Community Calendar

The community is invited to come together with the Rape Crisis Center (RCC SATX) Tuesday, September 15 for our “Light the Path to Healing: Carrying the Light Forward” event at The San Antonio Botanical Gardens Betty Kelso Center. The evening will raise funds for the only rape crisis center serving the city of San Antonio and Bexar County. Every dollar raised supports free counseling, victim advocacy, prevention education, case management, a 24/7 crisis line as well as community prevention education that stops violence before it starts.

The evening will feature a cocktail hour, hors d’oeuvres, silent auction, live entertainment, and honor survivors through an evening of storytelling and inspiring performances. Andrea "Vocab" Sanderson, along with Rob Cockfield, III and Zach Jewell, will deliver a powerful performance of survivor resilience, while special guest speaker, survivor, advocate, social worker, and retired law enforcement officer Gilbert Perez delivers special remarks. The evening will also feature emcee Rick Gipprich, Jr., and a live art rendering by local artist Albert Gonzales.

***Registration is required***

What is the Westside Sound? Born on San Antonio's West Side in the mid-1950s, this groundbreaking musical style blended influences and talent across communities to create a sound that would captivate audiences across the United States and Europe in the 1960s. But who were the pioneering musicians behind it? What made its signature blend of keyboards, saxophone, drums, and soulful rhythms so distinctive? And how was it revived decades later by one of Texas' most celebrated quartets?

Discover the answers in this special conversation moderated by Jose Arredondo featuring two Westside Sound pioneers—Grammy Award winner Sunny Ozuna of the Sunliners and Frank Rodarte of the Dell-Kings and Los Blues—along with Ramón Hernández, the historian who has documented the movement's remarkable legacy. Together, they'll explore the origins, evolution, and enduring impact of one of San Antonio's most influential musical traditions.

In this two-part intensive, award-winning poet and memoirist Brian Turner will share techniques for transforming painful experiences into meaningful, resonant writing. Through craft-focused lessons, you’ll learn how to approach challenging subjects with a broader, more grounded perspective that honors the humanity of the story. Participants will receive additional writing exercises to continue developing their work after the lecture series ends.

DATES: Tuesdays, September 15 & 22, 2026 6:30pm - 8:00pm CT, Online via Zoom COST: Nonmember $90; Member $75; Student $63

REGISTER: https://geminiink.org/events/reservoir-of-love-with-brian-turner/

Brian Turner is the author of five collections of poetry (from Here, Bullet to The Delight of Wild Things) and a memoir (My Life as a Foreign Country). He’s the editor of The Kiss and co-editor of The Strangest of Theatres. His poems and essays have been published in The New York Times and The Guardian, among other fine journals. He has been awarded several prestigious fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship.

Presenting the Artwork of Blanquita Sullivan “Night Breezes” Exhibit in the Molly Shafer Gallery at King William Assoc Office. MEET THE ARTIST Thursday, September 17, 2026, 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.

FREE and Open to the Public of all ages. On view Sep 8 through Oct 29, 2026 Monday – Thursday 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.

Blanquita is an interdisciplinary artist and business leader from San Antonio, Texas. She is currently pursuing an MFA in Studio Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), holds a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University, and studied painting at The Art Students League and the New York Studio School.

“Puro Conjunto: Border(less) Sound” celebrates how this uniquely Texan genre continues to thrive in San Antonio, the region, and beyond. The exhibit will highlight the people, places, and traditions at the heart of conjunto. Museum visitors will see conjunto pioneer Bruno Villarreal’s accordion, along with artifacts central to the genre—some of which will be on display for the first time--along with loans from the community and other organizations. Additionally, visitors are invited to get hands-on with a selection of musical instruments at an interactive station on the exhibit floor.

Adult $10, youth (5-17), senior (65+) and military with ID $5, UT San Antonio students, faculty and staff – Free

Cashless facility – purchase tickets online at https://texancultures.universitytickets.com/

Selena Forever | Siempre Selena is a photographic exhibition featuring images by Texas photographer John Dyer, capturing Selena at a pivotal moment in her rise to stardom.
On View: June 4, 2026 – January 4, 2027

This exhibition features intimate and striking photographs captured during Selena’s rise to international stardom in the early 1990s. The exhibition offers an intimate look at an artist whose talent, charisma and determination transformed Tejano music and helped redefine representation for Mexican American women in popular culture. The featured images have never been displayed together, giving new context to Dyer’s work with Selena.

