92. Meet San Antonio’s New Family-Friendly Art Residency: Parts & Labor

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Welcome to Big City Small Town, the weekly podcast all about San Antonio

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and the people who make it go and grow. I'm your host, Bob Brevard.

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race heats up in the coming weeks and we watch how policies enacted

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way. And if you know me and you're lazy, you can just send your email

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to me, and I'll put it in for you. There you go. Our guests this

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week are Elizabeth Stell Clayberg and Megan Ritchie, who join

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us to talk about the nonprofit parts and labor, which is

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the new Southtown artist residency that offers mid career artist

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residents focus time, space, and resources in

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pursuit of their creative work. I became aware of this year

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old residency when Alicia Fitz, a ceramic sculptor

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and a close family friend based in Mexico City, was

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selected to be an artist in residence here. And in

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addition to providing artists with a historic home in Lavaca in

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which to reside and work, The residency uniquely

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includes childcare support for artists with children. That

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certainly caught our attention. Well, Liz, welcome to

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Big City Small Town. Megan, welcome to Big City Small Town. Thank

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you for having us. Great to have you both. Liz, why don't you start by

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telling us, the origin story behind parts and labor

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and how that brought you and your husband, Matt Klayberg, to San

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Antonio. Matt, is a well known artist in his own right,

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and the Klayberg name is certainly a celebrated one in South Texas

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synonymous with the King Ranch. So we're excited that you guys are here with parts

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and labor, and we wanna learn more. Thanks. Thanks so much for having us.

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And, yeah, super excited to just share parts and labor with

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a broader community and, like, get to share, you know, what

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inspired us to start it and how it's been going and how we've kind of

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really relied on the excitement and

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encouragement from the local community to keep it growing. So thanks

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so much for having us again. Yeah. I grew up in Virginia

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originally and went to school there. I went to the University of Virginia. I studied

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art, in Spanish. Originally, I I thought I would join the

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Peace Corps and was really not interested in pursuing

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an art career because it felt kind of silly and

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self interested and self focused. So, I was

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studying anthropology in Spanish, then I switched to public health in

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Spanish, found out I was horrible at science, decided

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I should stick with what I'm good at, which is art. So

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pursued an art degree at UVA and met my husband, Matt, there.

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So he was a couple years out of the program

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using painting the painting studio there. And so we

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got married, stayed in Charlottesville for a couple years, and then applied

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to grad school in New York. So took us to New York. We,

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both studied painting there. I started making video,

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and sculpture with another artist there. We started a collaboration

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and just kind of, like, really Matt and I both

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kind of grew artistically, like, just

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incredibly, you know, inspired by all of the

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institutions and the kind of creative community there.

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And then had 2 little kids while we were in New York.

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And at 2020, the pandemic kind of showed us that it

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was like time to transition and look for a place

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ideally closer to family. My family's in Virginia. Matt is from here

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or most of his family's here in San Antonio. He grew up in Fort Worth,

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but San Antonio looked like a super exciting,

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kind of like creative

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hub in a lot of ways. We knew a few artists who

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had moved here previously and obviously had a bunch of family, so

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it felt like maybe a place where we could start

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a new chapter, ideally find a space that we could make

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into a live work space and then

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also kind of look for opportunities to

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broaden our practices to include a more community

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facing experience, which I think for

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me always felt like an art residency, but didn't know exactly how that

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would work. And, yeah, when we moved here in 2020, we spent 2

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years looking for, an industrial kind of

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warehouse space to create a live workspace out of. And

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eventually, we're super lucky and, like, really

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privileged to get Peter Zubiotti and Katie Pell's

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warehouse studio home in Lavaca.

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And we spent the last 2 years renovating that for our own live

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workspace. And it just

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so happened that the little bungalow next door to that building

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came available, and it became super obvious that that was,

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like, that was our opportunity to,

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host artists, host families, and bring

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kind of other creative connections, friendships,

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people we know from elsewhere bring them here to San Antonio and hopefully

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kind of broaden or connect those two parts of

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our lives and hopefully kind of infuse the creative

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community here with outside influence while also highlighting all of the amazing work that's happening

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here. So, highlighting all of the amazing work that's happening

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here. So when that that house came available,

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I immediately called Megan because,

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we're great friends from New York and have a shared art

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background. And Megan is incredible

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at the nuts and bolts of how these, like,

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beautiful creative visions actually come to life and how to kind

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of build supportive networks around them to make them happen. So I called

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Meghan and was like, will you have coffee with me? And will you start this,

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you know, giant life mission with me? And she was like, yes. Let's do this.

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So And now wait a minute. Will you have coffee with me and move

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with your husband to from New York to San Antonio? Well, Meghan

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was actually here already. She had already moved for her family and was

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doing lots of different, remote projects.

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And so I was like, what's one more project for you? We'll just

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start a nonprofit. Well, Liz, I your

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story resonates with me because only 35 years ago, I

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was, living and loving, my work and career and life in

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New York. Yeah. But my wife and I had 2 little ones, and,

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she was from Texas, and most of my career had been here in

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Latin America, so we moved back here. Yeah. And,

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that's quite a leap to leave New York for for San Antonio, but it

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it, it was the right move then, and I'm sure it's the right move for

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you. Megan, what brought you from New York to back to San

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Antonio? So Matt and Alyssa's arrival in San

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Antonio predated mine by about 2 years. I

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decided for better or for worse to weather the pandemic in

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New York and left in 2022,

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really having no idea why I was coming to San Antonio.

