CENTRO CULTURAL HISPANO DE SAN MARCOS
Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos is kicking off Youth Art Month with a reception for an exhibit of art created by San Marcos-area students on Sunday March 1 from 3-5 p.m.
Debangana Banerjee, ArtSpace Coordinator at Centro, said the exhibit features more than 185 works by ArtSpace students as well as by students from the Crossroads Transitional Program and Wonderland School.
“When you see the art, you can tell that they are so different, they are beautiful vibrating works,” she said.
Each ArtSpace class is taught by two volunteer instructors. The current teachers are Alexandra Carroll, Lesley Garcia, McKenna Luksa, Elizabeth Ward, Ruth Lay, Hailey Marcial Ramirez, Riley Apel, Andrea Rojas Nino, Kiara Hernandez and Melanie Cortinas.
“Most of the ArtSpace teachers are from the Art Education department at Texas State. They are helping support us so much. They’re sending their students here for experience. So my job is to mentor them. They come, they do the lesson plan with me, and when they teach, I observe their teaching, and then we discuss about how to improve.”
In her role as mentor, Banerjee encourages the ArtSpace instructors to allow the students follow their creative impulses. “I tell the instructors to let the kids do art the way they want,” she said. “I help the kids. I may make suggestions to them, I will ask them the story about ‘what’s going on here?’ But I never ask them to copy my drawing or whatever I am providing.”
She said the ArtSpace students were not directed to create art about a specific theme for the exhibit, although instructors for individual classes may have suggested a specific topic, such as “fall” or “spring.” The works also reflect several different mediums, such as crayons, oils, watercolors and collages.
Collages are especially popular for participants from the Crossroads Transitional Program. The Crossroads program is designed to help special education students from the San Marcos CISD, ages 18-21, transition into their adult lives after high school.
“For them (Crossroads students) sometimes cutting or tearing the paper and pasting paper is a good art therapy kind of thing to do. So I did quite a few classes with paper collage, and that clicked very well,” she said.
Finding out how to behave in an art gallery, as well as learning how to appreciate the art of friends and classmates are also important lessons for students participating in this exhibit, according to Banerjee.
“Another reason for doing the exhibit is providing students with the experience of walking through an exhibition so that when they go to a museum or to a gallery, they will know how to walk in a gallery, we cannot touch the work, or don’t run in a gallery, right?
“It’s also making a habit of looking at the art of other friends. That’s why I thought of doing this during the Youth Art Month, so that they are not only doing art, but appreciating their friend’s art, which is also important.”
The “Photo Booth” selfie backdrop collage, which is an anonymous collaboration between instructors and students, reinforces the importance of working together, she said.
“I also want to teach the students the power of collaboration … it’s fine if you don’t have names everywhere, sometimes it’s okay to create a collaborative work between the teachers and the students.”
Centro has set up two photo booths and an art station for children attending the reception.
March is designated as the National Youth Art Month (YAM), a special occasion to encourage and celebrate promising young artists.
The exhibit is co-sponsored by the San Marcos Arts Commission, The City of San Marcos and The Burdine Johnson Foundation. Original ArtSpace Coodinator Linda Kelsey Jones and Texas State University Art Education faculty members Kevin Jenkins and Sean Justice continue to be essential ArtSpace supporters.
Banerjee has been ArtSpace Coordinator since 2024. She also teaches art at the Wonderland School, a private elementary school in San Marcos.
Centro hosts free hourlong ArtSpace classes for three different age groups: 3-5 and 6-9 (on Thursdays and Fridays) and 10-18 (only on Fridays).
This exhibit will be on display at the Centro Gallery through March 27. Centro Cultural Hispano de San Marcos is located at 211 Lee Street. For more information, visit sanmarcoscentro. org.
