San Antonio art vendors feed off of the high schools in town, both in their artistic contributions and admission. Each year there is one showing at the North East School of the Arts and the winners of the district competition are sent to national art competitions. Despite these guidelines, the diversity of creativity can be seen especially at MacArthur, where students learn to glass blow, paper mache, draw and abstractly view their inspirations and surroundings each year.
Cameron Uptmore, junior, takes sculpture III in the art wing.
“I prefer 3D clay art, specifically non abstract creations I can see. This year my class worked a lot on paper mache,” Uptmore said.
Uptmore has taken sculpture for all of his three years at MacArthur, and noted his trips to view pieces.
“[Sculpture class went to] the McNay and [Texas] A&M. The college has an artistic ring near Kyle Field, which upon graduating is used for senior pictures,” he said.
There is even a Bullseye club, dedicated to fine arts and its publication of the literary magazine. Each issue in the past made great use of writings, photography and other artworks to put together a nationally-recognized magazine.
Southwest Art School on Navarro publishes it’s works periodically, and is open to the public seven days a week. From Monday to Saturday, the school’s exhibits are open from 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M., and on Sundays they are open from 11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M. All of the exhibits can be seen for free. Of course, this particular picture is only open until May 15. It’s authors Barbara Kreft, Richard Martinez, Kim Cadmus Owens, and Dan Sutherland focused on using oils on canvas, creating an image of the band Magnetic Fields.
The Witte museum also houses a number of current exhibits, including Amazon Voyage: Vicious Fishes and other Riches, as well as Water In Motion: A Visual History of the San Antonio River. Their other shows are extensive, with dinosaur and mummies as heavy hitters. On Tuesdays the entrance fee is free from 3:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. and other days cost only $8.00.
The McNay Art Museum also boasts water color landscapes, abstract historic paintings and glass work. H.E.B. sponsors the museum, providing free admission on Thursday evenings and only $8.00 other days.
I’ve always felt like San Antonio does not have enough support for art; I hope that they start doing a lot more public art pieces, just on like the sides of highways or walls, anything to add some more culture.
The McNay and Witte Museums are both amazing, I didn’t know about the Southwest Art School. Hoepfully, I can go soon. I love how MacArthur is so involved in everything. There are some amazing artists that I’ve seen in my painting classes the last 3 years. I’m going to miss it when i move next year.
Connor, I’ve always felt the opposite. I feel like san antonio is a perfect city for the arts because of it’s diversity. While it is mostly hispanic, that hispanic population is from all over latin america. This diversity from within latin america, and other areas, creates a base for a thriving fine art scene. From music to paintings, the city of San Antonio seems to encourage all creativity and it is nice to see so much diversity with it.
I agree the city could use more public art projects but that’s not to say San Antonio is doing a bad job. I come from one of the largest cities in Mexico, Monterrey. Monterrey has beautiful pieces of art on every street corner, seriously. I think San Antonio pails in comparison to my hometown, but compared to a lot of the cities I have visited in the U.S. it’s doing a much better job.
Check out http://www.publicartsa.com/ to see a catalog of all the projects in San Antonio.