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300 Artists To Tell Story Of San Antonio Tricentennial

Tricentennial Commission officials announced Friday a plan to have local artists tell the history of San Antonio.

 

The Common Currents program asks six local arts organizations to select two local artists, which ask two additional artists, who then select another two until 300 artists have been identified, Tricentennial Commission President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said.

"Each Common Currents exhibition is about artists coming together to tell each year of history (for) 300 years," she said.

IF YOU GO What: Common Currents exhibit, Artpace Where: 513 N. Flores St. When: noon to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday Cost:  free

Each artist is assigned one of the last 300 years and the collection will be in displayed in 50 year increments at six different local organizations, she said.

For instance, artist Mark Menjivar was assigned the year 1718.

"He talked about the research that he had to do to learn about everything that occurred that year, and the untold stories, to prepare for his particular artwork that's going to be part of the exhibit," Teniente-Matson said.

This was long before photography, she said, so “he talked about looking into archives, paintings, images, landscapes."

The first 50 artists' work was revealed Thursday night at Artpace. Fifty artists will be displayed each month until May, when all 300 will have been revealed.  

Jack Morgan can be reached atjack@tpr.org

TPR's Tricentennial project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii