When Liz Paris ’15 was a student, a connection with the UT San Antonio Libraries and Special Collections sparked her interest in the care and stewardship of artwork and set her on a career path as distinctive as the exhibitions she now curates.
She credits the art history faculty with giving her a strong foundation in the arts and says her time with Special Collections deepened her appreciation for collections work.
“My time there taught me about caring for art objects, books, and all of the wonderful things that make up a collection,” she says. “It left me asking, what does it mean to be a good steward of art?”
Paris is the curator of collections and collections manager at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio. She joined the museum 10 years ago as a part-time collections database assistant, right after graduate school. Over the next decade, she steadily took on more responsibility and advanced to lead the museum’s collections department.
One of her top priorities as a steward is ensuring local artists are represented and on view. She believes San Antonio artists deserve the same respect and visibility as those who dominate gallery walls and art history textbooks.
“We only benefit from taking a multifaceted approach to every project, show, and installation,” she says. “Our community and our world do not function with a single narrative or point of view. If we mirror the creativity happening in our community, we are doing our job.”
Paris’s current exhibition, “In Our Image: Photography as Performance,” includes work by UT San Antonio graduate and professor Joe Harjo ’12 as well as alumna Megan Solis ’16. Harjo also serves within the School of Art’s faculty, which Paris sees as a vital link between academia and the arts community.
“Many faculty members are working artists,” she says. “From day one, students gain insight into the realities of working as a professional artist from people who live that experience.”
Paris’s curatorial philosophy is that museums should reflect the communities they serve. “In Our Image” examines identity through performance, inviting visitors to consider how identity is constructed, deconstructed, and critiqued. “If you do not see yourself when you walk into a museum, we are not embracing the community,” she said. For her, curating is about creating spaces where people feel seen, understood, and connected.
For Paris, her career embodies the strength of community and the impact of relationships formed at UT San Antonio. She often works alongside fellow alumni and values the connections that began during her graduate studies.
The Art History program at UT San Antonio invites students to explore their passions while earning a master’s degree, supported by resources such as Special Collections, museum memberships, and strong connections to the San Antonio art community. Along the way, students discover new directions for their work and gain experiences that extend well beyond the classroom. These opportunities build lasting professional relationships and prepare graduates to enter the field with confidence, much like Paris in her journey curator of collections.
“We are lucky to be able to work with the artists in our community and other institutions like UTSA, because we are continuing those relationships that we cultivate, sometimes decades earlier,” she says.
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