled in controversies surrounding censorship and free expression, with UH faculty asked to avoid controversial subject matter<\/a> in their teaching, and UNT students engaged in ongoing protests over the cancellation of an art exhibition<\/a> on the lived experience of Latinos in the U.S. at their university.<\/p>\n

The press release announcing Ms. Nassar\u2019s award notes that she is among UNT students refusing to show their thesis work at the university<\/a> over free speech concerns: \u201cAs a result, Nassar and her peers are currently without a venue to publicly present their MFA thesis work and are actively seeking spaces in which to present their graduate exhibitions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

As described in the press release, Ms. Nassar\u2019s sculpture i was liberated, i was free, i was everything you told me i wouldn\u2019t be \/ AMERIKKKA\u2019S FREEDOM FORN\u2019T ALL (2025), in the In the Works exhibition, involves a faceless figure with hijab removed, \u201cwhile its hollow counterpart sits beside it, doubling the body and its absence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Regarding her selection for the NTX Graduate Program Award, Ms. Nassar spoke of the grant giving her the freedom to continue in her work despite obstacles. \u201cIn a moment when empathy and attention feel unevenly distributed, this recognition reminds me that the hardships and doubt in the studio are not in vain. I feel so unstoppable now. I just want to make, make, make,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

According to DC, the award is meant to help an outstanding student in the transition from school to their independent art career, and \u201creflects [the museum\u2019s] belief that a supported local artistic ecosystem benefits all levels of civic and cultural life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year\u2019s recipient, multimedia installation artist Elijah Ruhula of Texas Christian University (TCU), was selected by Matthew Higgs, the inaugural NTX Graduate Program guest curator, for a solo exhibition at White Columns<\/a> in New York, which Mr. Higgs directs. Mr. Ruhala is represented by Talley Dunn Gallery in Dallas.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the Works remains on view at Dallas Contemporary through Sunday, March 15. Learn more about the artists in the exhibition here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Contemporary (DC) has announced the recipient of its second annual NTX Graduate Program Award. The $8,000 award…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194768,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[77206,102,77207,104,103,77208,77209,77210,77211,77212,355,513,398,77213],"class_list":["post-194767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-anna-katz","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-contemporary","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-dc-ntx-graduate-student-program","tag-elijah-ruhala","tag-matthew-higgs","tag-museum-of-contemporary-art-in-los-angeles","tag-nadin-nassar","tag-texas-christian-university","tag-university-of-houston","tag-university-of-north-texas","tag-white-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194767"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194767\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}