A new art exhibit opened recently downtown at Centro De Artes. It's called Icons and Symbols of the Borderlands.
"Diana Molina from El Paso has curated this exhibit. They (the pieces exhibited) are specific to the Texas Mexico Border."
Debbie Racca-Sittre runs the city's Department of Arts and and Culture and she says these 109 pieces from 25 artists all grew out of the their experiences in the Borderlands.
"Some of them are very serious in nature. They focus on the experiences of people crossing the border and the difficulties experiences--the heat for one thing. But then you also have the treachery of getting across the border. And then just living on the border."
Sittre says Border Artists' day-to-day lives ensure they'll see things artists in other parts of the country just won't.
"Helicopters flying over and drones and things like that, and then their feelings about a wall or a fence or those kinds of things. It kinda runs the whole gamut of those experiences."
The traveling exhibit isn't all serious. It also features stylized wrestler masks, to mesquite animal carvings, to paintings of native species, but they all have a borderland background.
"It's really important I think to show this in San Antonio, because even though we're close to the border, we're more insulated from it. We don't see it every day. We don't live in Laredo or Del Rio."
In case you've not been there, the gallery is on downtown's west side, contiguous with one of the city's most known attractions.
"Centro de Artes is located in Market Square. It's owned by the city of San Antonio and managed by the Department of Arts and Culture, and it's open Tuesday through Sunday from eleven to six.
"And it's pretty affordable, right?" I noted.
"It's free. Totally free."
Find more on Centro De Artes here.
