THE AWAKENING LIGHT WILL BATHE SLUMBERS (2025) 

ARTIST BIO

Mena Massey is a Senior currently pursuing a Painting BFA at UH. Mena works with mixed media to create figurative dreamscapes that depict scenes from memory and fantasy. Often within her practice Mena is working in themes of yearning and remembrance. Trying to capture fleeting moments that feel symbolic and foretelling. Primarily working with acrylic paint, she also creates textural grounds from sand, paper and cardboard that allow her to experiment with different surfaces and color fields for her subject matter to live within. For her dreamscapes, it’s important to her narrative that these compositions have a busy ground to work off of, allowing deeper atmospheric space to house these fantasies.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Mena Massey’s paintings live within moments of what once was and what can never be. She balances themes from memory and fantasy to capture moments of yearning and fear. There always seems to be a precipice of momentum frozen within her paintings that makes the viewer wonder what comes next. Mena relies heavily on texture to push these narratives, either allowing it to guide her subject matter or present another layer of depth within the works. These dreamscapes developed from a need of understanding her emotions and making sense of dramatic nightmares, questioning whether it was a warning or memory. Omens of fantasies beckoning comprehension. For what will become a reality and what will stay imagined.

This Student Art Exhibit will run from October 1 – November 30, 2025.  The Jenkins Architecture, Design and Art Library is open Mon-Fri, 8 AM – 6 PM.  Come by and take a look as we continue to highlight the many creative and inspiring artists within the UH community.  If you know of any student wanting to exhibit their work, please guide them to the following URL where information and a submittal form can be found: https://libraries.uh.edu/jenkins/student-art-exhibit

University of Houston Libraries honored outstanding employees at the 2025 Library Excellence Awards this week. Now in its 25^th year, the event, held at the MD Anderson Library Elizabeth D. Rockwell Pavilion, recognizes the special work and talent of UH librarians and staff. The annual tradition is supported through the generosity of the John P. McGovern Foundation.

Interim dean Christina Gola opened the garden party-themed celebration with gratitude for the many individuals who helped produce the awards event, including all nominators, members of the awards committee, members of the employee engagement committee, and facilities staff. Libraries student employees who won scholarships for the upcoming academic year were also acknowledged.

The Dean’s Advocate Award went to Terri Batiste of UH Human Resources. This award recognizes a UH employee from outside UH Libraries who has worked closely with the Libraries during the past year.  Batiste collaborated with the Libraries Organizational Development team to provide invaluable assistance with specialized leave scenarios, including Family Medical Leave requests and authorizations. Her dedication ensures that requestors, the Organizational Development team, and supervisors understand the complex FML process and navigate it with ease. 

The Student Achievement awards were presented to Rebecca Fox and Chelsea Dzu, two Coogs whose superior performance demonstrates their commitment to carrying out the Libraries’ mission for UH. Fox is recognized for her exceptional job performance and skill set. Her keen judgment and problem-solving abilities have earned the trust of her supervisors, who have asked her to take on progressive responsibilities as a student lead.

Dzu is described as an exemplary employee in the William R. Jenkins Architecture, Design, and Art Library. She is a self-starter who is curious by nature and has a positive impact on others. She took the lead in creating a workgroup chat for student employees for updates and to ensure coverage at Jenkins Library.

This year’s McGovern Outstanding Student is May Le, who is described as dedicated, meticulous, and extremely dependable. She has been crucial to the success of the Jenkins Library, taking on key service and operational responsibilities after unexpected vacancies. Her expertise with systems such as WorldCat, Iliad, and the Avery Index has been a valuable resource.

Julia Dion is the McGovern Staff Rookie of the Year. Dion quickly became an integral part of the Special Collections team, making what can be a hectic department run smoothly. In addition to managing the reading room calendar, coordinating supply orders, and making the effort to give student workers quality learning opportunities, Dion leverages previous archives experience in training students on processing and serves as the point of contact for inquiries received via Archives Space and Texas Archival Resources Online.

The McGovern Librarian Rookie of the Year is Katy Allred. Previously, she was a processing archivist in Special Collections, and in her current role as assistant university archivist, Allred processes UH archival materials that have been prioritized for the upcoming Centennial. She is a trusted, supportive colleague who is known for her calm professionalism and great attention to detail, and is not intimidated by difficult projects.

