SAN ANTONIO — The 15th Luminaria Contemporary Arts Festival is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 21 and here's everything you need to know before attending one of the biggest arts showcases the South Texas region has to offer.
The festival will be held at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center along with the newly renovated Hemisfair grounds from 6 p.m. to midnight. The event provides local artists an opportunity to showcase their work and connect with the San Antonio community through their art.
According to the press release, the festival will include two live music stages, five large-scale digital art projection areas, a spoken word stage at UNAM San Antonio sculptures, full gallery of fine art at the Mexican Cultural Institute and more across Civic Park, Hemisfair and the Convention Center.
Inside the Mexican Cultural Institute ahead of Luminaria, hangs what looks like a Victorian-era painting of a woman on a swing with an elaborate, flowing dress, but…
"She's got bananas on her head, and she's got eggs in her eyes,” Executive Director of Luminaria.Yadhira Hozano said, describing the work by Laredo born artist Ana Hernandez
“And so, Why? Ana, why? So. So you can come and ask her those questions," Hozano said
This year's Luminaria will showcase more than ten months of work for over two hundred contemporary artists, some like Hernandez, some very different.
"We want to showcase all of the arts, not just one genre, not just one ethnicity, not just one gender, not just one, you know, age group. Everybody can apply to be part of the festival," Hozano said
Hozano said they chose to have a quinceañera theme for Luminaria’s 15th anniversary.
Despite the artwork taking months to prepare, most of it will only be on display for a matter of hours.
"You got to come out here,” Hozano said. “Your fear of missing out, you're going to miss out."
Canvas artwork like Hernandez’s will be on display in the Mexican Cultural Institute through the first week of November, but most of Luminaria will be outside.
"There's going to be lasers, there's going to be projections on the buildings,” Hozano said.
Hozano said all of the artists will be present at the event, giving people a chance to get up close and personal with the artwork.
"I want to inspire the next generation so that we can celebrate Luminarias 30th anniversary, our 50th anniversary,” Hozano said. “Because those those kids will have looked at this art and said, Wow, I can do that."
She said Luminaria is committed to paying the artists who take part in the exhibition equitably, giving the creators the chance to be artists, without starving. She said doing so benefits both the Artists, and San Antonio.
“So that they can pay their bills, so that they can buy a new guitar string, so they can buy a microphone,” Hozano said. “So that they can tour and travel. And spread the word of how. Amazing San Antonio is.”
It seems like it will be a great day for the festival to take place as our 10-Day Forecast currently shows a partially cloudy day with a high of 90 degrees and a low of 64 degrees and 0% chance of rain.
Some of the featured artists that will be at the event will include, Emilie Duval for Digital Art, Buttercup for Music, Robb S. Garcia for Film, Wanderlust for Sculptures and much more.
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