Trinity Announces Fall 2025 Festival of the Arts

When the leaves start to change color, the spirit of the arts and humanities will fill the air at Trinity University.  

From November 6-15, the University will host its third annual Trinity University Festival of the Arts. Trinity students, faculty, staff, and members of the public are invited to attend a series of events across campus that highlight the University’s deep connection to the arts across disciplines and forms of expression.

“Since its founding in 2023, the annual Trinity University Festival of the Arts has brought the Trinity community together not just to appreciate the arts and humanities but also to engage with them through meaningful dialogue, critical thinking, and vibrant creativity,” says Rubén Dupertuis, Ph.D., dean of the newly named Carlos Alvarez School of Arts and Humanities.“These events remind us how the arts and humanities are the cornerstone of a liberal arts education.”

A liberal arts education is marked by richly interconnected ideas, images, stories, and sounds that create meaning and community. The Trinity University Festival of the Arts expands these connections beyond the classroom. While students, faculty, and guests at Trinity create richly meaningful work in all areas of the arts throughout the academic year, the Trinity University Festival of the Arts combines many of these events into one dedicated week of programming.

The Trinity University Festival of the Arts is free and open to the public. Mark your calendars for the following key events, and visit gotu.us/tufa to explore the rest of the lineup.

Thursday, November 6

Danville Chadbourne Exhibition Opening Reception & TUFA Opening Reception | 4-7 p.m. | Dickie-Smith 1st Floor Foyer

Trinity University’s Department of Art and Art History presents Danville Chadbourne: Mysterious Conjunction New and Old Works. Before the reception, join us in the gallery for an artist talk from 4-5 p.m. 

Thursday, November 6 to Saturday, November 15

Danville Chadbourne: Mysterious Conjunction New and Old Works Exhibit | 1-5 p.m. | Michael and Noémi Neidorff Art Gallery

Trinity University’s Department of Art and Art History presents Danville Chadbourne: Mysterious Conjunction New and Old Works. A cornerstone of exhibition, this collection showcases Chadbourne’s art from the past five decades. The exhibition is free and open to the public.

Primarily a sculptor in clay and wood, Chadbourne works in a wide range of materials in both two- and three-dimensional formats. Over the years, he has created a complex body of work unified by a primal iconography and an artifact-like quality that emerges from a very personal and consistent formal aesthetic and philosophical sense. The richness of Chadbourne's iconography, nuanced sense of color, expansive sculptural conception, and insistence on craftsmanship are rooted in his keen observations and deep contemplation of the driving forces of both nature and human nature. 

Friday, November 7

Voice Area Recitals | 5:30-7 p.m. and 7:30-9 p.m. | Ruth Taylor Recital Hall

The Trinity Music Department presents the Fall 2025 Voice Area Recitals, featuring the students of music professors Natalie Baker, Chia-wei Lee, D.M.A., and Jacquelyn Matava, D.M.A., with pianist Zachary Ridgway, D.M.A..

Autumn Festival Art Market | 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Magic Stones

The Trinity Art Collective returns to the Trinity University Festival of the Arts with its student art market, bigger and better than ever before! Please stop by to browse the works of up to 50 student artists, artisans, and creators.

Friday, November 7 to Saturday, November 15

Trinity Theatre presents Cabaret by Joe Mastroff | Various Times | Stieren Theater

Originally produced on Broadway in 1966 and updated in a 1998 revival, Kander and Ebb’s Cabaret explores the dark and tumultuous lives of Berlin’s natives and expatriates as Germany slowly yields to the emerging Third Reich. The story follows two couples: Clifford Bradshaw, an American writer who falls for British cabaret performer Sally Bowles; and Fraulein Schneider, a boarding house proprietor, who begins a romance with Herr Schultz, a mild-mannered fruit seller who happens to be Jewish. Meanwhile, the emcee at the hedonistic Kit Kat Klub invites the audience to forget their troubles because “life is a cabaret, old chum!”

Monday, November 10

Handbell "Musical Petting Zoo" | 12:30-1:30 p.m. | Murchison Tower Courtyard

The Trinity Handbell Ensemble will set up a “petting zoo” of its instruments in the Parker Chapel Courtyard, so that all students, regardless of music background or ability, can take a few minutes to make some beautiful noise. All are welcome to put their hands on the bells, chimes, boomwhackers, and other small percussion instruments and see what happens. There will be games to try and prizes to win. The fun starts with something different being rung by the Murchison Tower bells!

Tuesday, November 11

Film screening and conversation with documentarian Curtis Chin | 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. | Dicke Hall 108

During the event there will be a screening of two of Curtis Chin's documentaries Warren King: King of Cardboard and Dear Corky. Immediately following the screenings, Chin will conduct a Q&A.

A co-founder of the Asian American Writers’ Workshop in New York City, Curtis Chin served as the nonprofit’s first executive director. He went on to write comedy for network and cable television before transitioning to social justice documentaries. Chin has screened his films at more than 600 venues in 20 countries. He has written for CNN, Bon Appétit, the Detroit Free Press, and the Boston Globe’s The Emancipator. A graduate of the University of Michigan, Chin has received awards from Disney Entertainment Television, the New York Foundation for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, and more. His memoir, Everything I Learned, I Learned in a Chinese Restaurant, was published in the fall of 2023, garnering national attention.  

Wednesday, November 12

Trinity Faculty Reading of Poetry and Prose | 5-6 p.m. | RTT 113

Enjoy a joint reading of poetry and prose by Trinity faculty authors.

Lennox Seminar Series presents Mark Menjivar for “Participatory Art and Social Action” | 6:30-8 p.m. | Mabee Auditorium

Mark Menjívar is a San Antonio-based artist and associate professor in the Interdisciplinary School for Engagement at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His art practice primarily consists of creating participatory projects and is rooted in photography, oral history, archives, and social action. Mark is a long-time artistic collaborator with the After Violence Project, a public memory archive that fosters deeper understandings of the impacts of state violence. He is also a member of Borderland Collective, which utilizes collaborations between artists, educators, youth, and community members to engage with complex issues and build space for diverse perspectives, meaningful dialogue, and modes of creation around border issues.

Thursday, November 13

Trinity Student Reading | 5-6 p.m. | RTT 113

Enjoy a joint reading of poetry, prose, and other creative work by Trinity student writers. The reading will be followed by an open mic from 6-6:30 p.m., which is free and open to all.