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There are several ways to experience Hopscotch, an art gallery and bar next to Travis Park. You can stay in the lounge, sip cocktails, and grab a meal from a food truck. Or you can buy a ticket to go to the gallery on the ground floor, jump in the ball pit and enjoy the funky colors to the pulsing beats of Whitney Houston and Elton John.
If you fancy a thoughtful art experience, there is a room full of locally produced street art and an area known as the “Rainbow Cave”. The walls are covered in 40,000 salvaged plastic bags demonstrating the amount of trash generated every 2½ inch minutes in Texas from the use of single-use shopping bags.
Nicole Jensen and her business partner Hunter Inman opened the gallery last October after running it as a pop-up in an Austin warehouse. The idea came to them at a lunch meeting four years ago, said Jensen, when it occurred to them that, despite the many art festivals in Austin, the city had few places for permanent exhibitions.
“We really wanted to connect the artists and the consumer to where you can only be in town on a Thursday and see all this unique art in a way that feels really responsive,” she said. “In an institutional museum, someone in the family may hesitate and not want to. You can’t get a really good cocktail while listening to Lady Gaga. “
They met an investor, Los Angeles attorney Brian Claypool, at the South by Southwest festival, she said. After trying to find a place in Austin that they liked and could afford, they brought the idea to San Antonio.
Nicole Jensen, co-founder of the Hopscotch Art Gallery at 711 Navarro St., Suite 100, is looking into the “Infinity Boxes”, an immersive mirrored chamber by Los Angeles artist Matt Elson, on Thursday, September 16, 2021.
Marvin Pfeiffer, San Antonio Express-News / Staff Photographer
The gallery shows work by artists from all over the world. In one room, visitors can paint virtual graffiti on a projection on the wall. Another is where you can record your deepest secrets to share anonymously with other visitors (“I liked a girl named Emily, but now I don’t like it. It’s strange,” admitted a girl in first grade). An exhibition that was created in collaboration with the Human Rights Campaign is a labyrinth of inspiring messages that have been laser etched into transparent plastic walls.
As a self-proclaimed “nerdy art kid” during her high school days, Jensen studied art as well as marketing after thinking, “I don’t know if I’m good enough at art to be full-time”. Artist. “After college, she worked in event planning in New York City and later moved to Austin, where she started her own business in the industry, the Austin Tour Co.
“For me it’s a circle,” she said. “At first I thought I would become an artist, and now I can combine hospitality, creating experiences and working with artists all in one.”
Jensen was recently seated for an interview to discuss San Antonio’s art scene, the importance of caring for locals and tourists, and her admiration for the Alamo Drafthouse. The following has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: In the age of smartphones, is it difficult to get people to devote themselves to art?
A: Yes absolutely. For us, we’re never demanding when it comes to art because we feel like that’s half of our goal to really make it accessible. So we are never offended if people don’t understand the artist’s intention in and of itself. But at the same time we really want thought-provoking components in all of our pieces for anyone interested in it.
For example “Rainbow Cave”. Some people might walk in there and fail to understand that it is an environmental piece. It’s really supposed to get you thinking about the rubbish you’re creating, but some people just come in and take a picture. And ironically, we had about 10 (marriage) proposals in this room. We want to be whimsical and playful in everything we do, but we also want people to connect with art.
Part of “Walls Within,” a San Antonio Street Art Initiative installation of street art and murals by local artists on display at Hopscotch Art Gallery, 711 Navarro St., Suite 100 on Thursday, September 16, 2021.
Marvin Pfeiffer, San Antonio Express-News / Staff Photographer
Q: How did you come to move your business to San Antonio?
A: Part of it was that we just couldn’t find the right spot in Austin. We value community and collaboration, and the spaces we found off the highway or in an industrial park were to ourselves.
While waiting to get rid of something, we went searching other cities and came across various locations in San Antonio. In the end, we had to convince a bit here because we took over a corner of an old office building. But we love (Travis Park) and St. Anthony and we work a lot with (Travis Park Church) on give-back components, and Jazz’SAlive is next weekend. And the ice rink will be there soon. So that was a big part of it – just the opportunity to work together down here.
And San Antonio is just a unique art city, there are so many creative people and the history here, the buildings here, we just fell in love with the idea.