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Other than that, after 18 years in New York, it just felt like it

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might be time for a change. And what were you doing there, if I can

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interrupt now? Sure. A variety of things. I had worked for several

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large magazines, magazine called Commonweal, a magazine called

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Image, and I had also worked for a variety of arts nonprofits

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and collecting family foundations. When I left New York, I was

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actually living in New York, but working remotely for a

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gallery based in Los Angeles called Bridge Projects. And part

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of the reason I thought I might come to Texas is that it was looking

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like the Los Angeles outpost of Bridge projects might also do

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something here in Texas. So the kind of

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constant pull from my parents to come home,

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and just a change in my personal circumstance made me consider whether

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or not this was the right place. And I moved down pretty reluctantly

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thinking, I think I'm just gonna, like I'll just hang out for a

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while. I was working remotely, so I had that flexibility.

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And then I bought a house, and then I met great

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people, and, a lot of the remote work that I was

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doing persisted, thankfully, and more local

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opportunities began to bubble up like parts and labor. And so I

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decided to stay. And your husband's in the nonprofit space here too in

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San Antonio? He is. He's, he's from San Antonio. He

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went to school at UT, but has mostly lived in San Antonio. And

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he had been working in finance for a large restaurant

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group that a lot of people know, but recently

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transitioned away from the restaurant group into finance for nonprofits. And,

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yeah, he's he's a local boy. He's a musician. He plays in a couple bands,

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and meeting Kim when I moved here, I think,

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also helped to kind of settle me into town.

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And now we have our own little family, and interestingly

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enough, like, when we started parts and labor, we were committed to

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serving artists that are caretakers, whether it's artists with

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kids or artists with dependent parents or dependent

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partners. But I was, like, totally single and didn't really have

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any dependents, but still felt very compelled by the

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mission. And now, like, less than a year later, I

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have a husband and a son and a baby on the way, and I feel

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very much, like, a little bit closer to the people that we're seeking

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to serve. So it resonates with me even more now. Well,

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congratulations on the coming baby. Thank you. When's when's the big

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day? June 1st. Okay. Well, we'll we'll keep an eye on that.

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Liz, I'm familiar with, the the PACE Foundation has a pretty

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celebrated international, artist residency. As a matter

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of fact, Nicholas Frank, who's, was the longtime arts and

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culture reporter at the Rivard Report, which became the San Antonio

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Report, I met him. He was the international artist in residence here from

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I think he's from, yeah, from Milwaukee and was a sculptor.

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And then I'm aware of a Blue Star Art Residency that

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is the work of, Angela.

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Her last name escapes me, but it's a, a residency in

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Berlin. Mhmm. And those are the only 2 that I'm really familiar with in San

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Antonio. So I was really intrigued with the concept that you guys had,

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particularly the caretaker concept. But but, you know, that was

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it's a big undertaking to to to establish something like that

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in San Antonio and recruit artists from near and

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far. Give give us a little bit of understanding of

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how that's working and who's been here and who's coming here.

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Yeah. I, would mention one more.

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Sala Diaz has Casa Chucks from time to time, they

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host residents there. So we were also aware

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of these other things happening in town and

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being super aware of how new we are in the community. We were, like,

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wanted to kind of talk to all of those people about, like, how do you

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feel about, like, us doing this thing in Southtown? We're

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new. We obviously are super eager and excited.

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We don't wanna step on anybody's toes. You know. We don't wanna be

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redundant. We don't wanna take away attention from your programming.

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And to a person, every single person that we talked to

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involved with, you know, Artpace, with Saludias, with

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the contemporary, everybody was

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super supportive and basically said more is more. And,

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they were, like, we're super happy to have new

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energy in our community, and we wanna support what you're

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doing. And let's I I think that that attitude

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was, like, incredibly motivating for us because,

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you know, we came from New York where it's pretty you

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know, the competition's is pretty ruthless, and the

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resources are abundant, but scarce at the same time

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and space is hard to find and everybody's

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competing for resources and, and attention.

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And sometimes it can feel like, you know,

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a competition, like, just a hustle. So it was like a breath

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of fresh air to just get to kind of, like, seamlessly,

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like, jump into that creative energy here.

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So I think what sets parts and labor aside

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apart from, these other programs is that

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we're specifically hoping to invite artists and

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their families, artists and, you know, they can

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are welcome to bring their kids. They're welcome to bring a dependent partner or a

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parent who has, you know, any any sort of,

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like, extenuating circumstances that make it difficult for the artist

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to participate in other residencies. And it's not like it has to

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be an extreme circumstance. I'm not saying that. But sometimes it's

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hard to kind of organize your schedule in your life around

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these other obligations and it makes it difficult to up and go to,

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you know, another place for months at a time. So

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we're hoping to kind of alleviate some of that stress and,

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make the residency super flexible for artists. They can bring

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their families or not. It's just an option. They can bring them for part of

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the time, also have some solo time. The length

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of stay is very flexible. The residency doesn't have a,

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start and finish sort of time, like at 1 month, 3 months? You

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you know, we're hoping for at least 2 weeks. That's kind of the very

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minimum. And then up to 6 or 8.

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It's it's easier to accommodate someone for a longer stay

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because they're able to be that much more productive and and

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really integrate and kind of settle into the community. So I think, you know, parts

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and labor is only a year old, but I think in the next and labor

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is only a year old, but I think in the next 2 to

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3 years, we will have kind of formalized stays and

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a whole process by which we welcome people. But right now, we were just trying

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to be as gracious and accommodating as possible because we

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wanted to spread the word and get people down here. Well, I

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mean, it's a great concept, but wouldn't most artists say I can't pull my kids

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out of school and come down to San Antonio for 6 weeks. That's not

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practical even if you're willing to support support us bringing them.

