Another big weekend is heading our way. There’s plenty to do—here’s a snapshot. Saturday morning Artpace shuts down parts of downtown. Artpace’s Taylor Browning explains Chalk It Up.
“We are! We’ve closed streets to traffic from Flores to Jefferson. We’ll be having ArtpaceChalk It Up from 10 AM to 4 PM on 5 blocks of Houston Street.”
Teams will create intricate 8 by 10 chalk murals. Twenty thousand people will be playing in the streets. They'll have food trucks and a lot more.
“In addition to that we’ll have twenty feature artists. Then we’ll have our showcase Artist, Cruz Ortiz. The weather is supposed to be amazing so it should be an incredible day.”
If you think mesquite trees are good for nothing, Alan Carr disagrees with you.
“It is the most desirable wood for artists and furniture makers.”
He and dozens of other mesquite artists are gathering in Fredericksburg this weekend for the Texas Mesquite Arts Festival at Marktplatz.
"On Saturday we open up at 9 o’clock in the morning and we run ‘til five and on Sunday we open between 9 and 10, and we’ll run ‘til 3 o’clock.”
There’s a huge variety of mesquite art to buy, but the event is also a knowledge-sharing one. He says artists are quite happy to help the novices come along in their knowledge of how best to work with Mesquite.
“There are no secrets. We share with the public.”
Then on Sunday, how about a little Flamenco?
"We have a cast of five musicians and five dancers. And so all of our music is live.”
Olivia Chacon’s troupe is called A’lante Flamenco. As part of the Guadalupe Cultural Arts’ Flamenco Festival, they’re presenting something called Desplazados--Spanish for displaced. Through their dance and music they're addressing one of the biggest issues of the day: immigration.
“In Desplazados we’re allowing some of our company members to tell their own stories in their own words about their immigration experiences.”
A’lante mixes traditional Flamenco with new music and innovations. She says that audiences really "feel" their performances.
"The audience members cry, they laugh a lot. They come out of the show feeling as they know each member of the company personally."
For more on Chalk It Up, go here.
For more on the Texas Mesquite Arts Festival go here.
For more on A'lante Flamenco's performance, go here.
