July 29, 2025

When the Texas State Artists were announced this May, UNT had its stamp in three fields -- visual arts, music and poetry.

The artists include alumni Octavio Quintanilla ('10 Ph.D.), 2025 Texas State Poet Laureate; Norah Jones, who attended UNT in the 1990s, 2026 Texas State Musician-Nonclassical; and Letitia Huckaby ('10 M.F.A.), 2026 Texas State Visual Artist 2D.

Jones is a 10-time Grammy Award-winning musician. Her most recent win came this past spring in the best traditional pop vocal album category for "Visions." The musician was the 2016 recipient of the UNT Presidential Medal of Honor, the highest university honor given. Jones is spending her summer on a world tour that has taken her through Europe and Asia.

Promoting Poetry

Octavio Quintanilla
Octavio Quintanilla ('10 Ph.D.) is the 2025 Texas State Poet Laureate.

When Octavio Quintanilla ('10 Ph.D.) served as Poet Laureate of San Antonio in 2017, he left a legacy in a park.

At Poet's Pointe, visitors can reflect in a space that includes poetry incorporated into artwork.

Now Quintanilla is the 2025 Texas State Poet Laureate, and he hopes to promote the art form to communities that may not have access to it.

"It's a springboard to highlight poetry as something that we all need -- to remind us of who we are through our histories, our everyday experiences, our relationship to nature, our relationship to ourselves and to others -- in more subtle ways and in more complicated ways."

Quintanilla says he was honored to receive the title after being nominated twice before. He learned he had been made a finalist this year when he received an email asking for his biography, CV and samples of his work and community service.

"I was surprised that, knowing that's there're so many great poets in Texas, I was the one chosen by the committee. And I realized in many ways that persistence is necessary to accomplish certain things. It's not that you give up. But I'm like, 'You know, what if I'm a finalist? If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't happen, I'm still going to be happy for whoever gets selected.' Because the first thing is to support poetry."

The title is more symbolic, since none of the state artists have specific duties. During his tenure as Poet Laureate of San Antonio, he was required to present a public reading and create a legacy project, in which he proposed a public space for poets to create community. That turned into Poet's Pointe, which took three years to develop.

"So now people here are enjoying that space. I feel proud of having had a part in that."

The year was a great learning experience.

"It taught me a lot about being in front of people. It was a lesson in humility -- in being in community and putting poetry first as opposed to the poet."

Quintanilla, who is a professor at Our Lady of the Lake University, has had three books of poetry published. He also founded VersoFrontera Literature and Arts Festival in San Antonio and is publisher of Alabrava Press.

His honor is part of a boom from UNT's creative writing department, which has seen the works of several authors -- including Amanda Churchill and Kimberly Garza -- released by major publishers in recent years.

"The students who go there are serious about their craft," Quintanilla says. "They're serious about their involvement in community. They're serious about their publishing. And it also says a lot about the great commitment of the professors to their students."

Picturing the Truth

Letitia Huckaby
Letitia Huckaby ('10 M.F.A.) is the 2026 Texas State Artist-2D and is an assistant professor in the College of Visual Arts and Design.

When Letitia Huckaby learned she was the 2026 Texas State Artist of the Year 2D, she said she was "shocked."

"Because that's for the whole state. It's a little bit overwhelming to think about it."

The Fort Worth-based assistant professor of studio art in the College of Visual Arts and Design has received acclaim for her work, which incorporates photographs onto fabric and quilts. She was named Art League Houston 2022 Texas Artist of the Year and served as International Artist-in-Residency at artspace San Antonio in 2020.

Her husband, Sedrick Huckaby, earned the state honor in 2018, making them the first couple to earn the designation.

"That feels something to be really proud of -- that both of us were able to accomplish that in our careers," she says, noting that she's originally from Mississippi and Louisiana. "My husband is born and raised in Texas. I married into Texas. It's nice to be adopted and accepted."

Her work, which has shifted to documentary storytelling in recent years, has been included in a number of exhibitions around the world. Closer to home, she was part of the Diaries of Home exhibition featuring women portrait photographers last year at the Museum of Modern Art in Fort Worth.

Her gallery space took up a long hallway, in which she papered the walls with a vintage floral pattern found at Hayes Plantation in North Carolina. Silhouetted black and white photographs were featured in large wooden frames, some oval or circular, and influenced by old memorial brooches.

The photographs featured the descendants of the Thorp family, a formerly enslaved couple that played a big role in the formation of AddRan College, which became Texas Christian University.

"I felt like every last detail was exactly the way I wanted it to be. I even loved the location where it was in the museum. It was tucked away, so it's a little bit of a surprise, and a lot of the docents told me that when people would find their way back to where my work was, they would hear this audible gasp as they turned the corner."

Huckaby, who has taught at UNT for about 15 years, instructs her students about technical aspects of photography and professional practices. But she also gives them more.

"I try to teach them to make work about their own truth instead of worrying about what other people think," she says. "I try to teach them to give time and space to the work they're creating, and not expect it to all come together in a week. I try to teach them, particularly the undergrads, the importance of building the practice and having that a part of their life."

Texas State Artists from UNT

Norah Jones
Norah Jones, who attended UNT in the 1990s, is the 2026 Texas State Musician-Nonclassical.

The following UNT alumni and faculty members have been named Texas State Artists by the Texas State Commission on the Arts.

Musician:

  • 2010 - Sara Hickman ('86)
  • 2026 - Nonclassical - Norah Jones, attended in the 1990s

 Poets:

2-D Visual Artists:

3-D Visual Artists: