SAVE THE DATE! April 27, 2024: Ekphrastic Celebration Reading by winning poets at Ruby City at 10 a.m.
Judges: Jim LaVilla Havelin, 2024 National Poetry Month coordinator, Eddie Vega, award-winning poet, and Linda Simone, poet, artist, educator, will select up to three poems per artwork for each category.
Read winning poems here.
Leave a Fortune + Take a Fortune
Saturday, May 5, 2024, 12-4PM
Ruby City Plaza
Take a Fortune + Leave a Fortune is a community engaged project initiated by the Art Activating Hope collaborative. In this come-and-go all-ages project, learn how to make a felt fortune cookie, receive a fortune written by other participants, and leave a fortune for future participants. No registration is required.
About Art Activating Hope
Art Activating Hope (AAH) is a community-based art initiative promoting effective social change. The long-term projects approach life and art interchangeably. Some deal with time, memory, and loss while other projects capture moments of joy and shared experiences. Petunia co-founded the AAH Collaborative to nurture creative spaces for belonging and leads public workshops.
Petunia recently received their Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of Texas at San Antonio and is a teaching artist. She appreciates all the little things in life and enjoys spending time with loved ones and nature.
Meditation in Chris Park
Sunday, May 19, 2024, 10-11AM
Meditation in Chris Park returns! Every third Sunday of the month in March, April, and May join seasoned meditation practitioner and sound artist Pamela Martinez for a restorative one-hour meditation experience. Each session begins with an introduction to this practice (making this perfect for a first-timer) and includes a variety of mindfulness and meditation techniques. Dress comfortably for the outdoors and please bring a mat or cushion for sitting.
Unheard-of Premieres New Word by Vicki Nguyen and NNUX
Tuesday, June 4, 2024, 8-10PM
Ruby City Sculpture Garden
Brooklyn-based quartet, Unheard-of, known for their inventive performances combining contemporary chamber music with technology, will perform in Ruby City’s Sculpture Garden kicking off the ensemble’s festival of performances throughout San Antonio.
For their performance at Ruby City, the ensemble is presenting works by NNUX (composer Ana E. López Reyes and visual artist Martha Maya), as well as a premier by composer Vicki Nguyen. Helix by López Reyes and Maya explores generational and collective trauma, and its impact on Latinx communities. Nguyen’s composition, Ginger-Flavored Bubblegum, addresses violence against Asian Americans, specifically the murders of Theresa Hak Kyung Cha and Christina Yi.
Space is limited. RSVP here.
About Unheard-of
Ford Fourqurean (clarinet), Matheus Souza (violin), Iva Casian-Lakoš (cello), and Daniel Anastasio (piano) are Unheard-of, a Brooklyn-based clarinet, violin, cello, and piano quartet dedicated to connecting new music to communities in New York and across the United States through the development and performance of adventurous programs using technology and interactive multimedia. Unheard-of is committed to the idea that new music belongs in every community and implements this mission through concerts and educational workshops throughout New York as well as on tour. Unheard-of originally began as a commissioning project by Ford and Daniel in 2014 to expand the chamber music repertoire for clarinet and piano. The group formed as a quartet in 2018 and has since grown into a nation-wide community across multiple artistic genres. With an approach that is open and welcoming of all voices, Unheard-of strives to be a vehicle for development and growth for voices novel and experienced, experimental and traditional, uncomfortable and accessible.
About Ginger-Flavored Bubblegum
Nguyen’s composition, Ginger-Flavored Bubblegum, explores transcendence from grief by honoring poet, filmmaker, and artist Theresa Hak Kyung Cha – who was murdered only a few days after the publication of her poetic autobiography, “Dictee.” Using selections of poetry from “Dictee,” this expanded version explores grief using Unheard-of Ensemble, electronics, and videography by Phong Tran.
About Helix
Helix by López Reyes and Maya is a piece that simulates a spiral from pre-Hispanic to contemporary times, contemplating the cycles and inheritance in women’s collective trauma, which has determined the ways we have been shaped as individuals through generations. Ana E. López Reyes and Martha Maya look to break the cycles in women’s generational collective trauma. This work explores their backgrounds and relationships with this trauma, and how it impacts Latinx communities generationally. Musically, the piece also explores the idea of sonic loops that gradually change and break, expanding on the ideas that Ana and Maya explore visually.
Moon Lit Joy: Gallery Talk with Phillip A. Townsend
Saturday, June 29, 2024, 2-3PM
In this insightful program, Phillip A. Townsend, PhD, Curator of Art, Art Galleries at Black Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, delves into After the Dance, 2006, a vibrant and evocative color silkscreen by British artist Chris Ofili. Through an engaging exploration of themes such as water, joy, celebration, and cultural memory, viewers are invited on a journey of discovery, uncovering the rich layers of meaning embedded with Ofili’s masterpiece.
Space is limited. RSVP here.
About Phillip A. Townsend
Phillip Townsend recently received his PhD from The University of Texas at Austin. He specializes in modern and contemporary art of the African Diaspora, focusing on the politics of identity and representational strategies of BIPOC artists. He is a co-founder of the Austin-based curatorial collective, Neon Queen Collective.
Phillip is the Curator of Art at Art Galleries at Black Studies (AGBS) at The University of Texas at Austin.
Meditation in Chris Park
Sunday, September 15, 2024, 10-11AM
Meditation in Chris Park returns! Every third Sunday of the month in March, April, and May join seasoned meditation practitioner and sound artist Pamela Martinez for a restorative one-hour meditation experience. Each session begins with an introduction to this practice (making this perfect for a first-timer) and includes a variety of mindfulness and meditation techniques. Dress comfortably for the outdoors and please bring a mat or cushion for sitting.
Meditation in Chris Park
Sunday, October 20, 2024, 10-11AM
Meditation in Chris Park returns! Every third Sunday of the month in March, April, and May join seasoned meditation practitioner and sound artist Pamela Martinez for a restorative one-hour meditation experience. Each session begins with an introduction to this practice (making this perfect for a first-timer) and includes a variety of mindfulness and meditation techniques. Dress comfortably for the outdoors and please bring a mat or cushion for sitting.
Meditation in Chris Park
Sunday, November 17, 2024, 10-11AM
Meditation in Chris Park returns! Every third Sunday of the month in March, April, and May join seasoned meditation practitioner and sound artist Pamela Martinez for a restorative one-hour meditation experience. Each session begins with an introduction to this practice (making this perfect for a first-timer) and includes a variety of mindfulness and meditation techniques. Dress comfortably for the outdoors and please bring a mat or cushion for sitting.
Past Events
