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Visit Seven Cultural Institutions With One Pass On 'Broadway Reach'

Eileen Pace
/
TPR News

Seven institutions along the Broadway corridor have created a collaborative to showcase the art, culture and history available in a tightly-knit area north of downtown.  

The multi-level effort was first brainstormed during SA 2020 meetings almost three years ago.

"Well, we’ve been working together for a number of years, meeting and talking about how we could work together more effectively," said Dr. William Chiego, director of the McNay Art Museum.

The Broadway Reach includes: San Antonio Children's Museum, San Antonio Museum of Art, Botanical Garden, Witte Museum, Brackenridge Park, San Antonio Zoo and McNay Art Museum.

Chiego said after kicking around many ideas, a pass program was created to pull the Broadway cultural district together under the name "The Broadway Reach." For $44 - or about $6 per venue - patrons can see them all in a 7-day period.

"It brands the corridor, and it’s part of really identifying the idea of cultural districts in the city that began with the mayor’s 2020 plan. We really love that idea, because we think it really works for the Broadway Reach certainly, but it’s also a way of encouraging not just tourists, not just visitors to the city, but people who live here who’ve never discovered all the institutions that are within a few miles of each other," he said.

But it’s not just about art.

"For example, the Botanical Garden is going to have an event that centers around flowers, and the zoo is going to have an event that centers about oceans, because Ocean Day falls on that same weekend," said the McNay’s Daniella Oliver.

The first event in early June offers special activities at the Children’s Museum, the Brackenridge Conservancy, the San Antonio Zoo, and the Botanical Garden.

Chiego said the group is working with VIA to get a transportation route worked out for the future, but visitors for now can drive to some of the locations and use a bus for the others. 

Eileen Pace is a veteran radio and print journalist with a long history of investigative and feature reporting in San Antonio and Houston, earning more than 50 awards for investigative reporting, documentaries, long-form series, features, sports stories, outstanding anchoring and best use of sound.