236
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Mhmm. That we've definitely come up against that with school

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aged kids or parents have school aged kids. Some of them have,

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like, sandwiched their stay around a school break. So they have their family

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for that, like spring break or winter break or whatever, and then they'll stay for

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the another week or so, or 2, you

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know, so it kind of, like, makes it, like,

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less of a big chunk away. And then there are obviously

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families with younger kids. Right now, we have an artist who has

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a 7 month old, and he and his wife came with her,

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and we've been able to provide childcare for them during the day

246
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while they both work. So, yes.

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And those people who have school, you know,

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commitments have asked to come in the summer, which, originally

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we were like, summer's off limits. It's just too hot. But some

250
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people are interested just to have that time, to

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work. So we're trying to be flexible with that and also offer

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opportunities to, like, here's, like, access

253
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to a pool or, like, here's ways to stay cool in San Antonio because the

254
00:15:52,325 --> 00:15:56,165
summertime is really sought after. I think we might like to hear about

255
00:15:56,165 --> 00:15:59,845
those options. Yeah. How who's eligible? First of

256
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all, obviously, if we have listeners who are in the,

257
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art space here, they're artists locally. Are they

258
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we're only arts and laborers for artists from elsewhere to come to

259
00:16:11,350 --> 00:16:14,475
San Antonio? Yeah. We're

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we're sort of focusing on inviting artists from elsewhere to

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come stay and and engage with the local

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community. So while they're here, we're asking them

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to provide some sort of public programming, whether

264
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that's a show that has an opening at the end of their

265
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stay or, an artist talk or a

266
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family workshop or studio visits at UTSA

267
00:16:41,030 --> 00:16:44,775
or, you know, Texas State, any of the local kind of art

268
00:16:44,775 --> 00:16:48,295
programs, in order to kind

269
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of provide new opportunities for, like, artists here

270
00:16:51,895 --> 00:16:55,590
to connect with artists from elsewhere. That's the focus

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00:16:55,970 --> 00:16:59,750
right now, but we are really aware of how, you know,

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wanting to make it, generative for the local

273
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community. So I think right now, we're not

274
00:17:07,275 --> 00:17:10,795
hosting local artists, but we are looking for ways to kind of

275
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serve the local artist community. I've been invited to

276
00:17:14,395 --> 00:17:18,175
events at, at the PACE Foundation to meet the international

277
00:17:18,315 --> 00:17:22,160
fellows and also to see their work. I've been to the Blue Star to

278
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see the results of people that have had the residency over in

279
00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:29,680
Berlin. Are, people in the local art community being invited to

280
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see meet the artists and to see their work here in San Antonio while they're

281
00:17:33,280 --> 00:17:37,045
here? Yes. I would say that that's something that we are

282
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so committed to and an area in which we really wanna grow

283
00:17:41,205 --> 00:17:44,725
because we feel like that's one of the really distinctive things about the San

284
00:17:44,725 --> 00:17:47,705
Antonio arts community is that it is so hospitable,

285
00:17:48,420 --> 00:17:52,180
accepting, warm, and gracious. And it would be a shame

286
00:17:52,180 --> 00:17:55,860
for our artists to come here and not have, like, lots of points of

287
00:17:55,860 --> 00:17:59,460
exposure to that. Because it is kind of countercultural as Liz

288
00:17:59,460 --> 00:18:03,155
described. Like, New York is deeply inspiring. It was for

289
00:18:03,155 --> 00:18:06,455
us. But it's also extremely competitive and

290
00:18:07,155 --> 00:18:10,835
can be very, like, cutthroat and hard. So for

291
00:18:10,835 --> 00:18:14,355
artists that maybe are visiting from New York or LA or some of these

292
00:18:14,355 --> 00:18:17,840
markets that are more competitive, to find themselves in a place

293
00:18:18,460 --> 00:18:22,300
where people are having really thoughtful conversation and

294
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working at a high level, but are also just available and

295
00:18:25,980 --> 00:18:29,740
warm is really important. So all of the programming that

296
00:18:29,740 --> 00:18:33,055
we do is open to the public and it's almost always

297
00:18:33,115 --> 00:18:36,795
completely free, and we do our best to promote it, though we're always

298
00:18:36,795 --> 00:18:40,635
trying to find new audiences. We just think

299
00:18:40,635 --> 00:18:43,675
that it would be a shame for people to come all this way and stay

300
00:18:43,675 --> 00:18:46,850
cooped up in the house and not kind of enjoy the city for what it

301
00:18:46,850 --> 00:18:50,450
is. So and really, we'll rely on partnerships with

302
00:18:50,450 --> 00:18:54,290
other organizations to increase our visibility so that

303
00:18:54,290 --> 00:18:58,130
more and more people are able to come to things. Now whether somebody is

304
00:18:58,130 --> 00:19:01,350
a a sculptor or a ceramicist or a painter,

305
00:19:01,924 --> 00:19:05,765
does their art leave with them? What happens to the art that's created

306
00:19:05,765 --> 00:19:08,804
here? They take it with them or

307
00:19:09,205 --> 00:19:13,044
yeah. They're asking them to leave a piece. Yeah. Well, that's what I'm wondering.

308
00:19:13,044 --> 00:19:16,665
Does parts and labor eventually become its own kind of gallery or

309
00:19:17,270 --> 00:19:20,950
sort of residency museum? We do host this one

310
00:19:20,950 --> 00:19:24,789
auction fundraiser. I mean aware of that. When was

311
00:19:24,789 --> 00:19:28,549
that or when is that? So it's has been the last 2 have

312
00:19:28,549 --> 00:19:32,330
been early December, and we've hosted them at local restaurants.

