SAN ANTONIO — If you've been downtown in the last few months, colorful murals or paintings may have caught your attention.
That's the work of Centro San Antonio and it's all part of their Art Everywhere initiative. Their goal – to complete 10 huge art installments in the downtown area before 2020 was over. And yes, they did it.
“Downtown is a place for extraordinary experiences; where our memories are made and become the stories we tell. It’s beautiful to see them articulated via art,” Andi Rodriguez, Vice President of Cultural Placemaking at Centro San Antonio, said. “This initiative is not only an opportunity to support local artists, but an opportunity to support small and local businesses through an enhanced urban landscape and foot traffic generated by interest in these new pieces.”
Rodriguez said it took the help of partnerships with the City of San Antonio, Frost Bank and local property owners and local businesses to make their project a reality.
They commissioned several pieces including “Jubilant And Exuberant Is The Melanin of Our Skin,” the temporary word art at Travis Park written by San Antonio Poet Laureate Andrea Vocab Sanderson, for example. “SA Is Amor,” is the yellow and red hard-to-miss mural on the side of the Traveler’s Hotel on Broadway.
"Touch” is a colorful street-level mural outside of Herwick’s Art Supply. It's a piece by Suzy Gonzalez that reminds us of the importance of unity in the face of challenges.
“Instructions For Use For Adapting To Our State of Constant Change” is a mural on the Maverick Apartments and is a collaboration between Anthony Dean Harris and Justin Parr to offer comfort and stability in the face of a global pandemic.
To learn more about the Art Everywhere initiative, click here.