Culture + Community

4 illuminating San Antonio events to celebrate DreamWeek 2020

Viewers take in "Visibilities: Intrepid Women of Artpace" during the January 9 opening party.

Held each January, the annual DreamWeek Summit offers hundreds of events across San Antonio designed to foster an exchange of ideas on cultural diversity, tolerance, and understanding. Along with symposiums, panel discussions, film screenings, concerts, and art exhibits, DreamWeek also features historical tours and discussions on San Antonio's role within the context of race in the U.S.

Below are four ways — some of them free — to celebrate this important San Antonio event. For a full list of activities, head here.

"Visibilities: Intrepid Women of Artpace"— now through April 26
"Visibilities: Intrepid Women of Artpace" opens in time for DreamWeek and is part of the 25th anniversary celebrations at Artpace, the downtown gallery founded by artist/philanthropist Linda Pace.

Artpace’s International Artist-in-Residence program is world-renowned and has involved more than 200 artists since its inception. Pace died in 2007, but Artpace and the Linda Pace Foundation continue her legacy of support for contemporary art, especially works that convey a feminist perspective and examine social issues.

This year, Artpace is concentrating all of its non-residency exhibition programming to female and female-identifying artists. "Visibilities" will outline Artpace's work highlighting various voices in the female-identifying artistic community.

Works by Pace, Kathy Vargas, Janet Flohr, Jennifer Ling Datchuk, and other artists will examine issues such as femininity, gender, feminism, and identity. The exhibition began January 9 and continues through April 26.

"Telling Our Story" — now through September 20
Institute of Texan Cultures, a Smithsonian affiliate, is hosting this special event, crafted by the African American Quilt Circle of San Antonio. "Telling Our Story" uses narrative quilts to share the trials, tribulations, and triumphs of San Antonio's African American community. The year-long quilt exhibition is scheduled to be displayed through September 20.

Remember Black History on Alamo Plaza — January 17
Join architect/historian Everett Fly and community activist Nettie Hinton for a free tour about San Antonio's role in the civil rights movement.

The presentation begins at Moses Rose's Hideout, 516 E. Houston St., at 10:30 am, and includes a tour of Alamo Plaza. Among other things, Fly and Hinton will talk about how the downtown Woolworth's store was a scene of peaceful lunch counter integration in the 1960s. Local activists and preservationists now are worried about the fate of the former Woolworth's building because of the planned redevelopment of Alamo Plaza, a project that's been met with controversy.

San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum open house— January 25
SAAACAM will host an open house from 10 am-2 pm at 430 N. Cherry St. where community members can visit the historic Sutton Family Homestead. Samuel Sutton, the son of a slave, ran a Mexican gold mine in the post-Civil War years before moving to San Antonio where he became an educator.

Later, Sutton married a fellow teacher, Lillian Smith, and together they had 12 children. They also became prominent business owners in San Antonio's then-fledgling African American community, and hosted a number of noted black leaders, such as Thurgood Marshall and Booker T. Washington.

These are just some of the ways that Dreamweek is delving into the lesser known, yet equally important, parts of San Antonio's history. They are also opportunities to inform the present and future generations about the accomplishments of San Antonio's diverse population.

education preservation

SPARE ART

North San Antonio gets crafty with new creative supplies shop

Photo by Ismael Rodriguez.

Local nonprofit Spare Parts recently opened its brick-and-mortar center for creative reuse.

One local nonprofit organization has spent years getting environmental accountability and community education down to a fine art. And now it’s getting crafty with a new brick-and-mortar shop in North San Antonio aimed to help locals to go green.

Spare Parts was founded in 2010 by executive director and longtime arts educator Mary Elizabeth Cantú to provide a creative spark for area students and schools lacking arts funding and resources. Through a variety of educational programs, public art exhibitions, events, and the organization’s traveling Mini Art Museum, Spare Parts has enlightened thousands of students and San Antonians, all while fostering reuse practices and sustainability, a key tenet of the nonprofit.

Spare Parts’ latest endeavor is another artistic triumph. Its new center for creative reuse, located at 13451 Wetmore Rd., is nothing less than a crafter’s delight. The shop features an impressive array of “pre-loved” and price-reduced artsy merchandise — from paint supplies and paper crafts to sewing items, beading and jewelry, school and office supplies, vintage gadgets, and crafting kits — all of which has been rescued from area landfills.

Cantú notes that proceeds from the new Spare Parts’ shop will enable the organization to further increase creative and educational experiences for San Antonio students and families. But even more so, she hopes the shop will help locals embrace the concept that one person’s trash can be another’s artistic treasure.

“There really isn’t any more room in the world for this stuff. Buying pre-loved at places like Spare Parts or other stores is a way to reduce the amount of things [people] feel that they need,” Cantú said in a recent interview with the San Antonio Sentinel. “We’re challenging people to rethink things around them, buy pre-loved, and find a way to be creative in their lives.”

In the time of COVID-19, however, getting the creative juices flowing isn’t as simple as popping into the Spare Parts shop. Though the center for creative reuse is open, the store is currently offering only weekend curbside pickup of items ordered through its website. But crafters shouldn’t despair, as Spare Parts is offering private in-person shopping experiences in the new year, with the first planned for January 16 and 17.

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