© 2024 Texas Public Radio
Real. Reliable. Texas Public Radio.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

SAY Si: Nurturing Artistic Creativity In San Antonio Teenagers

You may already know SAY Sí from what they do for young people in San Antonio.

“SAY Sí is a youth arts development program," said Visual Arts Director Tommy Hopkins. "We provide year-round tuition-free arts programming for middle school and high school students.”

SAY Sí operates from a well-equipped South Alamo location, one geared to teach a wide variety of arts.

"We actually have three arts programs," Hopkins explained. "We have visual arts, media arts, and theater performing arts. There are students who come from all points in San Antonio, from as near as Brackenridge and as far away as East Central. It’s a place where they can access resources, and an expertise and experience.”

A new exhibit opens this weekend, and as Hopkins explained, it covers a large chunk of what they’ve been working on for months.

"The exhibit is called Focus on Form. It’s a sculpture exhibition featuring artwork by high school visual arts students and by middle school students," said Hopkins. "It’s also featuring work that they did in media arts -- they created their own comic books. And we’re also going to have a performance by our middle school and high school TeatroAlas group -- a series called Wings to Fly."

He further detailed when the exhibit is and what people can expect if they go.

"The performance is on Friday, April 4, at 7 p.m. and there’s going to be subsequent performance on Saturday, April 5, also at 7 p.m., and on Sunday at 3 p.m.," Hopkins said. "And these performances are based off of the short plays written by emerging high school and college playwrights in San Antonio."

Admission for the celebration is $5 for adults and $3 for children. Hopkins knows SAY Sí's arts programs aren't specifically just for career artists in the making. The skills learned there can be applied in most any adult endeavor.

“Not all of our students are going to pursue the path of an exhibiting artist, but they will definitely have a wealth of knowledge to draw from,” Hopkins said.

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