313
00:19:32,585 --> 00:19:36,425
Last year, it was at Liberty Bar, which was, like, super special to kind

314
00:19:36,425 --> 00:19:39,805
of connect with, like, the history of the kind of creative community,

315
00:19:40,345 --> 00:19:43,965
that Liberty Bar has kind of been a part of.

316
00:19:44,105 --> 00:19:47,660
This year, it was at Magpie on the east side. Oh, you're picking great

317
00:19:47,660 --> 00:19:51,500
spots. I know. Right? It helps. Spots that gets when people know the food will

318
00:19:51,500 --> 00:19:54,720
be good. It's a really fun night. And

319
00:19:55,260 --> 00:19:59,015
each artist who has come has donated a work for a small

320
00:19:59,015 --> 00:20:02,775
works auction. So that's kind of the only requirement so far is just

321
00:20:02,775 --> 00:20:06,395
if they could leave an, a piece for the auction.

322
00:20:07,095 --> 00:20:10,855
It's really great for people to get to see a variety of works by

323
00:20:10,855 --> 00:20:14,450
the by past and future upcoming artists as well.

324
00:20:14,450 --> 00:20:18,130
This last auction, we had both, a mixture of both. And

325
00:20:18,130 --> 00:20:21,970
also I feel like artists are really excited to leave for work.

326
00:20:21,970 --> 00:20:25,774
Everybody has been so generous and has had such, you

327
00:20:25,774 --> 00:20:29,455
know, people who've previous artists have been so kind of,

328
00:20:29,455 --> 00:20:33,054
like, filled up by their stay that they're, like, eager

329
00:20:33,054 --> 00:20:36,815
to get leave something behind, which is really wonderful. And

330
00:20:36,815 --> 00:20:40,595
that has generated a portion of our I wouldn't say,

331
00:20:41,220 --> 00:20:44,900
like, we have a very it's pretty small operating budget, but that's

332
00:20:44,900 --> 00:20:48,340
been, like, a big part of our fundraising, which is cool that it gets to

333
00:20:48,340 --> 00:20:51,880
be a community event and people get to kind of, like, celebrate,

334
00:20:52,419 --> 00:20:55,895
you know, and have a big dinner party together. Well, we'll talk about that

335
00:20:55,895 --> 00:20:59,655
nonprofit aspect in just a second. But first, for people who are saying, I

336
00:20:59,655 --> 00:21:03,255
wish I had been at Liberty Bar Magpie, do they have to wait

337
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until next December for the next,

338
00:21:06,620 --> 00:21:10,140
auction or parts and labor event, or do you have something

339
00:21:10,140 --> 00:21:13,680
planned earlier than that? We don't have

340
00:21:13,820 --> 00:21:17,520
a a huge party and auction planned currently

341
00:21:17,660 --> 00:21:21,345
like we do at the holiday season, but we do have very regular programming.

342
00:21:21,405 --> 00:21:25,085
And some of it is meant to be very family oriented, some of it's meant

343
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to be educational, and then a lot of it is just meant to be

344
00:21:28,765 --> 00:21:32,490
fun. So, people can check

345
00:21:32,490 --> 00:21:36,330
our website to see all of our upcoming programs, and I think that we'll

346
00:21:36,330 --> 00:21:40,010
be doing something through the spring and into the summer that

347
00:21:40,010 --> 00:21:43,690
maybe resembles the auction without being the full on

348
00:21:43,690 --> 00:21:47,515
auction. I wanted to just kind of piggyback, if that's

349
00:21:47,515 --> 00:21:51,215
okay, on your question about, about artists

350
00:21:51,275 --> 00:21:54,975
leaving items behind. That is if they

351
00:21:55,115 --> 00:21:58,880
are able to do that, we find it to be super helpful and

352
00:21:58,880 --> 00:22:02,399
generous, and it does help us to raise our budget. But a

353
00:22:02,399 --> 00:22:05,539
bigger kind of victory for us is actually when an artist

354
00:22:06,399 --> 00:22:09,779
goes home and continues the body of work that they

355
00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:13,395
started at the residency to have a show and a

356
00:22:13,395 --> 00:22:16,295
space that's more reputable or,

357
00:22:17,475 --> 00:22:20,995
you know, just isn't the parts and labor house. So one of our

358
00:22:20,995 --> 00:22:24,835
artists, Michael Gat Glavin, who lives in Brooklyn, started a

359
00:22:24,835 --> 00:22:28,539
small body of work, and he was making I think he made something like 10

360
00:22:28,539 --> 00:22:32,140
paintings when he was with us for just a few weeks. And he just

361
00:22:32,140 --> 00:22:35,820
closed a big show in New York that was covered by

362
00:22:35,820 --> 00:22:39,659
lots of press, and he did really well. And he credits Parts and

363
00:22:39,659 --> 00:22:43,144
Labor very specifically with the inspiration behind

364
00:22:43,445 --> 00:22:46,424
what eventually became that exhibition. So for us,

365
00:22:47,125 --> 00:22:50,884
we could sell works by people, but it

366
00:22:50,884 --> 00:22:54,500
would but we see it as more like a feather in our cap that he

367
00:22:54,500 --> 00:22:58,260
went on to have this, like, great show, somewhere else. Well,

368
00:22:58,260 --> 00:23:01,880
that kind of conversation or publicity about career advancement

369
00:23:01,940 --> 00:23:05,700
is something money can't buy, and I I wonder

370
00:23:05,700 --> 00:23:08,840
how many artists because I know that you drew on your New York

371
00:23:09,184 --> 00:23:12,785
network for a lot of the initial artists in the 1st year. How many of

372
00:23:12,785 --> 00:23:16,225
them are going back with a completely different understanding of San

