Blue Star Contemporary is a non-profit contemporary art institution located in
San Antonio
San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...
, Texas. It was established by a group of artists in 1986 after the success of the ''Blue Star Exhibition'', a show featuring the work of local contemporary artists in the former Blue Star Ice and Cold Storage warehouse. Blue Star Contemporary, also known as BSC, is run by Executive Director Mary Heathcott.
Background
Blue Star Contemporary is housed in a renovated warehouse in the Blue Star Arts Complex, a mixed-use development containing lofts, apartments, galleries, artist studios, retail stores, and restaurants. BSC is a part of the King Williams Cultural Arts District in the Southtown neighborhood and is located along the
San Antonio River Walk.
Blue Star Contemporary is at the center of San Antonio's First Friday Art Walk, an event that takes place on the first Friday of each month and is intended to provide "a free showcase of the art community in San Antonio." Blue Star Contemporary is credited as being a revitalizing force for the arts district and surrounding neighborhoods. Contemporary Art Month (CAM), San Antonio's month-long celebration of local contemporary art in July, started at the museum.
Programs
In 2016, BSC programs included Creative Classrooms, a free six-week program that brings artists to school classrooms for weekly lessons, the MOSAIC Student Artist Program, a free after-school program for students interested in learning about the arts, and the Berlin Residency Program, a three-month residency at the Künstlerhaus Bethanien granted to four artists from
Bexar County
Bexar County ( or ; ) is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. It is in South Texas and its county seat is San Antonio.
As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,009,324, making it the state's fourth-most populous county. Bexar County ...
annually. Blue Star Contemporary partnered with
BiblioTech, Bexar County's digital library, to open a reading room in the museum's Arts Education Lab in 2016.
Off-site art exhibitions
Art in the Garden is an ongoing partnership between Blue Star Contemporary and the
San Antonio Botanical Garden
The San Antonio Botanical Garden is a , non-profit botanical garden in San Antonio, Texas, United States, and the city's official botanical garden.
History
The Garden was first conceived in the 1940s by Mrs. R. R. Witt and Mrs. Joseph Murphy ...
. Each year, an artist is selected and commissioned to create a site-specific work in the garden.
Blue Star Contemporary has also partnered with the
City of San Antonio's Department of Arts and Culture's Public Art San Antonio division (PASA) to commission ''Plexus c18'' at the
San Antonio International Airport.
References
External links
Blue Star Contemporary* https://web.archive.org/web/20070821000709/http://travel.nytimes.com/travel/guides/north-america/united-states/texas/san-antonio/attraction-detail.html?vid=1154654608603
* http://www.museumsusa.org/museums/info/1167675
* http://www.frommers.com/destinations/sanantonio/A7663.html
* http://www.bizjournals.com/sanantonio/stories/2008/05/05/story10.html
* http://www.americantowns.com/tx/sanantonio/organization/blue_star_contemporary_art_center
* http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/klblr
* http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1248/is_/ai_54432739
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Contemporary art galleries in the United States
Museums in San Antonio
1985 establishments in Texas
Art museums and galleries established in 1985
Art museums and galleries in Texas