I have always been a fan of the San Antonio art scene. Coming from a smaller town in West Texas, I was instantly enamored by the First Friday art evening when I moved here in 2005. Instead of being stuffy or pretentious, San Antonio’s scene has always been accepting and exciting. The silos at Blue Star embodied this perfectly: for a couple hundred bucks artists could have a place to work and display their art. While I was sad when they shut down the silos, I have always found the community in San Antonio to be a tight knit.
UTSA graduate Haydee Munoz de la Rocha must feel the same way, leading her to launch the locally produced Art Magazine in January of 2012. “I realized the importance of having a healthy specialized outlet for arts organizations to communicate with art enthusiasts,” Munoz de la Rocha says. “We are lucky to have some outlets that provide coverage of the arts, but we need more. There are a lot of people doing amazing things and we are looking to promote and document them.”
I checked out a recent issue that explored the different events available during Contemporary Art Month and enjoyed reading the many different features and commentary. Being an artist herself, Munoz de la Rocha’s magazine has a gorgeous aesthetic and is one that our city can be proud of having. “I think it has a good balance between emphasizing the design and its content,” Munoz de la Rocha offers. “Art Magazine’s aesthetic is cosmopolitan and elegant, which of course is meant to portray what our publication is about, but most importantly, it serves as an ambassador for the art scene in San Antonio to people who are not familiar with us. We want to show the high standard of our local art scene.”
Going beyond the boundaries of a magazine, Munoz de la Rocha is also launching ArtShop, a marketplace for San Antonio artists to connect with buyers. With the tagline, “Art is for everyone,” she looks to remove some of the barriers for artists to have their work featured in a gallery.
“Artshop is a platform to buy art from emerging and established artists. We all need decoration in our houses and offices and we are hoping that Artshop can provide people real art that serves as an alternative to the mainstream commercial decoration sold at retail corporations,” Munoz de la Rocha says. “We are already working with a group of very talented artists. In the future, we are hoping to add collections curated by local art professionals. The project is still on the works, but we are aiming to have it up and running by November of 2013.”
The magazine is certainly one that any fan of progressive or contemporary should considering adding to their collection. A yearly subscription costs $18, and currently subscribers are able to receive their first issue for free. All of the proceeds go back into growing this publication that serves to promote our local art scene beyond the city limits.
Find our more at www.artmagazinesa.com. Love art? Check out our blog series SA Unfiltered where we give local artists disposable cameras to photograph San Antonio.
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