Message from the Guest Artist Committee
The Cohen New Works Festival at The University of Texas at Austin holds a spirit of collaboration that extends beyond the campus. Each year, we welcome a diverse group of guest artists from across the state and country who bring their expertise, creativity and insight to our students. These artists engage in creative exchanges, offering mentorship and feedback while participating in panels, masterclasses and festival events.
We strive to foster meaningful relationships between students and accomplished professionals in the arts. By inviting distinguished artists to share their expertise, we create an environment where students gain insight, build connections and develop a deeper understanding of their craft. These experiences offer invaluable mentorship and collaboration, leaving a lasting impression as students navigate their own artistic journeys.
Keynote Speaker: Raasin McIntosh
Raasin McIntosh is a visionary leader, creative force and Track and Field Olympian dedicated to transforming communities through the arts. As the founder of Raasin in the Sun and Vice President of Urban Activation at the Downtown Austin Alliance, she specializes in creative placemaking, public art and cross-disciplinary collaborations. She holds a B.A. in Communications from The University of Texas at Austin and a M.A. in International Communications from Texas Southern University. She completed a two-year program with Mural Arts Philadelphia. Driven by a humanitarian mission, McIntosh strengthens Austin’s cultural identity while fostering economic opportunities for artists and creatives.
2025 Guest Artists
Afsaneh Aayani
Afsaneh Aayani is a Houston-based scenic designer, puppeteer, puppet and mask maker, voice actress, and artist with 15+ years of experience. Originally from Iran, she holds a B.A. in Puppetry and an MFA in Scenic Design. She has worked internationally and won the 2020 USITT Scenic Design Award.
Rayn Andrus
Rayn Andrus is a seasoned theatrical designer and event technology expert, currently a Senior Real-Time Creative Technologist at Quince Imaging. With roles spanning Projection Coordinator at the University of Maryland to Technical Director at UNC, Rayn excels in project management and leadership. A former Army National Guard Sergeant, Rayn holds a M.F.A. in Theatrical Design from UT Austin.
Lindsay Renea Chapman
Lindsay Renea is a performer, choreographer and educator. It is with great pride that she founded The Lindsay Renea Foundation and is currently an Alabama Council of the Arts Fellow in Dance and Choreography and serves as Assistant Professor of Dance and Artistic Director of the B.F.A. in Dance program at Alabama State University.
John Erickson
John Erickson is a Video Designer with nine years of experience in theatrical, concert, and event design. He has worked on Broadway, toured as a video technician, and created content across genres. Passionate about storytelling through spectacle, he pushes the boundaries of video design to craft unforgettable audience experiences.
Chris Evans
Christopher Evans is a projection, lighting, and set designer with an M.F.A. from the Yale School of Drama. His credits include *The Plot* (Yale Repertory Theatre) and *Sweat* (Yale School of Drama). He has designed for Yale Cabaret, Oklahoma Shakespeare in the Park, and Reduxion Theatre. His work on *Woyzeck* and *EchoBOOM* earned awards from the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival, the Stagecraft Institute of Las Vegas, and Hilton Worldwide. Evans holds a B.F.A. in theater arts design/tech from the University of Central Oklahoma.
Ashten Falter
Ashten Falter is an Austin-based freelance film and theatre artist and educator. She holds a B.F.A. in Musical Theatre from Rider University and a Digital Video Certificate from Austin School of Film. She teaches at Austin School of Film and Christian Youth Theater.
Ciceley Fullylove
Ciceley Fullylove is a dancer, choreographer, singer and Austin native. She has worked with Austin-based companies/artists Early Era Collective, The Theorists, Andrea Ariel, Jennifer Sherburn and more. She is also a member of the band Capyac as both a singer and dancer.
Arindam Jurakhan
JURAKHAN attempts to capture his perception of reality through genre-bending sonic environments inhabited by collaborators and improvisers. His diverse artistic experience allows him to curate a sonic amalgam of his various influences. Crafting visceral experiences that can transfix an audience, all while recreating the sublime in ephemeral interactions, is his goal.
Jenn Kidwell
Jenn Kidwell is a performing artist whose latest piece -with the blackening- we come to collect: a flirtation, with capitalism, will premiere at The Flea Theater (New York City) in August 2025. Kidwell is also a faculty member at The University of Texas at Austin.
Haruna Lee
Haruna Lee (they/them) is a non-binary Taiwanese/Japanese/American theatre maker, screenwriter, educator and community steward whose work is rooted in liberation and healing. Plays include War Lesbian, Memory Retrograde, plural (love) and Suicide Forest, for which they received an Obie Award for Playwriting and Conception. harunalee.com
Beili Liu
Beili Liu is a visual artist known for site-responsive installations addressing ecological, political, and environmental issues, particularly in the Arctic. She has exhibited globally, including at the National Museum of Women in the Arts and the Crow Museum of Asian Art. Liu is a Carnegie Fellow, Pollock Prize winner, Fulbright Arctic Chair, and Texas State Artist. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Art in America and PBS Arts in Context. Liu is the Leslie Waggener Endowed Professor at The University of Texas at Austin, where she received the Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Award.
Eva Margarita
Eva Margarita is an Afro-Latinx performance artist and scholar. Margarita's artistry is concerned with how grief and wake work allow us to accompany, blur lines and spill all over each other. She holds a Ph.D. in Communications Studies (Rhetoric, Language, & Political Communication) from UT Austin and a master's in performance studies from New York University.
Aida Shirazi
Aida Shirazi is an Iranian-American composer and electronic musician, focusing on timbre for organizing musical structures inspired by language. Shirazi has been featured at Manifeste, Wien Modern, Berliner Festspiele, Huddersfield, Ojai, Mostly Mozart and TIME:SPANS festivals by Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Anssi Karttunen, ICE, Klangforum Wien, Dal Niente, Quince and Signal ensembles.
Jesus Valles
Jesús I. Valles (they/them) is a queer Mexican immigrant writer-performer from Ciudad Juárez/El Paso. Winner of the 2023 Yale Drama Series and the 2022 Kernodle Playwriting Prize, their work has been supported by The Bushwick Starr, Clubbed Thumb, The Lortel and more.
Bic Vu
Bic Vu is a project manager who focuses on collaborating with client on AI strategies. She draws from practical exprience as a data scientist and UX designer to match business and user needs with technical implementation. She has led teams of data engineers, designers and developers to deliver enterprise analytics platform across federal public sector, non-profit and commercial industries. Experienced in leading agile sprint deliveries through scrum and other methods.