Interested in pursuing a career in the arts? Join this panel of creative professionals to learn about their journeys as working artists. Featured panelists include storyteller-painter Desireé Vaniecia, interdisciplinary artist Alicia Eggert, and socially engaged creative Molly Margaret Sydnor. This career talk is happening in-person and it's free to participate!
About the Panelists
Desireé Vaniecia
Desireé Vaniecia was born in Dallas to a large but tight-knit family who instilled a love for storytelling in her from a young age. She has a BA in Graphic Design from McMurry University and has also trained as a teacher, helping 12–14 year olds gain the same enthusiasm that she has for the visual arts. Her painting style fuses her love for storytelling and clean lines, and she was selected as one of the displaying artists for SxSW (March 2022). Vaniecia's project "Extra Unique (Here to Stay)" is on view at Legacy West Plano until the end of February.
Find her on Instagram @desireevaniecia
Alicia Eggert
Alicia Eggert is an interdisciplinary artist whose work gives material form to language and time—those powerful but invisible forces that shape our perception of reality. She has made flashing neon signs that illuminate the way light travels across space-time, billboards that allow "Forever" to appear and disappear in the fog, and signs that reveal the relationship between reality and possibility. Eggert has a BS in Interior Design from Drexel University and an MFA in Sculpture/Dimensional Studies from Alfred University. She is an Associate Professor of Studio Art at the University of North Texas, and is represented by Galeria Fernando Santos in Porto, Portugal, and Liliana Bloch Gallery in Dallas.
Find her on Instagram @aplaceintheuniverse
Molly Margaret Sydnor
Molly Margaret Sydnor is a Dallas-based multidisciplinary fine artist with an eye for fiber. She holds a BFA in Fiber from the Maryland Institute College of Art. She originally came to Dallas for a career in product development, specializing in interiors and textile design, but then traded in her six-year corporate design career for creative marketing in nonprofit spaces. Her current position is focused on higher education and job vocation for adults with disabilities. On the side, she directs a LGBTQ+ collective, planning events and creating queer space. She will be one of the artists featured in the new Sweet Tooth Hotel location and has two solo shows headed to Austin at the end of the year.
Find her online at mollysydnor.com.
About the Moderator
Aileen Chantabutr
Aileen Chantabutr is a senior at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. She is currently interning with Teen Programs at the DMA. As an artist herself, her work takes inspiration from personal experiences and interactions with the people around her. By collaging old fragments of her past life to who she is now, Chantabutr is able to utilize her art as a more comprehensive scrapbook, preserving her current self and newly formed memories with the old.