Office of the University Art Curator

Fonda Portales joined Boise State in 2016 to fill the newly created role of University Art Curator and Collections Manager, now the Director of University Art. Prior to this position, she served as Adjunct Faculty in the Art Department for eight years, teaching survey and upper-division Art History. She continues to be a passionate educator and enjoys developing student engagement with the visual arts on campus.

In her role, Fonda manages the University’s permanent visual art collection, curates Student Union Building gallery spaces, and directs public art commissions on campus. As Chair of both the University Art Collection Committee and the Student Union Fine Arts Advisory Board, she works with faculty, researchers, students, and community leaders to seek out and approve new acquisitions and exhibitions, and writes policy regarding visual arts culture on campus.

Prior to joining the university, Fonda worked as the Director of Development and Public Education at the ACLU of Idaho, a Marketing and Development Associate with the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs, and a Resident Artist at the archaeological site of Urkesh, in Mozan, Syria, where she established an on-site museum of artifacts.

Fonda earned a bachelor’s degree in English Education from Northwest Nazarene College, in Nampa, Idaho, and master’s degree in Art History from California State University, Los Angeles. Her academic focus is on the transcultural iconography of Mesoamerican and Spanish influence. Her drawings of Aztec and colonial works can be found in the Oxford University Press Handbook to Life in the Aztec World.

Isabel Fuhriman is a BFA student with an emphasis in Drawing and Painting. She expects to graduate in the Fall of 2026. Isabel grew up in Boise and enjoys the close-knit artistic community here, but hopes to eventually move to a bigger city for graduate school. Isabel is very involved in Boise’s art community, as she has been mentoring under ceramicist Julia Ballenger since 2022. She finds great inspiration from Ballenger as themes of femininity and the figure heavily influence her studies and artwork.

In her free time, Isabel is involved in the Boise State Vocal Jazz Ensemble and enjoys music and theater of all sorts. Isabel loves to travel and dreams of visiting as many art museums and historic sites as possible. 

As Permanent Collections Assistant, Isabel is responsible for assisting in the cataloging, curating, and conserving artwork in the  Boise State University Permanent Art Collection, notably helping to establish the first Print Study Room in Idaho on campus. Currently, her research has focused on the Forrest and Lynn Geerkin Print and Drawing Collection. Isabel has also been instrumental in building Boise State’s Bloomberg Connects app, making Boise State’s public art more accessible and engaging.

Kat Watson is a BFA student majoring in Illustration. A non-traditional student, she is expecting to graduate in 2029. Moving to Idaho from Arizona in 2008, she enjoys the cooler weather and outdoor activities that Idaho has to offer, frequently going fishing, camping, and often taking a portable tray of watercolors, just in case.

Having gotten her Associates from CWI, she assisted there as the Work Study for the art department, gaining an appreciation and understanding of the fundamentals of gallery work, and hopes some day to make it the career of her dreams. As an artist, she is focus primarily on 2-D art using a variety of mediums such as paints, watercolors, pastels, and pen and ink.

As Curatorial Assistant, Kat helps with planning of exhibitions, social media presence and promotional, as well as helping to coordinate receptions and directly interact with the artist and the public