Adrian Hernandez/ THE RIDER
On Sept. 9, the Creative Writing Department unveiled a series of visual artworks submitted to their annual Gallery magazine in the Charles and Dorothy Clark Gallery in Liberal Arts Building South on the Edinburg campus for the exhibition titled “The Fruits of the Valley.”
“A lot of the art and the writing is talking about students’ experience in the Valley,” said Heather Cox, a graduate assistant with the College of Fine Arts who supported the Creative Writing Department in organizing the exhibition event. “We are definitely supportive of, you know, student writers and student artists that live here.”
The Gallery magazine is a yearly production put on by the Creative Writing Department in which all UTRGV students are able to submit their creative works such as paintings, poems, short fiction and digital art for the students in the Gallery class to select for publication.
Gisselle Rodriguez, a studio art senior at UTRGV, said she submitted her painting “La Trabajera Mas Fuerte” in February through the Gallery magazine’s Submittable page online after seeing a flyer calling for submissions on campus.
“We write down the info, the statement of the piece, not including [the] name or anything, because [the magazine doesn’t] want to be biased at all,” Rodriguez said. “And yeah, we just waited until [the magazine] emailed us.”
In order to get the art up for the exhibition, Cox said the School of Art and Design was responsible for displaying the art.
“So the gallery … It’s kind of a collaborative effort that comes from the people that are writing for the magazine and putting their art in the magazine, and then the fine arts [are] displayed by the [School of Art and Design,]” she said. “So it’s definitely a collaborative thing.”
Britt Haraway, Gallery faculty adviser and Creative Writing associate professor, said the idea for the exhibition was proposed by the art students featured in last year’s magazine launch party.
“They were like, ‘Oh, wouldn’t it be great if the originals were actually on the wall,’ and so we kind of took that as, you know, maybe they’re right,” Haraway said.
Adrian Hernandez/ THE RIDER
Rodriguez’s painting, a piece done in oil on canvas, was initially painted for her Advanced Painting class, part of a series titled “The Spendings of Our Savings,” and depicts her mother as the primary subject.
Rodriguez said she aimed to portray the time of uncertainty regarding immigration and ICE presence in the Valley through her mother’s profession as a cleaning lady.
“We have so much to express about being in the world now,” replied Haraway when asked about the importance of the Gallery magazine. “We have a world right now that feels like division … The publication is always good to remind us of these common human themes.”
Fernanda Escobedo, the editor-in-chief for the issue, said in her editor’s note she hoped to make it aware to the artists who submitted that “even if they didn’t get accepted, they were loved.”
Haraway added that the Gallery tries to tell applicants that do not make it in the magazine to try again due to the revolving students or the editors that turn over every issue.
“You never know if the next [Gallery staff] will be a better audience for your work,” he said.
Copies of the 2026 Gallery Magazine “The Fruits of the Valley” are available across campus, and the exhibition will be available for viewing until Friday.
For more information, visit @utrgvartgalleries on Instagram and Facebook.
