Starship\u201d by MFA student Ashley Anika Herndon<\/a>. The event marked the first time a student-created piece has been featured on the campus billboard, and the first selected through a student voting system.\u00a0<\/p>\nAccording to the curator of Public Art for the University of Houston system Michael Guidry, the project reflects a new curatorial direction for the billboard project, which has existed since 2020. The shift places emphasis on student involvement in both the selection process and engagement with public art.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just walking around and seeing the work but also learning about how it\u2019s made, how we select the artist, really demystifying the process,\u201d Guidry said.<\/p>\n
Full-time students were invited to vote from a selection of 5 finalists for the billboard project, and Herndon\u2019s piece received more than 32% of the vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to make it democratic so that the whole community would have a voice in the art instead of us making the decisions all the time,\u201d Guidry said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Herndon celebrates \u201cStarship\u201d as a piece for the UH community but also a reflection of her broader practices and artistic upbringing. Growing up as a military kid, she said art became a form of stability as she frequently moved. Themes of space and universal exploration appear in \u201cStarship\u201d as a way to describe Herndon\u2019s internal reflections.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all sitting on this big rock that\u2019s hurling through space, so it gives us this community here on earth,\u201d Herndon said. \u201cI\u2019m constantly thinking about the moon, stars, planets, starships and all that comes through in my work.\u201d<\/p>\n
For \u201cStarship,\u201d\u00a0Herndon combined existing pieces in a form of digital collage using various artistic software. She also made certain choices to help integrate the piece into the campus space.<\/p>\n
\u201cI really wanted it to be site-specific,\u201d Herndon said. \u201cUH students have a hustle about them. I often see them running to class, so I wanted those geometric shapes to be sharp and colorful. I also incorporated red in my piece to integrate it into that UH color scheme.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yogita Pal, a recent materials science PhD graduate student who attended the Billboard Bash, says her studies in the STEM field also parallel the artistic work of Herndon.<\/p>\n
\u201cI see science as an art,\u201d Pal said. \u201cIf you really do it with all your heart, your science flows so well. Otherwise, it will not work. Like the artist\u2019s heart has to be involved in their work, the scientist\u2019s heart has to be involved as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Suman Rai, a third-year biology and biochemistry doctoral student, says the piece resonated with her interpretation of growth and progress.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I first saw this billboard, the first thing I saw was the small ladder in the piece showing that we are climbing somewhere,\u201d Rai said. \u201cI see that I\u2019m stepping up on that ladder, slowly, and there is a starship and I am going somewhere. The girl in front of the ladder feels like celebrating a victory and that there is an end goal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Herndon\u2019s intention with the billboard was for viewers to slow down and understand the person they are becoming. It was important for her that the artwork read quickly, almost like a logo in its simplicity and abstract design.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an incredibly pivotal moment for students, so I wanted to remind people of this incredible person that they\u2019re becoming at UH or any college campus,\u201d Herndon said. \u201cWhile you\u2019re literally running to class, you can see the piece and remind yourself that \u2018I\u2019m a person that\u2019s transforming, I\u2019m a person that\u2019s changing, I\u2019m a person that\u2019s approaching something new\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
news@thedailycougar.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ashley Anike Herndon\u2019s art debuted at 2026 Billboard Bash, on Thursday, April 2, 2026, in Houston, Texas. |…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[6595,1086,56,58,57,32065],"class_list":{"0":"post-238947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-campus","10":"tag-houston","11":"tag-houston-headlines","12":"tag-houston-news","13":"tag-mural"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238947","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=238947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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