“Under the Radar,鈥� the group show at Williams Tower Gallery this fall, contained such a range of works it almost appeared random.聽 A casual visitor might have wondered how a large, wreathlike work made of plastic water bottles relates to abstract paintings, portraits of characters with tattoos, inky drawings of animals, a vitrine of quirky mixed-media objects and edgy ceramic sculpture. The show offered a glimpse of one of the most surprising developments on the Houston art scene in years. The works were by graduate students at Houston Baptist University, a school that barely had an undergraduate art program a decade ago.
Curator Sally Sprout is a friend of Michael Roque Collins, the program鈥檚 director. 鈥淗is boundless enthusiasm about the program is hard to deny,鈥� she said. Still, she was surprised by the work she discovered during studio visits at the campus鈥� three-year-old arts building.聽 鈥淚t鈥檚 an emerging program, distinctly different from what you would see at the University of Houston,鈥� Sprout said. 鈥淭he UH kids have been around the block; they鈥檙e hip. At HBU, they seem a little more innocent. Maybe it鈥檚 the mind-set of the school.鈥澛� Collins said he happily left a tenure-track job at Texas Tech University in Lubbock to rekindle HBU鈥檚 oncesleepy undergraduate art program when the prominent theologian Robert B. Sloan Jr. became president in 2006. 鈥淢y friends at Baylor thought the world of him,鈥� Collins said.聽 A pedigreed painter with a mile-long r茅sum茅, Collins grew up among Houston鈥檚 art elite. 鈥淚鈥檝e been painting since Methuselah in this city,鈥� he quipped.
His father, Lowell Collins, was a dean of the Houston Museum School, the precursor to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston鈥檚 Glassell School. His mother, Glinda Gayle Simpson Pritchett, managed an art gallery. The legendary John Biggers was among the family鈥檚 close friends.聽 Michael Collins also has a magnetic personality; he鈥檚 more likely to give you a bear hug than a handshake the first time you meet. He turned on that charm full-throttle for HBU, recruiting top-flight artists to teach 鈥� among them the painter, curator and widely published author Jim Edwards, co-author of the recent Texas Abstract; UH alum Laura Kreft; German sculptor Hans Molzberger; and art historian David Brauer.
Collins and his colleagues had the school鈥檚 undergraduate program running by 2008. They launched the graduate program in 2011 with three students. This year it has 22, from a field of more than 40 applicants, Collins said. That鈥檚 just less than half the number of graduate students in the University of Houston鈥檚 studio art and art history programs.聽 鈥淲e鈥檙e kind of an equal opportunity provider for the master of fine arts degree,鈥� Collins said. He attributes that program鈥檚 鈥渕eteoric鈥� growth to professional need. 鈥淭here are people that come out of undergraduate programs, maybe UH or St. Thomas, and they don鈥檛 want to go back to the same school for an MFA,鈥� he said. Space has become tight, but each graduate art student has a studio in the school鈥檚 arts building.
Reflecting the campus at large, the art programs attract diverse students who are as likely to be Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist as Christian. The graduate students are also diverse in other respects 鈥� aged 28 to 72, from all over the world and all walks of life. About two-thirds receive financial aid, and the school has begun to build endowed fellowships to support them.聽 While some of the school鈥檚 liberal arts program courses explore how art, philosophy and poetry plumb the soul through Christian themes, others have an aesthetic and intellectual viewpoint that demands students think for themselves.聽 Collins, Edwards and Kreft put all applicants through a two- or three-day interview. 鈥淲e鈥檙e essentially building a family here,鈥� Kreft said. 鈥淲e want to make sure everyone can finish the program.鈥� Collins said graduates emerge with powerful portfolios partly because the faculty delivers hard but positive criticism.
The masters program quickly became a force to watch in 鈥淩ising Eyes,鈥� an annual juried show at the Rockport Center for the Arts featuring works from the state鈥檚 19 graduate art programs. The school鈥檚 art students also frequently built installations Project Row Houses and win awards.聽 They鈥檙e making commercial inroads, too. Camille and Debra Samara, owners of the year-old contemporary artfocused Samara Gallery on Main Street, have snapped up several HBU alums including Rachel Gardner, Carlos Canul and Abidemi Olowonira, whose first solo show was on view there this past fall. Their holiday show will featured small works by HBU students. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a hidden treasure over there,鈥� Camille Samara said.聽 He and his wife sought out Olowonira at the urging of the collector and dealer Gus Kopriva. On their first visit to the school鈥檚 studios, they also signed on Canul and Lesley Anne Walker. And they presented a show by Moltzberger in February 2015. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a great source of good art, and it鈥檚 been successful,鈥� Samara said. 鈥淭he work sells. We couldn鈥檛 be happier.鈥�
Olowonira, a Nigerian native who stitches works together from shards of leather and fur, has a drawing degree from Texas Southern University but realized he needed a master鈥檚 because many galleries require it. Those two years of rigorous focus at HBU helped him develop a work ethic that might be more important than the degree itself, he said. He worked closest with Holtzberger, who helped him build welding skills, but all the HBU faculty were supportive, he said.聽 Kreft feels HBU鈥檚 program is at 鈥渁n absolutely beautiful place at a moment in time where everything is working.鈥� She makes sure students are exposed not just to Houston鈥檚 large and varied art scene but also to things happening around the state. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not an island over here,鈥� Kreft said.聽 The HBU art faculty also leads by example. Their work was recently featured in a group show at Texas A&M University. The prolific Collins also had a solo show, 鈥淪ojourn in the Shadowlands,鈥� at the Holocaust Museum Houston this winter and a retrospective, shared with his late father, which opened in January and runs through April 5 at Allen Center Gallery.
Collins said while his exhibition record and Edwards鈥� reputation as a curator and author may be helping to propel the school鈥檚 street cred, their program is succeeding because 鈥� as Sprout noticed 鈥� it is closeknit. Of course painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics and print-making are covered in-depth. But during a weekly reading day, graduate students also discuss their religious philosophies. And they share baked goods on 鈥減ie鈥� days.聽 鈥淚t鈥檚 a fertile territory,鈥� Collins said. 鈥淐ommunity is the key here. We care about each other.鈥� He鈥檚 not expecting masterpieces out of the gate.聽 鈥淭hey鈥檙e all hungry. I don鈥檛 think any one of them feels they鈥檝e done great work yet,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e tell them, 鈥榊ou鈥檒l probably be much older before you understand your life deeply enough to make something that鈥檚 truly profound…It鈥檚 the long haul that counts.鈥欌��