Arts Alive San Antonio

by JASMINA WELLINGHOFF, Editor

A few years ago, I was driving to Austin when the song “Born in San Antone” came on the radio as part of an Americana music program. I liked it right away but did not catch the name of the singer/songwriter.

In one of those little surprises that life offers here and there, I discovered the other day that the singer/songwriter of that catchy tune is Garret T. Capps, a San Antonian indeed, a talented musician and the owner of the Lonesome Rose, a club on St. Mary’s street. And he is also the guy behind VIVA! A Live Telethon Supporting the Arts & Artists in San Antonio, a livestream event that will benefit the Luminaria Artist Foundation’s Corona Arts Relief Program. It’s scheduled for this Saturday, May 9, from 6 p.m. to midnight.

“When this pandemic started becoming real serious and everything started shutting down, including my establishment, the Lonesome Rose, I started thinking of ways to kind of keep the ball rolling,” said Capps in a phone interview. “Everyone started streaming performances but I wasn’t wild about doing it myself. Something about the lack of production values in those “home-made” videos was not appealing to me. So, I tried to think big and came up with this idea of a telethon.”

He approached folks at Texas Public Media whom he already knew, and found out that “everyone thought it was a cool idea.” “I wanted to make it bigger than just my bar, and that’s when we came up with the idea of asking Kathy (Armstrong), of the Luminaria Artist Foundation if they wanted to be part of it.”

Things took off from there. Luminaria had already been involved in an artist relief program with the city’s Department of Arts and Culture, through which 49 artists, who lost income due to event cancellations, were given some financial help. Need exceeded resources, however, and that fund simply ran out of money. Capps was offering a new way to raise funds. So, with Luminaria on board, “the telethon acquired a clear focus,” he said. “I am a touring musician, so music is my forte and I was looking at assisting musicians at first, but the goal was expanded to help all artists.”

To get the ball rolling, a call went out to artists to send videos of their work to be broadcast during the telethon, resulting in more than 150 entries in a range of art forms, from music and dance performances to experimental films, video art, documentaries and gallery tours, said Luminaria’s executive director, Kathy Armstrong. “The need is overwhelming,” she noted. “We were not able to help everyone in the first round. Many artists are hurting now.”

Among the artists who will be featured Saturday are well-known names such as visual artists Sarah Fox, Gary Sweeney and Joey Fauerso; musicians Nina Diaz, Henry Brun and the band Pinata Protest; as well as Ballet Folklorico Festival and filmmakers Alejandro de Hoyos, Justo Cisneros and Angela Walley. A pre-show, starting at 3 p.m., will showcase a number of arts organizations such as the San Antonio Museum of Art, the Briscoe Western Art Museum, Blue Star Contemporary, URBAN-15, the Woodlawn Theater, Luminaria and others.

Armstrong is hoping the telethon will raise at least $10,000 which will be combined with donations from the Brown Foundation and the San Antonio Area Foundation to create the new fund. Artists can start applying for assistance on May 12.

“This event is uniting all the arts together, in a universal voice,” she said. “It will generate funds for the artists to continue to create art for our city.”

As for Capps, he conceded that he had never hosted anything like a massive telethon before. “Ha,ha! It will be fun!” he emailed us.

And, indeed, it promises to be just that – a unique opportunity to see a kaleidoscope of arts “from the comfort of your home.”

Saturday, May 9, 6 p.m. to midnight; www.npr.org, www.luminaria.org, www.nowcastsa.com. Donations through Luminaria’s PayPal account.