San Antonio City Hall renovation reveals niches now filled with art celebrating the city’s people, music and neighborhoods
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The new works of art in the town hall don’t take up much space, but they do take up a lot of space.
Commissioned by six San Antonio artists as part of the recently completed three-year renovation of the City Hall, the pieces offer snapshots of the city’s history, people, neighborhoods and architecture. They are hidden in niches uncovered on the second, third and fourth floors of the 1891 building.
“These buildings have central rooms with windows and doors for ventilation because there used to be no air conditioning,” said Debbie Racca-Sitre, director of the city’s arts and culture ministry. “When they removed part of the rock slabs, they exposed these niches that were either doors or windows inside the building. And the architects found them and said, ‘Oh, these would be great places for art.’ “
City officials agreed. A committee of the city’s public arts commission selected the artists who were asked to create pieces that reflected the geography, culture, and history of the city.
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Ana Fernandez’s oil painting “Three Streets” shows the neighborhoods along the Austin Highway, Culebra Road and Fredericksburg Road.
Jessica Phelps / San Antonio Express-News
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“Foundational Elements” by the artist Emily Fleisher, one of six new commissioned works for the town hall, shows three cast concrete sculptures that represent important buildings in the city.
Jessica Phelps / San Antonio Express-News
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Mari Hernandez’s mixed-media work “Tap Pilam Nation Portraits” is installed on the fourth floor of the town hall.
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The installation “Foundational Elements” by the artist Emily Fleisher from San Antonio includes cast concrete reproductions of the town hall, the courthouse of Bexar County and the Mission Espada.
Jessica Phelps / San Antonio Express-News
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The townhouse installation “Entre Fronteras Memory Migration Maps” by artist Ruth Leonela Buentello from San Antonio was partly inspired by the immigration stories of her family.
Jessica Phelps / San Antonio Express-News
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Megan Harrison’s digital collage “Morning, Noon and Night” shows images from various parks and green spaces in the city. It is one of six new works commissioned by San Antonio artists for the City Hall.
Jessica Phelps / San Antonio Express-News
Due to security measures, members of the public cannot go in to see the artwork. Everyone who comes to the town hall must have a specific purpose, such as an appointment with a representative of the city council. Racca-Sitre and her staff are planning an open house in the near future so people can see the new artwork, as well as other pieces from the city’s art collection, that are on display in the basement.
The work in the 71 centimeter high and 13 centimeter deep niches on the second and third floors and 24 centimeters deep on the fourth floor flank the office space.
Emily Fleisher’s “Foundational Elements” is the only sculpture installation. In each of the three niches rests on a desk a small limestone-like representation of a local building – the City Hall, Mission Espada and Bexar County Courthouse. Glass lampshades above each desk are intended to remind of the bell towers of the Espada and San Juan missions.
As part of their trial, Fleisher researched the history of the town hall.
Interactive guide
Guide to Public Art in San Antonio
“It was always office space,” she said. “Then I got the funny idea that the alcoves were like the smallest cubicles ever, like joke offices. Then the idea arose to build small desks to match and to place the structures on them.
“I was thinking of people who work in this room, kind of anonymous people who have worked there for the past 120 years or so, and the very slow, methodical work that makes a city grow.”
Ruth Leonela Buentello’s “Entre Fronteras Memory Migration Maps” was inspired by family stories about migration from Mexico to San Antonio and her experience as a clerk for young migrants. Maps form the background for each panel and native plants line the floor.
In the left panel a mother and a child stand in front of the card, fear engraved on their faces. The middle panel bears a photo of Buentello’s grandmother, surrounded by her grandchildren. And the right panel shows a photo of her mother, who emigrated from Piedras Negras to San Antonio. A pair of swallows flies overhead.
“Swallows are migratory birds and know no borders,” says Buentello. “So I thought to myself, there is a nice symbolism for it.”
She hopes the stories that inspired the play will be registered with lawmakers.
“I just hope it reminds the council that they look after families descended from people who immigrated here and that there are families who continue to immigrate to the neighborhood,” she said. “Your choices affect real families, real people.”
The other artists and their works are:
Ana Fernandez’s “Three Streets” shows the neighborhoods through which Culebra Road, Austin Highway and Fredericksburg Road meander.
Raul Rene Gonzalez ‘”Music in the City” captures the energy of concerts by jazz, heavy metal and tejano and conjunto artists over the years.
Mari Hernandez’s “Tap Milam Portraits” include vivid depictions of descendants of the region’s First People in front of the Blue Hole Headwater Sanctuary, the San Francisco de la Espada Mission, and the San Juan Capistrano Mission.
And Megan Harrison’s digital collage “Morning, Noon and Night” mixes images of nature from various parks and green spaces across the city.
Racca-Sitre said she was satisfied with the outcome of the installations and hoped that town hall visitors would see them as an indicator of the strength of the city’s art scene.
“I hope people see that San Antonio has great artists and great contemporary art,” she said. “I want people to know that we are a city of the arts.”
dlmartin@express-news.net | Twitter: @DeborahMartinEN
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