About Texas Vignette

Our Mission

The mission of Texas Vignette is to promote, support, and connect women in the arts in Texas.

Our Story

Texas Vignette derives its name from a variety of aesthetic sources. In literary terms, a vignette is a brief description meant to give a detailed portrayal of a character or scene. One can also use the technique of vignetting in photography to highlight an area of an image that the artist wants the viewer to focus on. In art and graphic design, however, the vignette is a small or repetitive image often placed around borders and relegated to the background, as it is thought of as simply decorative. Texas Vignette was conceived along these lines as an organization which highlights talent that has been under-recognized and made ancillary by art institutions and establishments.

In service of our mission, Texas Vignette presents an annual Art Fair exclusively featuring works by women artists from Texas in order to promote exceptional yet under-represented regional talent. Vignette Art Fair is fully submissions-based and works with a different Texas woman juror/curator for each Fair to select the included artists and determine the layout of the show. It is significant to note that Vignette Art Fair is the only art fair in the world that solely features the work of women artists and where 100% of all sales go directly to the artists.

Our History

For emerging artists, gaining momentum and the pathway to a sustainable career depends largely on elusive opportunities to exhibit, yet there continues to be a large gender disparity in terms of museum exhibitions, acquisitions, and gallery representation. In response, Jessica Ingle developed Vignette Art Fair in 2017 to bridge this gap and provide women artists with the opportunity to exhibit their work. After a successful first run of the Fair, the 501c3 organization, Texas Vignette, was formed later that year to continue the annual tradition of the Fair and expand program offerings to further the mission of promoting, supporting, and connecting women in the arts in Texas. 

The inaugural Vignette Art Fair took place during Dallas Arts Week, April 5th - 9th, 2017, at the former Women's Museum Building in Fair Park, and was curated by the Dallas Museum of Art’s Chelsea Pierce. Programming for the Fair included Viewpoints, a series of panel discussions with local, women industry leaders, and Vocations, which featured local woman-owned businesses. The opening the night of Wednesday, April 5th, drew a crowd of over 250 people.

The second annual Vignette Art Fair was held April 10th - 15th, 2018, and was similarly located at the former Women’s Museum Building in Fair Park. The general exhibition contained traditional 2D and 3D works and was curated by the San Antonio Museum of Art’s Erin K. Murphy. The Fair expanded upon the successful programming of 2017 to include Virtual, an exhibit dedicated to New Media Art and curated by New Media artist and entrepreneur Jessie Moncrief, and Venture, a showcase of interactive art mediums, such as social practice, installation, and performance art, curated by social-practice artist and curator Dee Lara. We once again offered Viewpoints and Vocations.

Vignette Art Fair 2019 was held on April 10th - 14th, 2019, and was curated by Leslie Moody Castro, an independent curator and writer whose practice is based on itinerancy and collaboration. The third annual art fair was once again located at the former Women’s Museum Building in Fair Park and was our largest to date, with approximately 80 included artists and over 300 works of art. This year saw a simplification of the Fair layout by doing away with the Virtual, Venture, and Vocations programs, but we continued the tradition of Viewpoints by including two panels comprised of art professionals throughout the DFW metroplex.

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vignette Art Fair 2020 was replaced with a grant initiative as a way to continue supporting women artists in need. In February 2021, Texas Vignette awarded our first-ever artist grants to 5 deserving women artists. The requirements needed for submission included that the artist be based in Texas, identify as a woman, and be willing to participate in engagement opportunities with Texas Vignette’s broader audience. Renowned artist, art activist, and curator, Vicki Meek (who originally planned to jury the Fair in 2020), acted as a juror for the grants, selecting artists Haydee Alonso, Ann Johnson, Rehab El Sadek, Lisa E. Harris, and Tammy Melody Gomez out of the nearly 140 applicants. After social distancing restrictions were lifted in the spring of 2021, Texas Vignette hosted a pop-up exhibition on May 14th and 15th in Deep Ellum featuring the work of these five artists.

Vignette Art Fair returned in the fall of 2022 on October 13th - 15th, after a nearly three-year hiatus and a change in venue to Dallas Market Hall. 2021 Vignette Artist Grant Juror Vicki Meek returned to jury the Fair, and out of a total of 169 artist submissions, Meek selected 140 works of art by 54 artists. Vignette Art Fair 2022 continued the tradition set forth in 2017 of exhibiting women artists working in all mediums and disciplines of art from across the state, with artists hailing from 51 different cities throughout Texas. This year, however, we shifted our focus away from fair programming, such as panels and booths, to provide further support to our selected artists. For the first time in our history, Texas Vignette offered honorariums to artists with performance pieces, a practice we have expanded upon every year since.

Vignette Art Fair 2023 marked the fifth iteration of the Fair and a return for a second time to Dallas Market Hall on November 2nd-4th, this time with Emily Edwards, Associate Curator at Dallas Contemporary, at the helm. Edwards sifted through 216 applications, a record number for our organization, to bring together a brilliant selection of 89 artworks by 47 women artists working across the state of Texas in all mediums and disciplines of art. One notable change to the 2023 Fair was the implementation of an artwork sales platform that sent payments directly to represented artists after works were purchased. This platform facilitated the sale of works at the Fair while maintaining our commitment to artists receiving 100% of sale proceeds, thereby furthering our support of women artists.

As we look to the year ahead, Texas Vignette strives to innovate our practice and expand our reach throughout the state while staying true to our mission to support, promote, and connect women in the arts in Texas. On that note, stay tuned for updates on Vignette Art Fair 2024!

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