Arts Alive San Antonio

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

While Musical Bridges Around the World is primarily known as a music organization that brings international musicians to San Antonio, it also has an art gallery that has attracted attention in its own right. Launched in 2013 with an exhibit of artist Rex Hausmann’s work, it has been going strong ever since, though the pandemic imposed a temporary halt. Altogether, some 30 exhibitions have been presented since the opening of the space.

To celebrate MBAW’s 25^th anniversary, the gallery will present the special exhibition, JUBILEE, featuring most of the artists who have had shows there over the years. 

It all started with the vision of founder Anya Grokhovski, who, early on, invited visual artists to show their work during MBAW’s concerts, said exhibit curator Diana Roberts. Robert’s husband and well-known sculptor, Danville Chadbourne, was one of those asked.

“That’s how we got involved,” recalled Roberts during a recent interview. “And we have been fans and supporters of Musical Bridges ever since.” A few years later, she became the gallery director, succeeding Julya Jara, who moved to another position.

“It’s been a nice outlet for me as a curator,” said Roberts. “I like the fact that it is a relatively small space which allows me to put in more intimate exhibitions. I have a master’s in art history and all my professional work has been in the visual arts, but my undergraduate degree was actually in music. So, it’s very exciting to me to be working at the intersection of these two art forms. It’s not like we are doing a lot of collaborative musical performances in the space, but just the idea of incorporating the visual arts is an important idea.”

The JUBILEE exhibition will feature 35 artists, including several who live outside Texas and even outside the U.S. The majority, however, are from San Antonio and the Lone Star State. Among them are Sylvia Benitez, Tim Beard, Conan Chadbourne, Danville Chadbourne, Salma Arastu, Susan Dunis, Maya Sokovic, Carra Garza, Laura Mijangos, Rex Hausmann, and others.

“San Antonio is a very artist-friendly city,” said Roberts. “Over the years, however, there has been a lot of talk about the fact that it doesn’t have a great art market. A lot of older commercial galleries have closed, and few new ones have come up to take their place. But artists like it here. So many artists who come from elsewhere are sort of shocked at how supportive and generous San Antonio artists are to each other. In many other places, that’s not the case.”

At present, the MBAW Gallery is the only major fine arts entity on the IH-10 corridor between downtown San Antonio and Boerne, “positioned to help bring its mission and vision to the larger community.”

Most of the works in the JUBILEE exhibition will be for sale, with the exception of a few which have been borrowed from private collections.

“It’s a wide range of work. I like visiting studios and talking to the artists but my favorite part of the whole process is installing the show,” said Roberts. “As I live with the pieces, and move them around, I start seeing all these wonderful interactions between the art works, including some that you wouldn’t intuitively see at first. I really enjoy finding the correspondences between the artworks.

“Installing an exhibit is a lot of work, with tedious tasks, but watching the show come together, doing that last walk through before the opening…, it’s just sooo satisfying.”
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 Opening reception Aug. 20 at 5 p.m.; 23705 Frontage Rd. Suite 101, 78257; free but tickets required; 210-464-1534 or email concerts@musicalbridges.org; the exhibition will remain on view through Dec. 17; for tickets go to https://musicalbridges.org/event/jubilee-art-gallery/