Arts Commission envisions colorful goals for community
Members of the city of San Marcos Arts Commission recently came together for a “visioning process,” providing each with a chance to discuss their dreams and goals for artistic projects that may grace the city in the next year.
According to the city of San Marcos website, members of the arts commission are appointed by the City Council and it is this body which decides which art projects, in all the varied forms, are deserving of funds derived from the city’s hotel occupancy tax funds. These HOT funds are meant to be spent on projects that promote tourism to San Marcos.
Arts Coordinator of the San Marcos Arts Commission Trey Hatt said that 50% of the HOT funds are to be used on public art while the other half are reserved for the annual Arts and Cultural Tourism Grant programs.
The meeting Wednesday was held principally for members to share ideas on how to use the half of the HOT funds that are designated for public art. This is a broad category that may include any of the following: drama, folk art, dance, vocal music, design and allied fields, architecture, creative writing, photography, painting, sculpture, graphic and craft arts, radio, television, motion pictures, tape and sound recording and other related arts.
The commissioners discussed the possible creation of a place for community theater and literature or poetry readings. They all agreed that the focus should not just be on visual arts, but should also include cultivating a space for other art forms here as well.
Arts Commissioner Rick Garcia said he has numerous plans under consideration for the community. One of his visions he said involves a downtown hiking or biking trail with “an anchor site in the future that will be the performing arts center for the city of San Marcos.”
“What I’m envisioning is a place for performance spaces which could be theater, cinema, dance, and in addition to that art galleries, rehearsal spaces, rehearsal studios, art studios, workshop spaces and a museum space for the history of San Marcos,” he said.
The trail would have different public art stops and historical buildings along the way.
“My action plan is that we would stimulate the creation of a committee and start that dialogue which would include members from the Dunbar community, the Historical Society, Parks and Recreation, whatever city arts departments as well as the private owner of that [anchor] facility,” Garcia said.
A few of the stops along Garcia’s proposed trail would include the Calaboose African American Museum, Cephas House, Old Hays County Jail, Entryway Mural Project, Valley Street Drainage Green Space (a possible future park), Historic Cotton Gin, Dunbar Neighborhood, Centro Culturo Hispano, Ramon Lucio Park and a path down the river to the Community Center.
“Along that trail are existing art projects that we’ve installed,” Garcia said.
Garcia said he understands that his dream is a large one and so he has a smaller, related idea to suggest if the grander plan is out of reach.
“I definitely think we need to improve the current Plaza Park outdoor stage,” Garcia said, adding that currently, “it's just a platform. It doesn’t have lighting. It doesn’t have sound. It doesn’t have acoustic shells. It doesn’t have seating. It’s another thing that already exists that we could improve.”
Garcia also suggested a water curtain be created which by day would be a fountain, and at night would have media art projected onto it.
Arts Commissioner Kelly King-Green discussed the possibility of adding sculptures that incorporate light into the community which would add a bit of ambiance to the night scene. Another idea KingGreen proposed that generated some excitement iamong the other commissioners was to paint the basketball court at city park.
Images she showed as examples incorporated the court shapes but added bold splashes of color.
“That whole area is so remiss of color,” King-Green said. “There are lots of muralists that are specializing in this, so this would be something where we could find people who have experience [working] with the exposure and the paint” and have knowledge of how all of those aspects work together.
King-Green said she also envisioned a space that could be functional and sculptural, something that could serve as an “intimate venue” with an artistic spin.
“These are things that for me, personally, have an aesthetic quality and feel sculpture-esque, but are also pragmatic and serve some function,” KingGreen said.
King-Green suggested sculptural seating that might bring the community together. One of the example pictures she showed was a large rectangular concrete structure with human-shaped curves that allowed for pedestrian use.
“This idea of napping in a park in something like that feels so lovely and reflective,” King-Green said.
For more information on the arts commission go to smtxarts.com.