373
00:23:16,225 --> 00:23:20,065
Antonio? And, I mean, people can be pretty negative about Texas and New

374
00:23:20,065 --> 00:23:23,730
York, and and we're not even gonna go there. But but, you know,

375
00:23:23,730 --> 00:23:27,570
we're an urban island as most of the major metros are in

376
00:23:27,570 --> 00:23:31,330
Texas, and I wonder how many people are going back and and sort of

377
00:23:31,330 --> 00:23:35,170
engaging in what I'd call word-of-mouth marketing for you and and and

378
00:23:35,170 --> 00:23:38,605
perhaps generating interest from other artists. You can

379
00:23:38,605 --> 00:23:42,445
be a a a really promising artist in New York and still fail to get

380
00:23:42,445 --> 00:23:45,804
a toehold anywhere because it is can be so cruel, the big

381
00:23:45,804 --> 00:23:48,625
city. And so I wonder whether or not, people,

382
00:23:49,405 --> 00:23:53,005
perhaps have had the kind of experience where they have considered maybe I

383
00:23:53,005 --> 00:23:56,659
should leave New York and come to a San Antonio or or

384
00:23:56,659 --> 00:24:00,260
whether you've had other New York artists say, I I know somebody that did the

385
00:24:00,260 --> 00:24:04,020
fellowship and I'm interested. I don't know

386
00:24:04,020 --> 00:24:07,794
how many of our former artists are gonna pick themselves up

387
00:24:07,794 --> 00:24:11,575
and move to San Antonio, but I do know that everybody has left

388
00:24:11,875 --> 00:24:15,554
with a real fondness for it that they didn't have before, either because they had

389
00:24:15,554 --> 00:24:16,035
never been here or because they had misconceptions about what it meant to be, like,

390
00:24:16,035 --> 00:24:19,820
a Texan. Misconceptions about what it meant

391
00:24:19,820 --> 00:24:23,660
to be, like, a Texan. On a yeah.

392
00:24:23,660 --> 00:24:27,440
We have lots of great testimonials from artists that have said, like,

393
00:24:27,500 --> 00:24:31,260
I came prepared to work, really just excited to get out

394
00:24:31,260 --> 00:24:34,975
of, like, the grind, to take a little break with my family, and I

395
00:24:34,975 --> 00:24:38,575
left with, like, a lot of affection for this place that I really hope to

396
00:24:38,575 --> 00:24:42,335
return to. And they're talking about San Antonio, and they do, they

397
00:24:42,335 --> 00:24:45,730
spread the word and we get emails from artists saying,

398
00:24:46,350 --> 00:24:49,310
you know, I just talked to so and so, they were there for a month

399
00:24:49,310 --> 00:24:53,150
and they loved it, can I come? And we couldn't have expected that.

400
00:24:53,150 --> 00:24:56,670
I mean, we love living here and and we hope that people love it as

401
00:24:56,670 --> 00:25:00,145
much as we do, but you never know. And so we're

402
00:25:00,145 --> 00:25:03,985
really relieved and delighted that people have had such a great time,

403
00:25:03,985 --> 00:25:07,425
especially in the heat of the summer or even on days like this

404
00:25:07,425 --> 00:25:11,025
where, our little house is not so well

405
00:25:11,025 --> 00:25:14,780
insulated. A discovery. Yeah.

406
00:25:15,400 --> 00:25:18,200
Well, how many, artists are you going to,

407
00:25:19,160 --> 00:25:22,840
host in 2025, would you guess? We have 8

408
00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:25,820
artists lined up between now July,

409
00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:30,095
and it is we've actually just kind of, That's busy.

410
00:25:30,154 --> 00:25:33,774
Mhmm. It is busy. It's much busier than we expected it to be.

411
00:25:34,875 --> 00:25:38,634
But as I said, we're kind of in this period of really trying to

412
00:25:38,634 --> 00:25:42,400
experiment and learn about what we should keep doing and what we

413
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:46,240
should stop doing. And the more people we get feedback from, the more it

414
00:25:46,240 --> 00:25:50,000
helps us to refine exactly what we're doing. For the second half

415
00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:53,360
of twenty twenty five, we don't have our artists lined up yet, but we've just

416
00:25:53,360 --> 00:25:57,105
sort of announced to we both have networks of

417
00:25:57,105 --> 00:26:00,805
friends in Los Angeles, some of whom have lost their homes,

418
00:26:01,905 --> 00:26:04,865
or have friends who have lost their homes. And so we've just announced that we're

419
00:26:04,865 --> 00:26:08,545
really eager to host artist families from LA for the second

420
00:26:08,545 --> 00:26:11,990
half of 25. That's a great idea. I'm sure you're gonna

421
00:26:11,990 --> 00:26:15,210
get a a a response. Yeah. We've known

422
00:26:16,630 --> 00:26:20,010
multiple artists who've lost, you know, bodies of work, their studios,

423
00:26:20,230 --> 00:26:23,795
their studios and homes, you know, like their whole livelihood

424
00:26:23,855 --> 00:26:27,535
basically, or, you know, they have shows lined up that, or, you know, the

425
00:26:27,535 --> 00:26:31,215
work is ready for and it's just gone. And that kind of

426
00:26:31,215 --> 00:26:35,020
devastation is like so impactful. I feel like, you know, when

427
00:26:35,020 --> 00:26:37,740
you are living in a place like New York or LA and you're trying to

428
00:26:37,740 --> 00:26:41,500
make work and make living and then you kind of have to start

429
00:26:41,500 --> 00:26:45,179
from scratch in so many ways. We're hoping

430
00:26:45,179 --> 00:26:48,799
that, you know, offerings people the space and time,

