Opera San Antonio is ready to return to live, in-person performances and it’s doing it with verve and panache by staging “Lucia di Lammermoor” on May 6 and 8 at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts. “Lucia” is a beautiful bel-canto opera depicting a tragic story of love in a hostile environment, similar to the iconic tale of “Romeo …

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor In her letter to members of the San Antonio Arts League & Museum, president Dona Waltson included a special note for Laurin McCracken, the juror of SAALM’s 91st Annual Juried Artist Exhibition, currently on view at the museum. “Thank you, Laurin McCracken, for creating this stunning exhibit,” she wrote. The “stunning” show that features 64 artworks, …

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor One silver lining of spending a lot of time at home – as we all did last year and still do – is time to learn new things or improve the skills that we already have. And that’s exactly what flamenco artist Tamara Adira did for a number of months. Once it became clear that live …

While the name, Pabst Brewing Company, makes you think of beer, the venerable beer maker has other interests and goals, too, including supporting the arts across the United States. The company moved its headquarters to San Antonio in 2020 and it’s making its presence known through several initiatives – a new gallery in Southtown (1112 S. St. Mary’s) and a …

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor The Luminaria Artist Foundation has just announced the winners of its annual grant program which awards funds to individual artists for the creation or completion of new original work in their discipline. The grants are given in three categories: Literary Arts, Visual Arts and Performing Arts, from moneys provided by the City of San Antonio, prominent …

The poems we are publishing this week were written in response to a painting by one of the most prominent contemporary Western artists, Mark Maggiori. The image was chosen by the Briscoe Western Art Museum. This concludes the 2021 National Poetry Month Ekphrastic Poetry series. 2021 EKPHRASTIC POETRY WINNERS – BRISCOE WESTERN ART MUSEUMArtwork: Once Upon a Time, Mark Maggiori …

Lots of good music is in the works for the weekend and beyond. Musical Bridges Around the World (MBAW) will be presenting its annual International Music Festival again this spring but it will be a virtual fest, taking place on a single day, April 21, from 12, noon, to 4:45 p.m. The event will feature performances by a range of …

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor Please describe your job.I oversee the McNay’s curatorial department, which includes our collection, our exhibitions program and our archives. It’s the content part of what we do.Our work involves working with the art, working with collectors, working with artists, working on acquiring and presenting works of art. And we work closely with our education department that …

By JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor — San Antonio appears to have a very special relationship with Mexican sculptor Enrique “Sebastian” Carbajal, better known as just Sebastian. It started with his red “Torch of Friendship” sculpture in the heart of downtown that’s been brightening the center city for more than 20 years, and has blossomed through a recent city-wide exhibition of his …

The poems we are publishing today were inspired by the Apache Pitch Lined Basket, from the Witte Museum Collection. (Adult Winning Poems (in no particular order) Skin Thirst (spoken to Apache Pitch Lined Basket) by Mobi Warren Your pine pitch has weathered to a fabricof scattered ash and mottled mallow rose.Pomegranate-womb, memory of water. My hands reach across time to touch the handsthat made you. Palm to ghostly palm, sweetgrass-scented hands coarsenedto the task of …