The 2025-26 Visiting Artist Lecture Series is presented by the Department of Art at Rice University, with series support from the Department of Art History and the MFAH Glassell School of Art Core Program, with lecture support from the Rice School of Architecture, the Department of English and Creative Writing, and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

Will Rawls
Thursday, January 22
6:00 PM Reception
6:30 PM Lecture
Pitman Cinema Theatre, Sarofim Hall
Event link
Artist website

The artist’s visit is in collaboration with the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality. 

Will Rawls is an artist and choreographer whose multidisciplinary practice explores the ambiguities of Blackness—its visibility and erasure, its performance and abstraction—to reframe the relationship between language and the body. In 2016, he co-curated Lost and Found, a six-week program of performances and artist projects at Danspace Project focused on the intergenerational impact of HIV/AIDS on dancers, women, and people of color. Based in New York and Los Angeles, he is Associate Professor of Choreography in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at the University of California, Los Angeles and lectures widely in academic and community contexts. In addition, his work has been exhibited across the U.S., including at The Kitchen, New York; Institute for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; 35th Bienal de São Paulo, Brazil; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; MoMA PS1, New York; Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, OR; The Chocolate Factory Theater, New York; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Institute of Contemporary Art Boston; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; and Yale Repertory Theatre, New Haven.

Visiting Artist Lecture Series poster for Will Rawls

The 2025-26 Visiting Artist Lecture Series is presented by the Department of Art at Rice University, with series support from the Department of Art History and the MFAH Glassell School of Art Core Program, with lecture support from the Rice School of Architecture, the Department of English and Creative Writing, and the Center for the Study of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.


All lectures are free and open to the public. 
Discounted parking available at West Lot 4, Rice University.
Flat rate of $6, credit card required.