431
00:26:48,975 --> 00:26:52,575
you know, can help somebody rebuild that, but

432
00:26:52,575 --> 00:26:56,255
it seems like such a, yeah, we're

433
00:26:56,255 --> 00:27:00,095
just hoping that we can parts of labor can play a small part in

434
00:27:00,095 --> 00:27:03,810
that rebuilding. But Well, looking ahead, if you

435
00:27:03,810 --> 00:27:07,430
have 8 artists in the first half of the year and and double that,

436
00:27:07,810 --> 00:27:11,650
to 16, do you have the resources to sustain that kind of

437
00:27:11,650 --> 00:27:15,285
pace? That's a great question, and that's something I

438
00:27:15,285 --> 00:27:19,045
should say that yeah. To have 16 artists in a year far

439
00:27:19,045 --> 00:27:22,885
exceeds our initial strategy. So I don't know that that'll

440
00:27:22,885 --> 00:27:26,325
happen, but it's just sort of how it worked out, in part because,

441
00:27:27,510 --> 00:27:31,270
2 of the 2 groups of the 8 are husband and wife

442
00:27:31,270 --> 00:27:34,950
pairs that are both artists, which is really nice in that we can

443
00:27:34,950 --> 00:27:37,350
serve 2 people at one time. But,

444
00:27:39,190 --> 00:27:42,005
no. At this point, we are not on track to be able to host 16

445
00:27:42,005 --> 00:27:45,765
people, and so we're we're really this is a season for us where we're really

446
00:27:45,765 --> 00:27:49,284
focusing on development and infrastructure and shoring up our

447
00:27:49,284 --> 00:27:52,664
resources so that we can host people. You are a 501

448
00:27:53,220 --> 00:27:56,980
c 3 nonprofit. Correct? We are. So there's got to be a

449
00:27:56,980 --> 00:28:00,660
development strategy, a fundraising strategy, and I don't know if that also

450
00:28:00,660 --> 00:28:04,120
falls on your shoulders, Megan, is the your staff.

451
00:28:04,580 --> 00:28:08,340
Yeah. I'm I'm well, thankfully, Matt and Liz have a lot

452
00:28:08,340 --> 00:28:12,135
of vitality and commitment to parts and labors and, you

453
00:28:12,135 --> 00:28:15,975
know, a very large network, so that helps. But the sort of,

454
00:28:16,455 --> 00:28:20,075
the practical outworking of our development

455
00:28:20,135 --> 00:28:23,910
strategy falls on me, falls on me. It

456
00:28:24,230 --> 00:28:27,670
sounds negative. I joyfully get to do our development

457
00:28:27,670 --> 00:28:30,410
work. It's a lot. Yeah. So,

458
00:28:31,510 --> 00:28:35,270
we're we write grants pretty regularly. At this point, all of the

459
00:28:35,270 --> 00:28:38,835
grants that we've applied for have been through

460
00:28:38,835 --> 00:28:42,515
private family foundations. That's a that's a very

461
00:28:42,515 --> 00:28:45,975
significant source of income for every nonprofit, basically. So,

462
00:28:46,595 --> 00:28:50,355
I I would think particularly, you know, with your previous Texas

463
00:28:50,355 --> 00:28:53,929
Connections, Family Connections, and so forth that family foundations

464
00:28:54,149 --> 00:28:57,529
would, would at least give you guys a serious look.

465
00:28:58,149 --> 00:29:01,750
They are giving us a serious look and they're they know that we're young, so

466
00:29:01,750 --> 00:29:05,510
they're interested to see what we have done and what we hope to do.

467
00:29:05,510 --> 00:29:08,384
And we feel like we have a pretty compelling narrative.

468
00:29:10,144 --> 00:29:13,904
Surprisingly to us, and this has been, like, a great bit

469
00:29:13,904 --> 00:29:17,605
of encouragement, you know, there's families in San Antonio

470
00:29:17,664 --> 00:29:21,500
and Central Texas that very regularly give to the arts, and a lot

471
00:29:21,500 --> 00:29:25,200
of us know who some of those families are. And, thankfully, they've

472
00:29:25,500 --> 00:29:29,179
really there's not as much public funding, so it's great that

473
00:29:29,179 --> 00:29:32,720
they're as generous as they are. Because of our

474
00:29:33,745 --> 00:29:37,424
interest in supporting families and children, we've qualified for

475
00:29:37,424 --> 00:29:41,105
funding that we might not otherwise have qualified for. For

476
00:29:41,105 --> 00:29:44,804
people that are interested in family dynamics and education

477
00:29:44,945 --> 00:29:48,705
and childcare, they've kind of taken an interest in us, and so that's

478
00:29:48,705 --> 00:29:52,159
something that we're grateful for. But our

479
00:29:52,159 --> 00:29:56,000
budget is composed of small donations, things like

480
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:59,840
$25, $50 purchases at our arts

481
00:29:59,840 --> 00:30:03,524
auction, and then larger grants, which we hope to

482
00:30:03,524 --> 00:30:07,225
qualify for more and more. Started to build a donor base?

483
00:30:07,924 --> 00:30:11,284
We have. You you have some donor strategies that every

484
00:30:11,284 --> 00:30:14,965
nonprofit has to adopt to be viable? Yes. My

485
00:30:14,965 --> 00:30:18,580
my background is in nonprofit management and strategy,

486
00:30:18,580 --> 00:30:22,340
so I'm not doing anything too genius over here. I'm sort

487
00:30:22,340 --> 00:30:25,000
of doing what I've observed at lots of other nonprofits.

