Dynamic Decade of Directorship- Bill FitzGibbon's Legacy at Blue Star Contemporary Museum
Correction: Light Channels Photo Courtesy of Bryan Rindfuss
See the Full article and pictures at:
gabrieldelgadoartstudio@yahoo.com
In the last ten years, the city of San Antonio has changed. The population has increased 16%, making it the second largest city in Texas; exaserpated by multitudes of mixed-use spaces downtown have attracted migrating urban dwellers. During this decade of rapid growth, Bill FitzGibbons, Executive Director of Blue Star Contemporary Art Museum implemented enormous change at the city's first and longest-running venue for contemporary art, and on June 15, 2013, he stepped down; leaving behind a great legacy for the city of San Antonio and its art community to build on.
I spoke with Bill about this very personal and difficult decision in a candid interview at his home; reflecting on his career highlights, the future of Blue Star and his own flourishing career as an artist. Bill’s story is coupled with the acknowledgment of success by notable colleagues and partners in the city of San Antonio including- Mayor Phil Hardberger; Office of Cultural Affairs Executive Director, Felix Padrón; and UTSA Curator Arturo Infante Almeida.
FitzGibbons moved his family to San Antonio in 1988 when he was hired as the head of the Sculpture Department at the San Antonio Art Institute, which went out of business about 4 years later. FitzGibbons accepted a Fulbright appointment to the Art Academy of Budapest, but returned to San Antonio, and became active in the city's first ever Public Art Program. A few commissions later, he was invited to be an Artist Board Member at the, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center.
After an unsuccessful search for a new Executive Director in 2002, Bill’s curatorial experience in Alaska, St. Louis, and other national and regional venues made him the ideal local candidate for the vacancy: an experienced individual that already knew the striving San Antonio art community's faults and weaknesses.
“Unfortunately the previous consultant had drained the bank accounts, and I had to put the first payroll on my American Express card”, he jokingly admits. “But, if you look at what Blue Star has done for the art community and the community of San Antonio, it is very important; you have to understand at the time Blue Star began there were limited spaces that showed local San Antonio artists.”
“Immediately, I wanted to focus on improving the quality of the exhibitions, and having a variety of exhibitions, everything from printmaking to photography, to painting to sculpture to installation. The distinguished artists who were board members were very helpful in putting together an exhibition committee.”
“There were also several immediate challenges. One was to build the Board of Trustees; we needed a larger Board to help us with building our budget. We had no members in the membership program-there were maybe 25 to 30 members. I wanted that to become a priority. There were a lot of challenges at the beginning: lack of funding. I think there were two full-time and one part-time employee when I started, but, one of my goals after these immediate needs were met was to start an education program. I realized with a challenging budget and trying to enhance the exhibitions, it would be in Blue Star’s best interest if we started to reach out and collaborate with other agencies and institutions in San Antonio.”
An early collaboration was a partnership with El Instituto Cultural de México en San Antonio at Hemisphere; to expose the art community's supporters to a new perspective on Mexican heritage. Mexican Report –Contemporary Art from Mexico February 24 – April 17, 2005 was a comprehensive exhibition that showcased Contemporary Art in Mexico, “because the Mexican American art in San Antonio was filtered by the artist being here as Mexican Americans…Chicano issues, the border, immigration, etc.”
In 2005-2006, Bill comically reminisces on the first time he gave a presentation to Southwestern Bell CEO Ed Whitacre: “We were looking at building our corporate sponsorship donations with the Instituto partnership and the Mexican Report exhibition. About 6 or 7 minutes into the presentation, Ed stopped me. He said, 'obviously this is an important project, how much money do you want?’ Bill and his board of trustees left the meeting with a quarter of a million dollar Southwestern Bell leadership grant.
After engaging a curator from Mexico City, Bill amassed Blue Star's first big international partnership exhibition that included 57 artists and filled 25,000 square feet of exhibition space at both the Blue Star Contemporary Art Center and El Instituto Cultural de México. The show traveled to Washington D.C and Austin, and was a success story for Bill and Blue Star.
With a new-found emphasis on curatorial achievements and institutional collaborations, Bill and his exhibition committee continued to work to spotlight the diverse culture of San Antonio's local art community and its importance in the national and international art world.
“We felt it was not only important for San Antonio artists to show their work, but it was important that San Antonio artists saw the work of other artists from around the country.”
“Bill and Blue Star made a big cultural change and pushed the envelope of contemporary art for the people of San Antonio. Most people were only used to seeing traditional art, then they go and see the new edge of contemporary art, it was a big educational effort that Bill was responsible for…the new art, the resource for budding artists”, Mayor Phil Hardberger said.
With a no holds barred attitude, FitzGibbons and a throng of other art community leaders helped guide a systematic influx of artists and writers to San Antonio. A 2005 conceptual public forum called WAX –Writers & Artists Exchange included editors, writers, directors, and authors from all the major national and regional art publications at the time: Artforum, Aperture, Artlies, Glasstire, Art in America, New York Times, ARTnews, Sculpture Magazine, Art+Auction, and others.
“Bill has also done a monumental job in supporting the development of public art in San Antonio and since 1995 has been a force for advocacy for the department as well as artists in the city. Blue Star has had a long-standing partnership with the Department for Culture & Creative Development, receiving operational support but we have occasionally partnered on special programs such as Contemporary Art Month, the Writers and Artists Exchange project done in 2005”, contends Office of Cultural Affairs Executive Director, Felix Padrón
With multiple partners, including the San Antonio Museum of Art, Southwest School of Art & Craft, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, the McNay, Artpace, and the City of San Antonio, FitzGibbons saw the forceful synergy and power these entities had when they came together to showcase the city’s dynamic contemporary art scene. “I always had the philosophy that you need to create a relationship with the visiting artists and lecturers, have them come back more than one time. That way you develop a friendship and professional relationships.” These friendships formed during FitzGibbons directorship helped secure San Antonio its artist a spot on the national art radar.
