STC’s She Roars art exhibit highlights social awareness

MCALLEN, TEXAS – South Texas College continues to celebrate Women’s History Month by recognizing women’s contributions to the humanities through a partnership series of lectures, workshops and exhibitions. 

The STC Library Services and Art Department, in collaboration with community partners at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, International Museum of Art & Science and the McAllen Public Library, collectively presented the “She Roars” series this month. 

“The beauty we see in successful collaborations is that we can create programs with more creativity and significant impact than we could've achieved on our own,” said STC Library Art Gallery Coordinator Gina Otvos. “We hope the exhibition, art talks and workshops inspire students and community members to think deeply and collaboratively to create solutions for our community.” 

The program was made possible in part by a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. 

The STC Art Department recently hosted an opening reception for “The Guerrilla Girls: The Art of Behaving Badly” exhibition as part of the She Roars series. The exhibition will be on view at the Pecan campus, Building B gallery until Wednesday, April 5. 

The Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous collective of artists who, since 1985, have utilized humor and stark visuals to spread awareness about the bias within art, film and popular culture to ignite the sparks of social change. To this day the artists continue to hide their identities behind gorilla masks and use the names of late artists such as Käthe Kollwitz, Frida Kahlo, Rosa Bonheur and Eva Hesse. 

STC Art student Maria Cruz said she attended the exhibit with friends because she wanted to see how art can be a bridge between creativity and social issues. 

“As artists, we’re trying to see how other artwork can help raise awareness,” Cruz said. “Art can bring people together and be a way for them to see what problems are going on, and what may be the solution to them.” 

A “Guerrilla Girls Talk” lecture with the artist who goes by Käthe Kollwitz was held the same evening as the exhibit reception. 

“Attendees expressed a tremendous amount of gratitude for being able to share and create with an internationally known artist and icon who has dedicated her life to addressing social inequality through the use of art,” Otvos said. 

Fatima Torres, a Computer Science major at STC, said she was inspired by her art instructor, Alexis Ramos, to attend the event. She learned about the Guerrilla Girls through her art class and wanted to share the experience with her younger sister, Isabella. 

Torres said she appreciated how open the artist was to questions and discussion. 

“I'm really big on viewing and appreciating art so I took the opportunity to come tonight,” Torres said. “I didn't want to miss out on the chance to hear directly from one of the artists.” 

Guerrilla Girl Kollwitz said she has an appreciation for community colleges because of the schools’ affordability and quality of educators. 

“I've met the most incredible artists, teachers, activists of all ages and from all places,” she said. “I've been here one day, and it seems to me you have a great thing going here. Everyone needs to keep pushing their ideas forward.” 

Alison Brovold, of McAllen, said when she saw the She Roars flyers in the community she knew she had to attend a few events. She thinks it’s important for artists to visit the Rio Grande Valley so they can also hear from the community and see what the people here have to offer. 

“I really feel like we have such authentic, powerful people who have been concerned with similar issues for so long, but we're not really on the map,” Brovold said. “I just love seeing people come and recognize that. I'm really proud to live here, and I'm happy for us to be seen.”