Local Resources

University Resources

The University of Texas at Austin offers first-class educational and research facilities. The main campus is more than 350 acres, and enrollment just under 50,000 students. With a faculty of national and international reputation, UT's academic programs and professional schools rank prominently in the top 20 in the country.

The University's outstanding library system is a rich resource for students interested in the creative process. UT Austin was ranked 12th among the best college libraries, according to the Princeton Review 2006 edition of The Best 361 Colleges. The extensive general library system also includes special Latin American, Asian, public affairs, and Middle Eastern collections, as well as nine branch libraries, including Architecture, Classics and Fine Arts. In addition to the general libraries, The University is also home to the Center for American History and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, named one of the 32 best libraries in the world.

The newly renovated Fine Arts Library contains the city's richest holdings in music, art, theater and dance. With a collection of more than 40,000 compact discs, unique art books, musical scores, exhibition catalogs and research journals, and one of the largest historical sound recording collections in North America, the Fine Arts Library is an essential resource for those interested in the arts.

Read Hang Out with the Arts (March 2006), a UT feature article highlighting the Fine Arts Library.

The Ransom Center collections include over 800,000 books, approximately nine million manuscripts, four million photographs, and 40,000 pieces of literary iconography. The Center's tremendous archival collection includes the papers of playwrights Tom Stoppard, Adrienne Kennedy, and David Hare, the archives of Hollywood producer David O. Selznick and screenwriter Ernest Lehman, and extensive holdings of the manuscripts and letters of such writers as D. H. Lawrence, William Faulkner, Carson McCullers, Jack Kerouac, Anne Sexton, and Isaac Bashevis Singer.

Since its creation in 1970, The Center for Mexican-American Studies (CMAS) has worked to enhance our understanding of the Mexican and Mexican American experience, as well as the broader Latino experience, and to strengthen the presence of Mexican Americans and other Latinos at The University. Our Performance as Public Practice graduate students have secured teaching assistant positions with CMAS in recent years. CMAS has also inaugurated the Doctoral Portfolio Program of the Center for Mexican American Studies which provides a rigorous intellectual environment for the exploration of issues critical to Mexican-origin communities throughout the United States. Any U.T. graduate student may develop a portfolio in Mexican American studies while completing a doctorate in their chosen field. General areas of focus include the humanities, the social sciences, communication, education, and the arts.

Austin Theatre Community

Austin is also home to a vital theatre community. With approximately 70 producing organizations, Austin audiences can pick from more than 250 annual performances that run in venues ranging in size from 1000 to 20 seats. Austin's fringe theatres are especially friendly to new work, and Theatre and Dance students have had productions at companies such as Frontera@Hyde Park, Public Domain, Rude Mechanicals, and Salvage Vanguard. Frontera Theatre also produces "Fronterafest," an annual "performance jamboree," which provides great opportunities to develop one-acts or solo-performances. The October 1997 issue of American Theatre magazine notes that "the current blend of creativity, organizational savvy, and commitment has Austin theatre generating a lot of heat and light."