“The result of that kind of programming was that a whole new world of art was opened up to a younger generation of San Antonians. You had established artists and prominent national icons paying attention to what was going on in San Antonio. There was an issue with the younger artists not feeling a notion of relevancy to what was being showcased in the major museums in San Antonio, but with Bill’s focus, he established a connection to this generation of artists and collectors. I feel that the new generation of art collectors and patrons who were influenced and affected by the programming at Blue Star under Bill’s leadership will in due time be patrons of the Arts for the McNay, SAMA, and Blue Star after Bill is gone; leaving a foundational economic platform for artistic financial viability”, said Mayor Hardberger.
After about half a decade as director, FitzGibbons was finally able to put some of the growing pains behind him, and began focusing on education. In the process of making these strides for program improvement, he saw another partnership with Eskew Art project, funded by Peter Holt and Tom Frost III. As Eskew was seeking more recognition and financial support, the project was copied and morphed with the development of the arts curriculum at Blue Star. “It was very exciting”, says FitzGibbons. “Their board members merged with ours.” “One of the first things we received from Eskew was their kilns.” “The nature of the kiln process and the ceramic tiles lent to the namesake- Mosaic.
“After Kim Bishop, the first head of this program left to work for Brackenridge High School, I hired Smithsonian Artist, Alex Rubio to run the curriculum.” “Here was a painter that was coming to this mosaic technique thinking like a painter, not a sculptor, and his way of thinking helped inspire students and gave them additional perspectives in approaching art.”
Bill Fitzgibbons proudly states that Mosaic has a 100% graduation rate for its high school seniors 90% of whom continue on to college, proof that a student exposed to art education will develop “enhanced self-esteem and problem solving skills,” croons Bill, sure that Alex Rubio’s method is working. Mosaic prides itself on its statistical successes, but the work produced by these students is gaining regional attention as well. FitzGibbons beams at the fact that his Mosaic program is getting private as well as corporate art commissions.
FitzGibbons’ travels as an artist helped plant the seeds for future partnerships abroad and nationally for Blue Star, evolving into international projects including the British Invasion with Philip King, Art in the Garden, collaboration with Irish sculptors, and Blue Star’s Berlin residency exchange. “These [programs] are valuable to me as an artist… see what other artists are doing….and get the international art dialogue going”, he said.
Mayor Hardberger reflects on the premiere events of the first Luminaria, the city-wide art celebration, coined by the Mayor and supported by a multitude of artists, partners, and institutions including, Blue Star and FitzGibbons. The debut of such an innovative artistic endeavor reached international audiences and added prestige to San Antonio’s already established cultural identity.
“Its hard to separate Bill from Blue Star, the individual genius of lighting the Alamo…he might not have been able to pull it off had it not been for Blue Star’s identity and the controversial opinions of doing the fine art addition to a historical icon”, Mayor Hardberger says.
Bills tenure and a multitude of Blue Star’s programming served as a catalyst for introducing new ideas and to help move the needle in an arts and urban context”, says Felix Padrón.
FitzGibbons spearheaded a sculpture conference in conjunction with the 2012 Americans for the Arts national convention in San Antonio. FitzGibbons is already organizing a symposium to help promote the growing and maturing San Antonio art community, to complement the Texas Biennial exhibition scheduled for Blue star in September 2013.
“I tripled Blue Star’s operating budget, I elevated our membership to several hundred members, and I built a strong Board of Trustees, from 9 or 10 to about 30,”, he crooned., but all this progress for Blue Star came at the cost of 60-70 hour work weeks. “Sure there were missed opportunities for me as a sculptor”, he remarks.
With the success of “Light Channels”, Bill’s commissions for public art projects have skyrocketed. With projects on the books for McAllen, Texas, Cairo, Egypt, and New Delhi, India, and Birmingham, Alabama. “I have work for the rest of my life”, he jokes; “Trying to run a museum while being gone 3 weeks out of the month is impossible…I cannot continue with a clear conscience.”
"I have been thinking about this change for two years”, said Fitzgibbons- but he plans to stay involved. “The Board has hired a consultant to go through a new strategic plan and by the summer is should be finalized. It should answer a lot of questions, as well as reflect and address Blue Star’s achievements, improvements, and vision for the future. I will still be a resource for institutional history.”
However realities of economic downturns and the future of Blue Star are addressed by Arturo Almeida and Padrón’s opinionated conclusions. “I imagine that the challenges that Blue Star faces are the same challenges that all Arts centers face in that, above all, you have to keep the doors open, be new, exciting and user friendly. I think Bill has worked hard and I think he has done a fine job,” says Almeida.
Coupled with this innovative necessity, Padrón addresses the unforeseen circumstances, “I believe the Blue Star’s biggest challenge will be determining and stabilizing Blue Star’s future home whether it stays at their current location or moves to another space. This has been Bill’s vision for a number of years now but expanding too quickly may need further evaluation. The environment is currently too saturated with several capital campaigns in a challenging economy. At the end of the day the board needs to evaluate and make the final determination as overseers of the Center.”
“I would like to see Blue Star become one of the most important Contemporary Art Museums in the World”, concludes FitzGibbons.
© Gabriel Diego Delgado
See the Full article and pictures at:
Comments
Post a Comment