2023 Partnership with The Mesoamerica Center

Photo: Zona Arqueológica de Palenque, Chiapas, Mexico (Estefania Blas, 2021).

We're happy to share the continuation of our partnership with The Mesoamerica Center at The University of Texas at Austin. Over a decade later, this partnership remains special to us as a small business formed by UT alumni. Supporting Maya research and education in the art and sciences is a pillar of our public outreach program. We believe that solutions to modern challenges can come from studying Indigenous communities past and present, and we’re excited to see what students and faculty at The Mesoamerica Center uncover next.

This upcoming February 8-11, 2023, we’ll be sponsoring The Mesoamerica Meetings, an annual symposium that brings together scholars and interested public to study the richness of ancient Mesoamerican art, archaeology, writing, and other aspects of cultural heritage. The celebrated UT Mayanist Linda Schele founded the conference in 1978, then known as the Maya Hieroglyphic Workshops, and later The Maya Meetings.

Waterscapes in Maya Art, Cosmology, and Environment.

Image courtesy of The Mesoamerica Center. 

This year’s theme, “Waterscapes in Maya Art, Cosmology, and Environment,” will explore water’s centrality in human lives and shed light on climate history of the Maya region and how Maya communities managed water access through cycles of drought and overabundance. Water as a symbol in Maya culture beyond its physical presence–in art and cosmology–will also be discussed. 

The Ruta Maya Scholarship will also go into its fifth year giving awarded students at The University of Texas at Austin the opportunity to study abroad at Casa Herrera, The Mesoamerica Center’s educational and research facility in Antigua, Guatemala. Students in the Maymester program titled Bridging Cultures in Latin America travel extensively throughout Guatemala and Belize, experiencing archaeological sites, museums, villages, cooperative businesses, natural reserves, and protected ecosystems while working on a personal thesis.

The Mesoamerica Center is an interdisciplinary organization within the Department of Art and Art History of the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin. The Center aims to facilitate knowledge, learning and understanding about the ancient indigenous cultures and peoples of what is now Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras and El Salvador through education, research and exchange. The Mesoamerica Center's primary focus is on the arts, language, and archeology of Mesoamerican civilization. To learn more and register for the Mesoamerica Meetings visit: https://utmesoamerica.org