The Carter Names the 2025 Carter Community Artists

The Amon Carter Museum of American Art (the Carter) is thrilled to announce its 2025 Carter Community Artists: Kristin Boyer, LaShonda Cooks, Dizzy Orbit, and Javier Sandoval. Every year, the Carter selects four local artists to assist with creating, planning, and leading experiences at the Museum and in the community. This yearlong commitment allows local artists to collaborate with the Carter’s education staff on a wide variety of projects and events designed for audiences of all ages and abilities.

Throughout the first six years of the Carter Community Artist initiative, the Carter has worked with twenty-four local artists, hosted more than 300 events, and connected with more than 60,000 people at the Museum and in the community. The Museum is thrilled to expand this incredible group of local artists by four in 2025. These four artists will each bring their distinct talents and perspectives to the Carter as they make connections to the Museum’s expansive collection, exhibitions, and rich history with the local community.

“Working with these four artists in the year ahead will help us continue to expand our vision of American creativity at the Carter and beyond” said Amanda Blake, Director of Education, Library, and Visitor Experience at the Carter. “While the Carter Community Artist program evolves each year, the commitment to creativity and community impact remains. As we approach our seventh year of this initiative, one of our goals is to explore innovative projects designed to create new connections between emerging local artists and the local community. We look forward to experiencing how this new class of artists will cultivate creativity and make connections with our local community in the year ahead.”

The 2025 Carter Community Artists’ practices range across a variety of topics, media, and themes, each bringing a unique point of view to the program. Kristin Boyer’s prints, sculptures, and fiber works creatively explore ways in which communication skills are developed through play. With a specialty in portraiture, LaShonda Cooks’s work explores cultural norms, identity, and beauty through her signature pointillist painting style. Dizzy Orbit collaborates with other Fort Worth artists to create photographs that include her fiber works, her friends, and the local landscape. And as a first-generation Mexican American, Javier Sandoval’s work invites viewers to reflect on how cultural heritage and modern influences shape identity in a constantly evolving society. These artists’ unique talents, passions, and areas of focus will shape the ways we connect with our community in 2025, from lectures and workshops to student tours and art-making activities.

Carter Community Artists: 2025 Class 

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.

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.

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.

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.

Visit cartermuseum.org/events for up-to-date information on events featuring our new class of Carter Community Artists.

The Carter Community Artists initiative, established in 2018, is an Amon Carter Museum of American Art initiative created to work with and support local artists to develop opportunities for the North Texas community to connect with the Carter’s collection and artists in the region. The yearlong commitment includes the participating artists collaborating on a wide array of projects and events for student, family, and adult audiences. Outreach and events include on- and off-site and virtual events and activities, educational resources, and community-based programs led and created by the selected artists and Carter staff. The Carter Community Artist program inducts a new group of four artists every year with applications available each summer. The Carter Community Artists initiative is supported in part by the Building Community Fund.