2012 Annual Meeting Host Museums
The Alamo
More information available at www.thealamo.org.
Artpace
More information available at artpace.org.
Blue Star Contemporary Art Center
Blue Star Contemporary Art Center developed from a grassroots event in July of 1986. Now in its twenty-seventh year, it is the first and longest-running venue for contemporary art in San Antonio. The establishment of Blue Star as an exhibition space arose from the need to provide a platform for the work of and ideas of local contemporary artists. Blue Star's mission is "to inspire the creative genius in us all."
In the years since its inception, Blue Star has grown with the community, instigating positive change in both the art community and the community at large. The development of Blue Star's exhibitions and educational programming has resulted in the social and economic revitalization of the surrounding King William and South Town neighborhoods. Blue Star serves as the "Gateway to the Mission Reach" of the San Antonio River, and is the only visual arts center on this stretch of one of the city's most popular destinations for residents and visitors alike.
The Briscoe Western Art Museum
Located on San Antonio’s famed River Walk, the Briscoe Western Art Museum is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the history, art, and culture of the American West. The institution is housed in a renovated historic city library and newly constructed pavilion designed by the nationally recognized architecture firm Lake/Flato. The Briscoe’s galleries will open in 2013 with the Guenther Pavilion hosting public events beginning in April 2012. With a facility of over 50,000 square feet, the museum collects important art and artifacts, and will host engaging exhibitions, educational programs, and public events reflective of the region’s rich traditions and shared heritage. The Briscoe, it’s where the West is!
Casa Navarro State Historic Site
Located in the heart of downtown San Antonio, Casa Navarro State Historic Site, property of the Texas Historical Commission, celebrates the life of rancher, merchant, and Texas patriot José Antonio Navarro at his original 1850s adobe and limestone home and store. José Antonio Navarro was an influential political figure during the momentous 55 years (1810–1865) when Texas’ destiny was forged. Navarro served in Texas legislatures under Mexico, the Republic of Texas and the state of Texas. We welcome you to visit the newly renovated historic buildings and exhibits. More information available at www.visitcasanavarro.com
City of San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs
The mission of the Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) is to provide leadership and support for arts organizations and individual artists, improving the quality of life for San Antonio Citizens and visitors alike. Our vision is to be the recognized public agency leading the San Antonio creative environment. OCA supports arts and culture in the community through programs tailored to help arts and cultural organizations, individual artists, community groups and the tourism industry. More information available at sahearts.com.
City of San Antonio Downtown Operations
The mission of the City of San Antonio Downtown Operations Department is to provide centralized services for activities related to maintaining the core of San Antonio in an exemplary condition and support downtown facilities, programs and events that highlight the city's unique qualities as a business center and tourist destination. San Antonio welcomes more than 26 million visitors each year, and our team is here to maintain and improve the unique history and culture which makes downtown San Antonio unique.
Edward Steves Homestead Museum
More information available at www.saconservation.org/tours/steves.htm.
Fort Sam Houston Museum
The Fort Sam Houston Museum tells the story of Fort Sam Houston, Texas. The story begins in 1845 with the "Post at San Antonio" located in rented buildings in San Antonio and moves out to Government Hill in the 1870s. There it developed as one of the Army's most important installations through the 20th and into the 21st Century. It is the birthplace of military aviation, the "Home of Army Medicine" since 1947 and the "Home of Military Medicine" since 2010. Through its portals have passed many of the Army and Air Force's most distinguished leaders and heroes. The Museum tells the story of this National Historic Landmark site with exhibits depicting the events of the post's growth and development, along with examples of the uniforms, arms and equipment used by the men and women who served here. A collection of artifacts numbering more than 8,000 items, photo and archival collections numbering in the tens of thousands of items and a reference library support the telling of the history of Fort Sam Houston.
Hangar 9/Edward H. White Museum
For more information, visit the Hangar 9 website.
Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center
The Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center has been a thriving part of San Antonio’s cultural fabric for over three decades presenting music, dance, theater, visual arts, media and literature to over 100,000 people annually. Founded in 1980, the Guadalupe embraces the diverse imagination, both historical and contemporary, of the Latino/Chicano people through artistic, educational and community programming.
For more information, call 210-271-3151 or visit www.guadalupeculturalarts.org.
Institute of Texan Cultures, UTSA
The Institute of Texan Cultures serves as the forum for the understanding and appreciation of Texas and Texans through research, collections, exhibits, and programs. The museum strives to become the nation’s premier institution of contemporary cultural and ethnic studies focusing on Texans and the diverse cultural communities that make Texas what it is. An agency of the Vice President for Community Services at The University of Texas at San Antonio and a Smithsonian Affiliate, the 182,000 square foot complex, featuring 45,000 square feet of exhibit space and five recreation Texas Frontier period structures, is located on the UTSA HemisFair Park Campus in downtown San Antonio. Resources for multiple audiences are available at TexanCultures.com.
