Tag Archives: Museums and Cultural Affairs Department

The Museums and Cultural Affairs Department encourages shoppers to support local, small businesses by shopping at the Downtown Art and Farmers Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, November 30.

The day after Black Friday is known as Small Business Saturday. Small Business Saturday encourages holiday shoppers to patronize brick and mortar businesses that are small and local.

The Downtown Art and Farmers Market is a great place where visitors can find unique handmade holiday gifts from the region’s most talented artists and artisans.

The market will be filled with many gift options from paintings and upcycled décor to pottery, handmade scarves, jewelry, and other winter accessories. In addition, children can enjoy a free “make and take” shop small themed craft.

Market food cottage vendors will be taking orders for holiday treats and desserts. Be sure to stop by the food truck garden to sample specialty cuisine and beverages.

“El Paso has so many talented artists and delicious local foods. Our market is a great place to find something unique for the special people in your life while supporting small local businesses in our community,” said Downtown Art and Farmers Market Coordinator Lucero Duran.

The Downtown Art and Farmers Market is located along Anthony Street in the Union Plaza Entertainment District. The market is a small business incubator that opened in 2011 to create a market place for local artists and food vendors.

Small Business Saturday originated in 2010 as a day to celebrate and support small businesses, and all they do for their communities.

On Friday, officials with the city announced that the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) received two grants totaling $170,000 by the Texas Commission on the Arts (TCA) for programming in the Downtown Arts District.

“El Paso’s Downtown Arts District is a vibrant showcase for our creative community,” said Managing Director of MCAD, Libraries and Tourism Tracey Jerome. “TCA’s investment in our programming through these grants reinforces our commitment to providing high-quality arts and culture programming for our city and our region.”

The El Paso Museum of Art received $120,000 to support Art Getaways, a series of immersive programs that includes creating a curated culture guide for tourists based on the museum’s most successful exhibitions.

The Art Getaways is centered around three exhibitions happening early January through summer 2020.

The Cultural Affairs Division was awarded $50,000 to support Chalk the Block; the region’s largest free public arts festival. This year, Chalk the Block will be held from October 11 through 13 in the Downtown Arts District.

Every year, 2.2 million people visit El Paso’s Downtown Arts District. Arts and cultural programming have a $103.4 million annual impact on the local economy according to a recent economic impact study by Americans for the Arts.

El Paso received designation by the Texas Commission on the Arts for an official Downtown Arts District in October 2011 after an 18-month State of Texas application process spearheaded by MCAD.

The Downtown Arts District contains 18 existing cultural assets, historic renovations and tourist amenities.

The mission of the TCA is to advance the state economically and culturally by investing in a creative Texas. TCA supports a diverse and innovative arts community in Texas, throughout the nation and internationally by providing resources to enhance economic development, arts education, cultural tourism and artist sustainability initiatives.

The Museums and Cultural Affairs Department’s (MCAD) Cultural Funding Program is awarding $376,521 in support to 58 local non-profit cultural organizations and artists for performances, services and projects throughout El Paso for fiscal year 2018 – 19.

Projects that receive funding range from entire seasons of events by performing arts groups to teaching artist sessions in neighborhood spaces. The MCAD annually awards out approximately a quarter of its Cultural Affairs Division budget to support arts and cultural activity geared towards residents and visitors.

Last year, supported organizations, artists and projects served approximately 450,000 residents and visitors in programming across the city.

“KCOS, El Paso’s PBS station, is incredibly honored to have our digital mini-documentary series, Only in El Paso, funded for a second year through MCAD,” said KCOS Public Television CEO and General Manager Emily Loya.

“These crucial funds help us cover the costs to support local filmmakers for their creative storytelling and provide a stamp of approval helping us secure additional sponsors and increase our social strategy and support for a larger digital reach.”

The cultural funding program is a way for the MCAD to directly invest in the arts and raise partnerships within the creative community. Arts and cultural programming have a $103.4 million annual impact on the local economy according to a recent economic impact study by Americans for the Arts.

This includes a $1.8 million impact on local hotels and 4,193 full-time jobs.

The competitive grant making process entails an application review by a panel of community members.

Since overhauling the process to foster greater openness in 2007, the program has awarded over $3.5 million to the local artistic community and been cited as a model of transparency by the Texas Commission on the Arts.

To view all the grant awardees, click here.  To view the guidelines, click here.

Starting September 9, the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department will close the El Paso Museum of Archaeology for renovations.

“This project will improve our restrooms and parking lot to ensure ADA compliance,” said Museums and Cultural Affairs Department Director Tracey Jerome. “We will also install additional emergency exits in the galleries and the collection storage space will be expanded. These upgrades to the facility will support our mission of serving all sectors of the public with enhanced visitor amenities.”