Eric Larsen and Frederick Young received Staff Achievement awards. Larsen’s performance has been particularly meritorious over the past year in the Music Library. After the departure of the manager, he assumed oversight of the student leaders and managed successful continuity of services to the academic programs supported by the Music Library. Larsen brings a high level of excellence to his role, seeking opportunities to learn, grow, and contribute, and providing wisdom and enthusiasm to the incoming colleagues and managers during the onboarding process.

Young is recognized for his expertise, strong relationship-building skills, and thoughtful approach to his work. Over the past year he has leveraged these strengths to achieve positive outcomes for UH and other university libraries. As leader of the UH Alma Stakeholders committee, he coordinated efforts to develop a sustainable infrastructure for shared governance of the library services platform and worked with Ex Libris to implement Alma Primo VE enhancements to improve the user experience.

The McGovern Outstanding Staff awardee, Lakeshia Clark, has made high-impact contributions to Information and Access Services. After expertly managing the course reserves and faculty delivery services for several years, she accepted the role of service desk manager during a time of departmental transition, becoming familiar with policies and processes while assuming new responsibilities over student hiring, training, and supervision. In addition to her new role, she continued to manage the course reserves and faculty delivery services as she worked closely with colleagues to transition these services to other areas.

Wenli Gao and Mea Warren were honored for Librarian Achievement. Gao has continued to build a national reputation in scholarship and service while leading several key initiatives for the Libraries. She is effective at collaborating with colleagues with a work style that is efficient and inclusive. In 2024 she led a holistic evaluation of Libraries collections, the implementation of Article Galaxy Scholar, a new article-on-demand service, and the Circulating Print Collections Assessment (CPCA) project. Last year, Gao was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from CALA, the Chinese American Library Association, an organization for which she is currently serving on the Board of Directors.

Warren became interim head of Teaching and Learning in 2024. She was elected to the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) University Libraries Section Executive Board and appointed to its nominating committee. She was also appointed to the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) Information Literacy Module Review Task Force. At UH, she is a faculty senator and member of the Graduate & Professional Studies Committee of the Faculty Senate. She chaired the Libraries’ Promotion Committee during a busy year and served on the inaugural Librarian Annual Performance Review Peer Review Committee.

Madelyn Washington is the McGovern Outstanding Librarian, with impressive 2024 accomplishments. She demonstrated dependability, priority-setting, and leadership in managing operations of the Music Library while taking on a new leadership role as the head of Information and Access Services. She was also promoted to the rank of associate librarian, having achieved excellence in scholarship and service to the profession.

This year’s Outstanding Group is the Resource Management Unit, Tim McGittigan and Jennifer Unruh. A nominator stated this unit “worked magic this year” as new employees in resource management, where they created a triage system for handling a significant backlog of unprocessed gift books, unbound serials, and uncatalogued unique items. Their efforts nearly eliminated the entire backlog in just a year, resulting in making materials discoverable and available for students and scholars.

The Trailblazer Award for Leading Organizational Change went to collaborators Maurine Nichols and Devianee Vasanjee, who led the development of new licensing and procurement workflows within a tight timeframe. While one surfaced opportunities for drastic improvement of workflows to align with UH administrative priorities, the other demonstrated diligence and creativity in understanding and interpreting university policies and finding solutions reflecting the unique needs of acquiring library materials. Both developed new relationships on campus, leveraged the strengths of their talented teams to accomplish this work, and built a positive reputation for Libraries compliance and collaboration.

Members of the Library Excellence Awards Committee are Jamie Duke, Julie Grob (chair), Jennifer Holland, Susan Hoover, Natalia Kapacinskas, Eric Larsen, Yesenia Umana, and Santi Thompson, (ex officio).

Student workers in the William R. Jenkins Library were honored this month.  The University Libraries recognized student employees whose superior performance and accomplishments demonstrate they are committed to carrying out the Libraries’ mission for UH.  Chelsea Dzu received a 2025 Student Achievement Award and May Le was named the 2025 John P. McGovern Outstanding Student.  

May Le was also a finalist for the University of Houston Student Worker of the Year award, an immense achievement at a university with hundreds of student employees.  