488
00:30:25,700 --> 00:30:29,296
But, we're small enough at this point that we've

489
00:30:29,296 --> 00:30:32,900
been able to be pretty high touch with our donors and regularly

490
00:30:32,900 --> 00:30:36,504
in touch with them, and I think that that has helped. Have

491
00:30:36,504 --> 00:30:40,107
you explored whether the city of San Antonio's arts funding, is

492
00:30:40,107 --> 00:30:43,750
something that, you would qualify for? Because that can become an annual

493
00:30:43,970 --> 00:30:47,649
sort of line item gift that really can help it it's bolstered many

494
00:30:47,649 --> 00:30:51,409
nonprofits in the art space. Yes. And

495
00:30:51,409 --> 00:30:54,895
we we are eager to learn more about what's

496
00:30:54,895 --> 00:30:58,355
available from the city. Very eager. We've

497
00:30:59,135 --> 00:31:02,835
had lots of conversations with different people. At this point, we're

498
00:31:03,775 --> 00:31:07,410
sort of in our infancy, and a lot of the grants that we

499
00:31:07,410 --> 00:31:11,190
might qualify for because of our mission and vision are not available

500
00:31:11,250 --> 00:31:14,690
to us yet. After we've existed for 3 or 5 years, I think

501
00:31:14,690 --> 00:31:17,190
that we'll qualify for more, but

502
00:31:19,345 --> 00:31:22,225
that has not been the case yet. But we're really hoping that it will be,

503
00:31:22,225 --> 00:31:25,505
and we're eager to hear from any of your listeners about,

504
00:31:26,065 --> 00:31:29,425
resources that we might avail ourselves of that we don't know about. Well, it wouldn't

505
00:31:29,425 --> 00:31:32,465
surprise me if some of our listeners step forward and help you. So how would

506
00:31:32,465 --> 00:31:36,230
they do that? Thanks for asking that. That's a big help. You can go

507
00:31:36,230 --> 00:31:39,530
to our website, and on our website, it's pretty immediately

508
00:31:39,670 --> 00:31:43,350
clear how to donate. That's parts and laborssa.org, I

509
00:31:43,350 --> 00:31:47,125
believe. Yes. Exactly. Partsandlaborsa.org. If you

510
00:31:47,125 --> 00:31:50,965
Google parts and labor San Antonio, we're the first thing that pops

511
00:31:50,965 --> 00:31:54,565
up. Also, on our website is my contact information and

512
00:31:54,565 --> 00:31:58,105
Liz's contact information, and we would be happy to correspond with you

513
00:31:58,405 --> 00:32:01,845
or meet with you for coffee to tell you more about what we're hoping to

514
00:32:01,845 --> 00:32:04,230
achieve. We're very available.

515
00:32:05,809 --> 00:32:09,570
Alright. Who's your current artist? Our current artist is

516
00:32:09,570 --> 00:32:13,030
Chris Baker. He and his family are here from Michigan.

517
00:32:13,410 --> 00:32:17,185
Family? Family, partner Britney and

518
00:32:17,185 --> 00:32:20,945
newborn Winnie. Okay. Chris is a

519
00:32:20,945 --> 00:32:24,785
graduate of Cranbrook and he makes his living as a graphic

520
00:32:24,785 --> 00:32:28,410
designer. He's designed lots of books for museums and he's

521
00:32:28,410 --> 00:32:32,010
even done a little bit of design work to help us. He

522
00:32:32,010 --> 00:32:35,630
offered an art workshop at Keystone School last weekend

523
00:32:35,850 --> 00:32:39,610
for families, and that was a lot of fun. And he'll

524
00:32:39,610 --> 00:32:42,945
soon be delivering an artist talk, which is just sort of like

525
00:32:44,144 --> 00:32:47,585
a way for an artist to articulate their overall studio

526
00:32:47,585 --> 00:32:51,264
practice and some of the work that they've made in the past and are

527
00:32:51,264 --> 00:32:54,625
making in the during the course of the

528
00:32:54,625 --> 00:32:58,180
residency. He you can imagine in our

529
00:32:58,180 --> 00:33:01,160
little house that we don't have printmaking facilities

530
00:33:01,620 --> 00:33:05,220
and our backyard shed. So a

531
00:33:05,220 --> 00:33:08,740
couple faculty from UTSA very generously let

532
00:33:08,740 --> 00:33:12,445
Chris use their facilities, and he's been spending time down there. Oh, that's

533
00:33:12,445 --> 00:33:16,285
terrific. At at the, UTSA Southwest School of Art? Actually, at

534
00:33:16,285 --> 00:33:19,885
the 1604 campus. At the main campus. Yes. Okay. And so he'll

535
00:33:19,885 --> 00:33:23,325
actually this is kind of one of the great things about the artists we work

536
00:33:23,325 --> 00:33:26,800
with. In exchange for all of that access to their

537
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:30,320
facilities, he is going to be doing portfolio reviews with

538
00:33:30,320 --> 00:33:34,080
students. So that'll be happening in the next few days with graduate

539
00:33:34,080 --> 00:33:37,185
students and undergrad students. And that's the kind of

540
00:33:37,745 --> 00:33:40,805
exchange and reciprocity that we're trying to cultivate.

541
00:33:41,345 --> 00:33:45,105
That's great. And who's coming after Chris? Our next artist is

542
00:33:45,105 --> 00:33:48,865
Katrina Chamberlain who was referred by one of our previous

543
00:33:48,865 --> 00:33:52,710
artists, Peeta Potter. So your networks your

544
00:33:52,710 --> 00:33:56,390
your network in action is proving valuable that Yes.

