GUARDIANS OF THE RIVER: San Marcos Arts Commission, community celebrate new art installation

The San Marcos community gathered to celebrate and dedicate a new art installation near the San Marcos River.

The “Guardians of the San Marcos River” art installation was designed and created by San Marcos High School students to depict the creation story attributed to the indigenous Coahuiltecan people.

“This art piece will serve as a reminder of the responsibility for all of us to be guardians of our precious river and to pass that responsibility on to future generations,” Mayor Jane Hughson said during Thursday’s dedication ceremony. “I’m so pleased that it was created by high school students who are our future.”

The “Guardians of the San Marcos River” is a permanent art installation located at Ramon Lucio Park, 601 South CM Allen Parkway, consisting of six panels depicting the creation story of the indigenous Coahuiltecan people and the five spirit guardians of the San Marcos River.

Each panel has a tile mosaic designed by San Marcos High School students under the direction of Thom Rogers — project manager and former Visual Arts Team Lead at San Marcos High School. Each student was chosen by the San Marcos Arts Commission and received a $500 scholarship. There are more than 1,000 individual tiles that were created by SMHS students and faculty. In all, approximately 750 students contributed to the process.

“The idea was that we were going to break it up into a grid and have all of these kids paint their names into individual tiles,” Rogers said “So, what you’re looking at here is 750 students kind of declare that they would be guardians of the river. So, that was a beautiful part of it is that we actually reminded these kids that they’re the steward of the future of this river. I love this river. I love this town.”

Dr. Mario Garza, Indigenous Cultures Institute board of elders chair, who presented the Coahuiltecan creation story and dedicated the art installation Thursday with a song, said he’s pleased to see the project completed.

“When I proposed [the art project], it was just before the pandemic and then Thom [Rogers] started working on it,” Garza said. “Before I knew it, the pandemic hit and everything was stopped. Later on, they were able to continue it. So, there’s a lot of people that I want to thank. Thom for guiding the students to do this project and then all also all the over 170 students that participated … I want to thank the students for the great work that they did.”

The six students’ artworks chosen for the installation were Leela Jackson: “The Creation Story;” Brynna Wharton: “Panama” (deer);  Michaela Manriquez: “Pa-uta’p” (eagle);  Isabella Elmore: “Miakan” (waterbird); Sage Gonzales: “Apamxuepet” (jaguar); and Faith Voorhis: “Clam paya yuye” (wolf).

The Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, the San Marcos Arts Commission and the San Marcos City Council approved the $8,000 installation in 2018. The students’ designs were selected by the Arts Commission in 2019. Work on the tiles, final assembly, and site installation were postponed until this year due to the pandemic’s impacts on in-person education and school attendance.

With the art installation complete, Jackson said it was heartwarming to see the community’s reaction to the project during Thursday’s dedication ceremony.

“I never really suspected that a project like this would be in my reach,” said Jackson, who recently graduated from San Marcos High School in May. “But, I was like, ‘I’m gonna go ahead and do it anyway.’ Whenever I got the call, I was like, ‘There’s no way I actually won that, like what?’ Seeing the process of it happening and it’s been really cool to watch how everybody worked together as a team to finish all of these.”

Wharton, who graduated from San Marcos High School in 2019, said it makes her happy to see the art project come to fruition.

“The project just stalled out during covid. I didn’t know if it was ever gonna come back,” Wharton said. “So, I got the message a couple of weeks ago that it was finally up and it made me so happy … It’s just so exciting having something that’s just for everyone to see in a permanent display. It makes me excited that maybe this could be an inspiration to someone else.”