This Student Art Exhibit will run from February 1 – March 31.  The Jenkins Architecture, Design and Art Library exhibits student artwork throughout the year.  Its current installation,  AFROmelange by Blya Krouba, is on view Mon-Fri, 8 AM – 6 PM, through April.  

ARTIST’S STATEMENT:

“AFROmelange aims to foster a deeper understanding and connection between African and African American women, highlighting the shared humanity and experiences that unite us. My work delves into the layered experiences of Black women, using fabric-printed photographs displayed on clotheslines to symbolize unity and reflect on historical exclusion from photographic representation. This installation not only highlights the resilience of Black women but also references the colonial era’s exclusionary practices. By bringing these women together in intimate settings, photographing them, and capturing their conversations, this project creates a therapeutic space for healing and empathy. It challenges preconceived notions and biases, encouraging viewers to see beyond superficial differences and appreciate the richness of our diverse identities. This project is a phototherapeutic experience, healing not only for the women involved but also for me, as it extends my own journey and identity. Through this exhibition, I hope to create a space for meaningful dialogue and mutual understanding, ultimately strengthening the bonds within our community. AFROmelange is a testament to the power of storytelling and the importance of acknowledging and celebrating our complex, multifaceted identities.”

ARTIST BIO:

Originally from Cote D’Ivoire by way of Upper Darby, Pennsylvania. Blya Krouba is a mixed-media artist who shares her identity and experiences through her art.  She recently received her Master’s of Fine Arts from the University of Houston where she has taught Introduction to Photography and Digital Media for two years.

Alison Knowles (American, born 1933) was a core member of the avant-garde Fluxus movement, as well as the sole woman associated with Fluxus early on (she participated in the 1962 Wiesbaden performances). In later years, Knowles became known for her installations, event scores, performances, prints, and publications. She would often use ordinary objects such as books, beans, shoes, and strings as her points of departure. She also performed her event scores around the world, inviting audiences to participate and assist in the events. In 2022, the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive hosted the first retrospective devoted to her work.

This collection of objects related to “Duets,” one of Knowles’ events held in the 1970’s.  They were acquired from the estate of Fluxus artist Rudolf Reiser.  In addition to 17 found objects, the collection includes dried beans of different types, which were housed in a padded envelope from the Dany Keller Galerie addressed to George Brecht, with handwritten dedication to verso from Knowles to Rudolf Rieser. 

Each object has an attached tag bearing handwritten poetry in the form of instructions for how to utilize the object together with a bean. One can’s instructions reads: “Drop single bean on can while on flat surface. Repeat.” The instructions with the hinge read, “Place among Beans. Admire colors.” Some instructions encourage the user to make sounds: “Place bean on dish tip and shake quietly.” Some have instructions for a particular action, or to achieve a certain goal: “Drop buckle over bran. Keep trying to get into opening.” And some encourage further introspection or questioning, such as the instructions that accompany the key: “In what way is a key like a bean?” Or the shoe heel: “Place bean (white) on inside of heel (black). Consider contrast.”

In a 2016 interview with ARTnews, the interviewer asked Knowles about her connection to beans throughout her career. Knowles responded, “It’s that, during the wars, especially if one didn’t have a lot of money, beans were a staple…The thing I like, too, is that I can go over the world, and there’d always be beans. There might not be meat, there might not be whiskey, but there’ll be beans.” (Greenberger, Alex. “Her Ordinary Materials: Fluxus Artist Alison Knowles on Her Carnegie Museum Show.” ARTnews. 30 June 2016.)

Books + Bytes is a discussion series for anyone interested in architecture, art and design research and publishing, hosted by the William R. Jenkins Library and sponsored by the UH Libraries and the Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design. On February 25^th at 1 pm, Amanda Cachia will discuss the research, writing, and publishing of her book, The Agency of Access:  Contemporary Disability Art & Institutional Critique.  

Dr. Cachia is the Assistant Director of the M.A. Program in Arts Leadership.  She also serves the Graduate Certificate in Museum and Gallery Management and the Graduate Certificate in Arts and Health. She is the editor of Curating Access: Disability Art Activism and Creative Accommodation, published in 2022, and the author of the forthcoming Hospitable Aesthetics: Disability, Medicine, Activism.  