545
00:33:56,470 --> 00:34:00,150
Word-of-mouth in New York is is spreading. Yeah. We actually

546
00:34:00,150 --> 00:34:03,610
asked our the the first few artists that we invited

547
00:34:03,750 --> 00:34:07,290
for, like, kind of inaugural season after they came.

548
00:34:07,695 --> 00:34:11,375
We reached out to them and asked them to, kind of nominate somebody

549
00:34:11,375 --> 00:34:15,135
that they thought would benefit from parts and labor based

550
00:34:15,135 --> 00:34:18,895
on their own experience, and so we got several recommendations from

551
00:34:18,895 --> 00:34:22,600
those first few artists. And I think that's been

552
00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:25,960
really cool to see this kind of, like, personal kind

553
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:28,859
of sharing of, you know,

554
00:34:29,480 --> 00:34:33,159
artists' experience and then, like, kind of inspiring, like, kind of this

555
00:34:33,159 --> 00:34:36,974
organic web of connection to parts and

556
00:34:36,974 --> 00:34:40,815
labor. And I would say, I hope that

557
00:34:40,815 --> 00:34:44,574
it's reciprocal. You know, Ada Potter also runs a

558
00:34:44,574 --> 00:34:48,420
nonprofit art gallery in Brook,

559
00:34:48,579 --> 00:34:52,179
or actually, it's not in Brooklyn anymore. It's in Manhattan. It's called

560
00:34:52,179 --> 00:34:55,540
Parent Company, and it's basically like an artist

561
00:34:55,540 --> 00:34:58,920
run exhibition space. And she's doing,

562
00:34:59,460 --> 00:35:03,045
I think, incredible work for, her own kind of

563
00:35:03,045 --> 00:35:06,805
local community offering space and exhibitions. The most

564
00:35:06,805 --> 00:35:10,245
recent of which was just written up in the New York Times, which is super

565
00:35:10,245 --> 00:35:13,845
exciting. So, it's it's cool to

566
00:35:13,845 --> 00:35:17,250
get to kind of see, and,

567
00:35:17,250 --> 00:35:21,010
like, share in the work that our artists are doing elsewhere. So and

568
00:35:21,010 --> 00:35:24,610
follow them and keep up with them. So Well, we're running out of time, but

569
00:35:24,610 --> 00:35:28,450
one last question before, we go. Can people go to your website and

570
00:35:28,450 --> 00:35:31,845
see the work of all these artists? Are you posting what they're

571
00:35:31,845 --> 00:35:35,365
producing here? We have a little feature called

572
00:35:35,365 --> 00:35:39,205
diary of an artist, which is sort of like a blog that we ask

573
00:35:39,205 --> 00:35:42,885
each artist to contribute to where they document their time with their

574
00:35:42,885 --> 00:35:46,599
family, their time around town, and their time in the studio, and you

575
00:35:46,599 --> 00:35:49,579
can see works if they photograph them there.

576
00:35:50,839 --> 00:35:54,540
But you're making a great point. We should do an even better job of capturing

577
00:35:55,320 --> 00:35:59,079
photos of work that's made while it's being made. So, yes,

578
00:35:59,079 --> 00:36:02,885
you can see some, but we should have even more of that. Well, it's easy

579
00:36:02,885 --> 00:36:06,485
to tell a young non nonprofit what they should be doing that they're not doing.

580
00:36:06,485 --> 00:36:10,245
But having been there myself, I'm I appreciate how incredibly hard

581
00:36:10,245 --> 00:36:13,785
it is to just launch and sustain one of these. So congratulations

582
00:36:14,085 --> 00:36:17,930
on getting through your 1st year and and looking forward to your 2nd

583
00:36:17,930 --> 00:36:21,690
year, and, hopefully, we'll be at more events where we meet

584
00:36:21,690 --> 00:36:25,450
some of your artists that, come to San Antonio. I'll be curious to read the

585
00:36:25,450 --> 00:36:29,150
blog and see what kind of observations they have about our city.

586
00:36:29,835 --> 00:36:33,595
Thank you. Thank you so much. Yeah. People have been really excited about

587
00:36:33,595 --> 00:36:37,295
San Antonio. I know you mentioned this earlier, but at one point, Mike,

588
00:36:37,435 --> 00:36:41,275
when he was here, was, like, literally talking to his wife,

589
00:36:41,275 --> 00:36:45,010
Melina, about, like, I don't know. Like, maybe maybe we should

590
00:36:45,010 --> 00:36:48,770
move. He was, you know, people are super excited about what's

591
00:36:48,770 --> 00:36:52,530
going on and, so I feel like props to the

592
00:36:52,530 --> 00:36:55,109
San Antonio community for being welcoming and,

593
00:36:55,890 --> 00:36:59,695
encouraging that way. Well, Elizabeth Estelle Clayberg and Megan Ritchie,

594
00:36:59,695 --> 00:37:02,915
thanks for coming on to Big City Small Town. Thanks. Thanks for having us.

595
00:37:06,255 --> 00:37:10,095
Well, that concludes this episode of Big City Small Town. Thanks again

596
00:37:10,095 --> 00:37:13,590
to our sponsors, Westin Urban, building the city our children wanna

597
00:37:13,590 --> 00:37:16,970
call home, and here at Geekdom, our sponsor,

598
00:37:17,350 --> 00:37:21,130
where startups are born. Thanks to our producer, Corey Ames,

599
00:37:21,350 --> 00:37:24,990
Moira Bobbitt, our in studio production, Erica Rempel

600
00:37:25,050 --> 00:37:28,570
for video and social media, and Alfie de la Garza of Sound

601
00:37:28,570 --> 00:37:31,070
Crane Studio. We'll see you all next week.