Carter Community Artists

A standing woman looks at seated children doing an activity at a table.

Carter Community Artists have a passion for the arts, a love for our community, and a keen ability to unite the two.

Carter Community Artists, an annual initiative dedicated to supporting and working with local artists, enhances Museum events, connects the North Texas area with practicing artists, and builds a network among local artists. Every year, we select four local artists who help plan and lead events at the Museum and in the community. The yearlong commitment allows collaboration between artists and education staff on a wide array of projects and events designed for family, adult, and student audiences; related events take place both at the Museum and offsite in the community. Artists can expect to work between 20 and 40 hours over the year with the Education department at the Carter. The artists’ work planning, facilitating, and teaching will be supported by a $100/hour honorarium, with the number of hours varying per project.

Application deadline: Applications for 2025 Carter Community Artists are closed.

Please follow us on social media at @amoncarter for updates and more information. #CarterCommunityArtists

Meet our 2025 Carter Community Artists

Kristin Boyer

Kristin Boyer is a North Texas-based artist and educator. In 2024, Boyer received her MFA from the University of North Texas. Her work consists of prints, sculptures, and fiber art involving an alphabet of invented symbols alongside animal characters to explore ways in which communication skills are developed through play. Boyer’s artwork has been exhibited throughout DFW galleries, including Kinfolk House and the Patterson-Appleton Arts Center.

A White woman sits on the floor of a room surrounded by a sculpture of a cat, wood toys, and play pillows.

LaShonda Cooks

LaShonda Cooks is a Dallas-based artist and writer. With a specialty in portraiture, Cooks loves exploring cultural norms, identity, and beauty through words and images. Over the past decade, she has partnered with local cultural centers to increase access to the arts by hosting community-based art workshops for all ages. Cooks’s work has been exhibited at locations around the world, including the Moody Performance Hall, African American Museum of Dallas, Boston City Hall, Illamar Galeria in Peru and the Chateau D’Orquevaux Residency in France.

A smiling Black woman is seated at a table, paint brushes in her hand, surrounded by paintings and vases filled with flowers.

Dizzy Orbit

Dizzy Orbit is a Fort Worth-based multidisciplinary artist and educator. Her work focuses on mask making and fiber manipulation, which she uses to create her installations, sculptures, and photographs. Orbit collaborates with other Fort Worth artists to create photographs that include her artwork, her friends, and the local landscape. Her work has been featured in galleries and businesses throughout the DFW area. Some of her awards include an Artist’s Grant from Art Tooth and a residency with TX Studio in Dallas, Texas.

A medium-skinned woman with long dark hair sits in a chair surrounded by clothes on a clothes rack, mannequins, and knitted sculpture.

Javier Sandoval

Javier Sandoval is a Fort Worth-based Chicano visual artist. As a first-generation Mexican American, Sandoval’s work is deeply inspired by his cultural heritage, combining vibrant Mexican traditions with pop culture’s bold, contemporary energy. His work often explores themes of LGBTQ+ identity, personal and cultural heritage, and the blending of traditions in a modern context. Through his use of intricate patterns and rich, vivid colors, he invites viewers to reflect on how cultural heritage and modern influences shape identity in a constantly evolving society.

A medium-skinned man with short hair and a full beard is seated in front of an easel on which is an unfinished painting.

Previous Carter Community Artists

The Carter Community Artists initiative is supported in part by the Meta Alice Keith Bratten Foundation and the Building Community Fund.