More than a music icon, Selena was a groundbreaking Tejana whose story reflected the spirit of the American West itself: bold, resilient, entrepreneurial and deeply connected to culture and community. Like generations of Tejanos who helped shape Texas through perseverance, innovation and cultural pride, Selena forged her own path while carrying the traditions of her community forward. Her legacy continues to inspire new generations, embodying the pioneering spirit, creativity and determination that remain central to the story of the West.

“Selena’s story is deeply connected to the cultural pride and artistic expression that define Tejano identity,” said Jackson. “Her influence transcends music and continues to inspire audiences across generations, making her an important part of this broader cultural conversation. The exhibition shares an icon who demonstrates the lasting influence of Tejanos – and Tejanas – in Texas and beyond.

Somos Americanos: Our American Story highlights the ways Mexican Americans have lived out the nation’s highest democratic ideals through public service, civic leadership, and acts of valor. Presenting the stories of Mexican American trailblazers from the battlefield to the halls of justice, from classrooms to boardrooms, the exhibit shows how Mexican Americans have put democracy into action. Opening in July 2026 as part of the America250 commemoration, Somos Americanos affirms that Mexican American history is American history. Opening July 2026!

The exhibit will be on display from July 2 through December 18, 2026.

☀️SUMMER GALLERY HOURS ☀️ This summer, the exhibit gallery is open Wednesday through Friday, 10 AM—NOON and 1 – 4 PM, or by appointment.

MACRI’s programs are funded in part by the City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture, Bexar County, the Mellon Foundation, the John L. Santikos Charitable Foundation Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation, Spurs Give, and individual donors like you! Gracias!

𝘚𝘦𝘭𝘧 is a group exhibition that reexamines video art at Artpace through the work of four alumni artists. Each artist investigates the complexities of identity through self-portraits, projections of the self, and the body as a means of self-representation. This exhibition explores both how individuals perceive themselves and how others might view them.

While each artist employs distinct strategies—whether through video performance, observation, reflection on physical change, or narrative experimentation—they are united in their examination of selfhood. Together, these works offer a multifaceted exploration of identity, inviting viewers to consider the many ways it is constructed, performed, and perceived.

Featured alumni artists include Alex Bag, Paul Pfieffer, Kang Seung Lee, and Anne Wallace.

Opening Reception: September 3, 10am - 1 pm
Artist Talks: September 12, 10am - 1pm

Antithesis in Contemporary Collage is an exhibition emphasizing high contrasts in paper collage, bricolage, and assemblage. Collage is an inherently versatile creative method, often using old and new source materials, with the ability to posture surreal environments by interruptions of scales, figures, spaces, and perspectives. In this exhibition, more intense contrasts are highlighted to elicit something even further, in the way of opposites, or relative extremes– aesthetically, conceptually, and curatorially. Sixteen local, regional, and national artists present antithetical notions of nostalgia, identity, comfort, chaos, destruction, sociology, beauty, and nature.

Curated by Vikky Jones

Exhibiting artists: Todd Brandt, Tink Castillo, Kristen Elzey, Rafael Fernando Gutierrez Jr., Leticia Huerta, Myriam Lanau, Marcy McChesney, Tim Olson, Chloe Poeme, Octavio Quintanilla, Linda Sandoval, Courtney Wynn Sheets, Jennifer Sperry Steinorth, Oscar Tirado, Jeff Wheeler, Donna Zinck

Opening reception: August 28, 6 - 8 pm
Artist Talk: September 26, 1 - 3 pm

The exhibition Exquisite Entropy: Photographs by Trish Simonite, 1972 – 2025 offers audiences the opportunity to enjoy exemplary works from multiple periods produced across Simonite’s celebrated career. Curator Paula Owen has chosen 125 works that present Simonite’s fascination with the paradoxes that historical narratives may carry forward information from the past into new contexts of meaning and that photographic images may inspire new contemplation far beyond the time and place of their creation. As a transnational artist, Simonite’s transformations of scenes and elements of natural and built environments from the English countryside, Greek islands, and Texas honky tonks.