The William R. Jenkins Library provides exhibit space to University of Houston students who wish to gain experience displaying their work in a public space.  In December and January visitors to the library will be able to view “Sapphic Portraits:  Reflections of Her,” a series of two-dimensional and three-dimensional pieces by Claire Garza-Gonzalez, a Houston based artist who specializes in acrylic and graphite. She is pursuing her Bachelor’s of Arts at the University of Houston, and hopes to work as an art teacher after graduation. Ms. Garza-Gonzalez reports that she has always had a passion for painting, and loves to incorporate elements of her queerness into her work.   “’Sapphic Portraits: Reflections of Her’ is a deeply personal art exhibit that explores the nuances of love through the lens of sapphic relationships,”  writes Garza-Gonzalez. “This series features a range of mediums—acrylic, chalk pastel, graphite, ink, marker, and silk screen—to capture the artist’s girlfriend in various moments, emotions, and expressions. The intimacy and liveliness of the portraits aims to celebrate the diverse experiences of love between women. Each piece invites the viewers to admire the breathtaking muse, and the beauty of sapphic love. This series seeks to showcase the artists profound love story, as well as create a dialogue about identity, intimacy, and connection within the sapphic community.”  The library will host an opening from 4-5 on Thursday, December 12th.  

There are only a few weeks left to see illustrations by Neha Kulkarni, a sophomore majoring in architecture. 

The William R. Jenkins Library exhibits artwork by UH students throughout the year.  Ms. Kulkarni’s exhibit, Velvet Interiors, aims to capture ordinary environments through a colorful and exaggerated lens. The artworks ‘A Crisp Morning’ and ‘Over the Hills’ have a very warm, cozy, and inviting atmosphere which were created with prismacolor pencils on paper to optimize the variety of textures ranging from the smooth sofa fabric to the coarseness of a knit throw. The vibrant colors and textures aim to amplify the already existing harmony of details and scenery, transforming mundane rooms and objects into dreamlike landscapes. The generalization of the spaces invites the viewer to seamlessly insert themselves into the art and imagine occupying and interacting with the world around them.

“We often overlook our surroundings and fail to realize just how healing and beautiful these environments can be if we give them a chance,” writes Ms. Kulkarni, “How many times have you slowed down and just taken in, for instance, the beauty of when the light hits an object a certain way? Or how a reflection projects onto a piece of furniture so perfectly? Life comes at us too fast and too aggressively for us to really pause and enjoy these seemingly insignificant details, so I wanted to permanently capture these fleeting moments. My art centers on common interior spaces, focusing on ordinary elements like a regular couch or window. I then transform these objects and their surroundings in a way that entices the viewer to find the space not only attractive, but also wish to be present in that moment to experience it themselves.”

Students who wish to submit work for consideration, may apply:  https://libraries.uh.edu/jenkins/student-art-exhibit

BOOKSGIVING 2024!

To celebrate the season, we are inviting our patrons to share their knowledge and enthusiasm for particular learning resources with other instructors and students.   

Is there a book about art, architecture, or design that you love and would recommend to others?  Help us give thanks for those titles by participating in our inaugural Booksgiving event, to be celebrated the week prior to and the week of Thanksgiving. 

We ask that you, our patrons, choose one favorite book from our extensive collection and email us the choice (Title and Author, if possible), along with a brief paragraph explaining why you chose the book in question.  Please send your choice to the following email address with the subject line “BOOKSGIVING 2024” – [email protected] .  

The choices will be pulled from our shelves and displayed anonymously in our Library, along with the descriptions provided. If the title in question has already been checked out, or is otherwise unavailable, then we will be unable to display it as part of Booksgiving 2024. 

We will collect the first 40 submissions we receive and notify you of your pick’s inclusion in our display.  Should any of these selections be checked out by our Library Patrons, the person who picked it will receive a Library Gift Bag! 

Please provide us with your choice by November 15th at the latest.  Any choices received after this date will not qualify.  Thanks, and we look forward to receiving your selections! 

The Kenneth Franzheim II Rare Books Room holds the only library copy of  in the United States, according to WorldCat.  The bibliography of books from the library of Mexican architect Luis Barragán features essays by Juan Palomar Verea, Alfonso Alfaro, Álvaro Mutis, Vicente Quirarte, and Jorge Esquinca.