Land Heritage Institute Foundation
For more information, visit the Land Heritage Institute Foundation website.
The Magic Lantern Castle Museum
The Magic Lantern Castle is the home of the only museum in the world dedicated solely to the history of the Magic Lantern. The Magic Lantern is the earliest form of slide projector. The first published image of the device appeared in Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae, by Athanasius Kircher in the late 1600's. Images were painted on glass and projected on walls, cloth drapes, and, sometimes, on a wet cloth from behind the "screen." The Magic Lantern Castle Museum contains exhibits of many hundreds of items of equipment, glass slides, illustrations, prints, and other items that relate to the history of the magic lantern (lantern slide projector) and scientific optic projection apparatus from the 1700s to 1900s. In addition, there are many hundreds of similar items in storage. Collection items have been used worldwide and span approximately 250 years. It is the only extensive resource available on this subject. Sub-collections include early radios, quack medical devices, and other techno-related items.
McNay Art Museum
Built by artist and educator Marion Koogler McNay in the 1920s, the Spanish Colonial Revival residence opened as Texas’s first museum of modern art in 1954. Today more than 100,000 visitors a year enjoy works by modern masters including Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. In June 2008, the museum opened the 45,000-square-foot Jane & Arthur Stieren Center for Exhibitions designed by internationally renowned French architect Jean-Paul Viguier. Nearly doubling the McNay’s exhibition space, the Stieren Center includes outdoor sculpture galleries.
McNay image courtesy of the McNay Art Museum
Museo Alameda
Founded in 2007, the Museo Alameda is the first formal affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. Located in the heart of San Antonio, the Museo Alameda’s mission is to tell the story of the Latino experience in America through art, history, and culture. Housing both rotating and long-term exhibitions of art and artifacts from all genres, the Museo Alameda provides an interesting and educational tie to the Latino community, so deeply rooted in the state of Texas.
Pharmacy Museum, Feik School of Pharmacy
For more information, visit the Pharmacy Museum website.
San Antonio Academy Museum
For more information, visit the Academy Museum website.
San Antonio Art League Museum
The San Antonio Art League and Museum is located at 130 King William Street in the King William Historic Neighborhood, in a State of Texas Cultural Arts District. Museum hours are 10am to 3pm, Tuesday thru Saturdays. Celebrating a century of Art on March 13, 2012, the museum Exhibition features works pictured in Jacqueline Edwards “A Century of Art and Community: The History of the San Antonio Art League and its Permanent Collection.” The Collegiate Exhibition opens March 20, 2012, and continues to April 7, 2012. Admission is free, Donations are accepted.
San Antonio Botanical Garden
The San Antonio Botanical Garden encompasses 38 acres in the heart of San Antonio, making nature accessible to guests from throughout the region. Iconic features include the Lucile Halsell Conservatory, a 90,000 square foot glass complex featuring plants from around the world. The 11-acre Texas Native Trail features three ecosystems of Texas: the Hill Country, the South Texas Plains, and the East Texas Pineywoods, complete with historic log cabins and a one-acre lake. Watersaver gardens demonstrate the importance of climate friendly landscaping. With over 200 species of birds sighted at the Garden, beginning birders enjoy access to the Bird Watch, opened in 2010. Special events and exhibits such as Art in the Garden, Dinosaur Stampede (Fall 2012 exhibit), and summer Concerts Under the Stars offer year-round cultural and educational programming. Guests also enjoy the amenities of shopping and dining in the 1896 Sullivan Carriage House, the entrance to the Garden. Visit www.sabot.org for complete information.
San Antonio Children’s Museum
Through joyful learning and discovery, the San Antonio Children’s Museum grows minds, connects families and transforms communities. Since its founding in 1995, the museum has been the only local museum that is entirely devoted to children from birth to age 10. Through engaging, hands-on exhibits, programs and outreach, we offer outstanding learning experiences and resources for children, parents and early care professionals and teach critical thinking and problem-solving. As a premier educational resource, we develop innovative thinkers capable of meeting the challenges of the 21st century.
San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau
For more information, visit the Convention & Visitors Bureau website.
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park
San Antonio Missions National Historical Park was established in 1978 to preserve, restore, and interpret the Spanish colonial missions of San Antonio, which represent the largest concentration of cultural resources from the Spanish colonial period in the United States. Along with The Alamo (Mission San Antonio de Valero) it comprises the Franciscan Missions of San Antonio, one of 14 sites on the U.S. tentative list for World Heritage inclusion.
