24th annual Contemporary Art Month kicks off July 2
Yahoo
Newsvine
Del.icio.us
Facebook
Google
Reddit
Fark
Kelly O'Connor steps back and looks at the black smudges streaming down the eyes of Alice, one of her painted Disney characters.
“This is the death of CAM,” she says.
She's only kidding. The 24th annual Contemporary Art Month will be under way Thursday, July 2, with a slew of citywide art events. CAM will move to March next year, to coincide with Luminaria, attract more visitors and avoid the sweltering July heat. Artists like O'Connor welcome the move.
“It's hot, and people are on vacation,” O'Connor said.
Bill Fitzgibbons, president and executive director of the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, said moving CAM to March with Luminaria, the one-night art event, will attract more cultural tourists to the city.
“I think we have a real opportunity to attract cultural tourists,” he said. “That creates a possibility of people coming here and collecting San Antonio artists' works.”
A main goal is to promote CAM nationally, said Ben Judson, a member of the CAM interim board of directors.
“The idea is that it could be a strong tourist attraction,” Judson said.
More than 20 years ago, Blue Star was transformed from a rundown warehouse into an exhibition space for contemporary art. Local artists were looking for a strong support system, and with it came the art center and CAM.
“People were trying to do cutting edge stuff,” Judson said of the artists. “They felt like they didn't have any institutional support at that period.”
Each year for CAM, Blue Star invites a guest curator. O'Connor's Disney-gone-disturbed installation is a part of the four-person show “Lonely Are the Brave” with guest curator Hills Snyder, which is the official opening event for CAM.
“Contemporary art is the art of our time,” Fitzgibbons said. “Communities should embrace their artists. Those cities that celebrate contemporary culture are the most successful and exciting cities in the world.”
The Southwest School of Art and Craft has also played a large role in CAM. This year, its exhibitions will focus on drawings, which director of exhibitions Kathy Armstrong said is a fundamental art medium.
Armstrong said CAM is an opportunity to paint an image of San Antonio.
“You get a very good feeling for the pulse of a city through its art,” Armstrong said.
And still, the art community and events like CAM thrive in the smaller, grassroots galleries such as Unit B (Gallery), Sala Diaz and Three Walls, along with the larger institutions such as Blue Star, ArtPace, the Southwest School and the museums.
“A lot of the energy of the art community is run on these smaller, artist-run spaces,” Judson said.
Cactus Bra Space is one such gallery. Local artist Meg Langhorne's show, “Animal,” will open at Cactus Bra Thursday, July 2. Her gouache paintings of man and beast are partly inspired by paperback romance novel covers, but with intriguing twists.
Langhorne said CAM provides opportunities for people of the art community to gather together, but she's seen the event grow outside that since she moved to San Antonio in 1989.
“I think it's become much more than just an art event, more like a fair sometimes, or a carnival,” Langhorne said.
Emily Messer | 210SA contributor
(0)