The museum will undergo capital improvements that include expanding the hallway, remodeling of staff breakroom, parking lot improvements and other enhancements.

While renovations are underway, visitors may still park in front of the museum to use the walking and hiking trails.

Improvements are being funded with Quality of Life bonds approved by voters in 2012. The El Paso Museum of Archaeology is expected to re-open in mid-November.

For more information, visit call the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department at (915) 212-0110 or visit the archaeology museum website or Facebook page

The Museums and Cultural Affairs Department encourages residents to spend part of the summer at the Downtown Art and Farmers Market with a variety of free, engaging activities starting July 7.

“Since its beginning, the Downtown Art and Farmers Market has become a gathering place within Union Plaza, and offering special activities like the teaching artist booth and cooking demonstrations, helps foster the vibrant, family friendly atmosphere we have created,” said Downtown Art and Farmers Market Coordinator Lucero Duran.

The teaching artist booths offer free arts and craft activities through August 25. Visitors can work with local teaching artists to create different projects every Saturday.

On July 7 and August 4 visitors can discover new ways to cook fresh produce available at the Market at one of the cooking demos offered by local chefs.

In addition, there are yoga classes at 10 a.m. every first Saturday starting July 7.

The Market opened in 2011 as the Downtown Artist Market; in 2013, it grew into the Downtown Art and Farmers Market with the addition of local growers providing seasonal produce. It serves as a small business incubator for local artisans, growers and cottage industry operators.

The Downtown Art & Farmers Market, located at the Union Plaza District on San Antonio and Anthony streets, takes place every Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For more information on the Market including vendor opportunities, click here.

The City of El Paso Public Art Program of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) and Representative Henry Rivera, District 7, dedicated the newest public art project, Wagon Sprouts, at Travis White Park.

MCAD worked closely with the members of the community to design, fabricate and install a site-specific artwork at Travis White Park, 1700 Wedgewood.

The sculpture is located on the hill across from the playground area, clearly visible from the road and will be gently illuminated at night.

Wagon Sprouts is artist Christopher Fennell’s interpretation of Jack and the Beanstalk. The 24’ tall bean sprouts are constructed out of steel pipe and repurposed little red wagons.

The three sprouting beans create a gathering point where viewers can look up at the sprout leaves.

The art piece was created using funding from the City of El Paso’s Public Art Program. For ten years, the city has dedicated two percent of every capital project to site-specific public art. More than 50 public art projects have been completed since the program was started.

The City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD), in collaboration with El Paso Live, a division of Destination El Paso, invites the public to the final concert of Music Under the Stars as it closes out the 34^th season on Sunday, July 23, with Mariachi Los Arrieros at Noche Ranchera.

Noche Ranchera, a long-time staple of Music Under the Stars, is the most anticipated night of the season.

Los Arrieros was originally established to display the young local mariachis in El Paso and create a professional group that could travel, play concerts and represent El Paso throughout the world.

The group has shared the stage with internationally known artists including Vicente Fernandez, Lucero, Marco Antonio Solis, Pepe Aguilar

For information on GECU presents Music Under the Stars, including schedule changes due to weather, follow Music Under the Stars on Facebook.

The concert will start at 7:30 p.m. at the Chamizal National Memorial.

The El Paso Museum of History invites the public to explore how images transformed the modern civil rights movement with the opening of the exhibit For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights on January 28.

The museum will host an opening reception from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, January 28. The media is invited to preview the exhibition at 10 a.m., Thursday, January 28 at the El Paso Museum of History, 501 Santa Fe.

The touring exhibition will be on display at the museum through March 16. Through a compelling assortment of photographs, television clips, art posters, and historic artifacts, the exhibition traces how images and media disseminated to the American public transformed the modern civil rights movement and jolted Americans, both black and white, out of a state of denial or complacency.

“Exhibitions like this are important for us to be able to more fully tell the story of all the communities that have helped shape El Paso and by extension American history,” said Ben Fyffe, Assistant Director for the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department and Interim Director for the El Paso Museum of History.

Fyffe added, “I was particularly excited that the exhibition focuses on visual culture—images that our part of our everyday landscape generated by advertising, television, media and popular culture that more and more have a critical role in shaping our perceptions and understanding of people and the world around us.”

The El Paso Museum of History is planning several events in conjunction with this exhibit. These include lectures, family crafts and discussions. Additionally, the museum will be showing “Freedom Summer” and “The Loving Story” as part of the National Endowment for the Humanities Created Equal Grant.

This exhibition has been made possible through NEH on the Road, a special initiative of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It has been adapted and is being toured by Mid-America Arts Alliance.

For All the World to See: Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Right was organized by The Center for Art, Design, and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore Country, in partnership with the National Museum of African-American History and Culture, Smithsonian Institution.

For more information and a complete schedule of events visit the El Paso Museum of History at https://history.elpasotexas.gov