San Antonio Museum of Art
Since 1981, SAMA has been the City of San Antonio's preeminent art museum. It's world-renowned collection of more than 25,000 objects representing 5,000 years of history and culture from every region of the world is housed in the historic 1884 Lone Star Brewery: an impressive space of more than 113,000 square feet. The Museum’s encyclopedic holdings include one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of ancient Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek and Roman as well as Asian art in the United States. SAMA is also home to the internationally prestigious Nelson A. Rockefeller Center for Latin American Art. In 2009, the Museum enjoyed a renewed bit of fame when it became the anchor for the “Museum-Reach” section of the River Walk. Now, in addition to viewing SAMA’s remarkable collections, visitors also enjoy access to the Museum’s 14 acre park-like campus and famous “Café des Artistes” along the famous San Antonio River.
San Antonio Zoo
Established in 1914, the San Antonio Zoo is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing exemplary care for our animal and plant collections while offering a recreational and educational experience for our many visitors. The Zoo is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and is open 365 days a year. Zoo admission is $8.50 for children ages 3-11 and $12.00 for ages 12 and over. Admission for seniors ages 62+ is $9.50. Handicap adult is $7.50 and handicap child ages 3-11 is $6.00. Group rates are also available, for more information; please call (210) 734-7184 or visit the Zoo website at www.sazoo-aq.org. Join us on Facebook.
Southwest School of Art
San Antonio’s Southwest School of Art offers a wide variety of visual arts classes, from beginning to professional levels, in state-of-the-art studios. Its historic, picturesque grounds, once a convent and girls’ school, also support a small history museum, a fine art sales gallery, a weekday-lunch café, and contemporary, often provocative, art exhibits that reflect its teaching mission. In the fall of 2013, the school will begin offering a Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) degree.
Spanish Governor’s Palace
The Spanish Governor's Palace is a National Historic Landmark that represents the last visual vestiges of the Presidio San Antonio de Bejar. Constructed in the early 18th century and restored in 1930, it is furnished with Spanish Colonial period pieces and features a beautiful, hand-carved wooden door at the entrance. Traditionally known as the Spanish Governor’s Palace, this building was the original Commandancia (residence and working office) for the Captain of the Presidio. The building’s function changed from residential to commercial in the mid-1870s and through the 1920s it housed a variety of businesses including a pawn shop, a wholesale produce store, saloons, and a clothing store. The City of San Antonio purchased the property in 1929 and completed the restoration between 1929 and 1930. Currently maintained by the Downtown Operations Department of the City of San Antonio, the building serves as a museum and the beautiful courtyards can be reserved for special occasions. We invite you to learn why the National Geographic Society has called the landmark “the most beautiful building in San Antonio.”
Texas Air Museum, Stinson Chapter
Texas Air Museum at Historic Stinson Field in San Antonio, Texas is a 501(C) (3) Non-profit organization established to preserve aviation history at all levels through the preservation and display of aircraft and artifacts from the early beginning of aviation to the present, and to preserve the memories of the sacrifices and accomplishments made by the men and women in aviation both military and civilian. The museum also conducts educational and public events which encourage current and future generations toward an understanding of aerospace history and an appreciation of how aviation science, technology, and activities shaped the world as we know it today. The museum has uniform displays from WWI, WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam plus approximately 16 aircraft from early aviation to WWII including a very rare WWII German Focke-Wulf 190. There are displays on the Stinson family (Katherine, Marjory and Eddie), the Women’s Air Force Service Pilots (WASPS) of WWII.
Texas Transportation Museum
For more information, visit the Texas Transportation Museum website.
U.S. Army Medical Department Museum
The Army Medical Department (AMEDD) Museum occupies 7 acres of grounds, including the main museum building, a covered, restored hospital train car, and two pergolas, one containing wheeled ambulances and one containing helicopters. Plans are currently underway for the construction of a Medal of Honor Walk through the museum grounds.
Villa Finale, National Trust for Historic Preservation
Located in San Antonio’s King William National Historic District, Villa Finale is the former home of civic leader and preservationist Walter Nold Mathis. Villa Finale opened to the public in October 2010 as the first National Trust Historic Site in Texas. The collection features beautiful examples of European and Texas furniture and fine and decorative arts. Villa Finale offers guided tours, educational workshops, and programs focusing on the arts and preservation.
Wilson Pottery Foundation
For more information, visit the Wilson Pottery Foundation website.
The Witte Museum
The Witte Museum is San Antonio’s premiere museum of natural history, science and South Texas heritage, located on the banks of the beautiful San Antonio River in Brackenridge Park, only minutes from downtown San Antonio. The Witte is known for hosting blockbuster touring exhibitions and permanently features dinosaur skeletons, the four-story H-E-B Science Treehouse, ancient rock shelter art and artifacts, Texas wildlife dioramas, a mini River interactive and Mt. Witte for climbing.
In May 2012 the Witte opens the doors to the South Texas Heritage Center, a 20,000 square foot building to serve as a permanent home for the Witte’s South Texas collections, exhibitions and public programs, combined with the latest museum technology, to trace the legendary history of South Texas. This immersive and engaging experience of real-life stories includes saddles, spurs, basketry, branding irons, historical clothing, land grants, art and firearms.