Q: I could imagine the real estate costs are lower, right?
A: Absolutely, that’s a component. You know, we’re a bootstrapping new business so we don’t have billions of dollars to just pick the building we want, anywhere.
It is always a factor in expansion decisions. We kind of look everywhere. But I would say in the end we didn’t want to jeopardize Hopscotch’s vision. Being alone in a city really opened up opportunities and possibilities.
Nicole Jensin, co-founder of the Hopscotch Art Gallery at 711 Navarro St., Suite 100, stands in the “Rainbow Cave”, which was built by the Brooklyn-based artist Basia Goszczynska from 40,000 recovered plastic bags and fishing nets. 2021.
Marvin Pfeiffer, San Antonio Express-News / Staff Photographer
Q: The city is always trying to get more business into the city center. Did they work to get you here?
A: The city doesn’t. Kevin Covey from GrayStreet (Partners) – he’s a big reason we’re here.
When we started, Hunter and I had a concept book. You know, we might as well have been door-to-door sellers, we didn’t have a lot of money in the bank. Most people have no idea what you are talking about when they talk about this concept. Most landlords don’t care, they just want you to pay the rent. So they look at your bank account and say, “No, we’re going to go with this chain that can certainly pay the rent.” Kevin instantly fell in love with the idea of Hopscotch because of his passion for the city and felt like it could be an important thing down here.
Q: Do you have any idea what part of your clientele is made up of locals and tourists?
A: About half and half.
Ultimately, I hope it’s a bit of both. We want to be the place where when you have friends in town you say, “Let’s go to Hopscotch.” You know, this place that the locals want to take tourists to.
We really focused on the locals first. That has always been our wish. I never want to be a place where the locals say, “Oh, this tourist place”. You know, we worked with a lot of local artists on purpose and we have local bar tiles, local bartops. So we really want to have these local pieces. We do salsa Sundays, you know Jose Amador and salsa bands.
Q: How do you think of San Antonio’s art scene compared to that of cities like Austin?
A: I think San Antonio is way ahead of many cities, to be honest. There are so many institutional places to visit in San Antonio – I mean, McNay (art museum), Witte (museum), and (the San Antonio Museum of Art), it’s just really busy. And the architecture and southtown. I think we’re still kind of a hidden gem – that people don’t understand how many really great, cool, unique creative people live in San Antonio. We loved being here.
Q: Are you thinking about opening locations in other cities?
A: Yes sir. We just signed at West Harbor, Los Angeles. We won’t open that until 2023 or 2024. You are just breaking the ground. It’s a great entertainment and dining district. It’s right on the harbor. They’re building an amphitheater.
And then we have some spin-off ideas that we’ve poked around with and different ways to work together, be it in San Antonio or Austin. We looked at Portland, Minneapolis, Philadelphia – we just cast a wide net and see what opportunities arise. We never want to be a huge brand. I would say that in the end we might be aiming for four locations, and each one would be different in its own way.
Q: Was the store profitable the year it opened?
A: Yes, it has. You know, we can’t say exactly how successful we will be on COVID or not, but I would definitely say that we are very happy all in all. We opened a year later than we wanted to because of all the delays and shipping and construction and everything. So we had to open up somehow. Nobody wants to open in this climate.
Q: When did you originally plan to open?
A: Gosh – when we first met we thought, “We’ll be open until summer!” And that was 2018. And then it took about a year to get our lease ready so we thought we would open in autumn 2019. And then there were delays in selling the building. We were supposed to start construction on March 1st, 2020 – which we eventually did, but then the pandemic started. So we ended up in October 2020.
Q: How was the opening during the pandemic?
A: It was really hard. The hardest part for me, I think, is that I tried not to take things so personally. You know, you haven’t spent your entire life building this unique experience and all of a sudden you have to deal with angry mask reviews. It’s like nobody cares about all of the art and work that we’ve done.
Q: What else would you like to know about your company?
A: I would say the holistic hospitality experience is something that tends to set us apart a little. I love the Alamo Drafthouse as a business. I really wanted people not to have to leave to get a good cocktail or wait for food or something like that afterwards. Really trying to make it somewhere where you don’t be there for 45 minutes and then, “What do we do now?” You can hang out and listen to good music and have a really great cocktail or two or three or meet a good DJ and one eat a good bite.
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