Carolina Rubio

Irma Carolina Rubio is an artist and educator who has dedicated over twenty years of diverse experience and leadership to the field of Art Education, ranging from designing and implementing sensitive, relevant, and cutting-edge K-12 curriculum in public schools and universities, to working administratively at museums and community arts organizations. She recently completed her ninth year as a PK-12 public school Art Teacher, in San Antonio, TX, and initiated her first year as a field coordinator for UTeach Art Education, and Assistant Professor of Instruction of Art Education, at the University of Texas at Austin. As the daughter of Mexican immigrants, she approaches her work as an offering of service that requires a commitment to growth, empathy, intergenerational collaboration, and transformative creative expression. Originally from Lubbock, Texas, Rubio earned a BFA in Visual Studies from Texas Tech University, a MAAE, from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and completed three years of doctoral coursework in Art Education and Women’s Studies at The Pennsylvania State University, investigating feminist indigenous epistemologies and Zapotec weavers’ embodied knowledge. While artist assistant to author Sandra Cisneros, she collaboratively installed an ofrenda/alter honoring the life of her mother, Elvira Cordero Cisneros. The installation toured the National Museum of American Art, Chicago, National Museum of American History, Museum of Latin American Art, among others. Rubio’s work is part of the permanent collection at The University of Texas, San Antonio, and has been exhibited nationally. In solidarity with fellow Texas public school educators who have weathered the unpredictability of school safety, funding, a global pandemic, and Fine Arts advocacy, Rubio looks forward to making meaningful contributions to the future of pre-service teacher development and decolonizing, feminist, social justice-centered pedagogies.