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San Antonio Artists: Your City Wants You

City of San Antonio
Ballroom Luminoso (recent public art installation)

San Antonio needs a few good artists. As the city's Public Art Manager Jimmy Leflore explains, “We’re looking for artists of different backgrounds, not just one particular type.”

There are several different kinds of public art projects they’re seeking artists for.

“We’ll have two new libraries," Leflore continues, "we have a series of parks that are going to be improved. We’re looking at probably eight to ten artists that will be selected in the coming year. There are over 20 projects that we’re looking to do as part of the 2012 bond package.”

This is all being done through the auspices of PASA, or Public Art San Antonio, which manages public art installations throughout the city. He thinks public art isn’t a luxury, but an historic obligation.

“We still have a responsibility, just as was done throughout Europe, to invest and to mark our own statement about who we are and what we feel and express about our community in those important things, and that does come out in public art.”

The city’s biggest work of art is its River Walk, art that is inextricably linked to the world’s concept of the city. And really, it didn’t have to be that way. All the River Walk had to do was to keep downtown from flooding. However, as Leflore notes...

“The entire world looks at the River Walk as an amazing success, so we know that we can be successful here repeating those kinds of efforts in the future.”

And so the process for creating the next round of public art—albeit much smaller, is on. The full list of open projects is posted at: http://www.publicartist.org/

Jack Morgan can be reached at jack@tpr.org and on Twitter at @JackMorganii