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

Bob Rivard [00:00:03]:
Welcome to Big City Small Town, the weekly podcast all about San Antonio and the people who make it go and grow. I'm your host, Bob Brevard. We are getting a good reaction to the weekly newsletter we launched just 2 weeks ago. And as the San Antonio's mayor's race heats up in the coming weeks and we watch how policies enacted by the Trump administration affects San Antonio and South Texas, The newsletter will help you stay informed on current events and significant news developments locally. Just go to big city small town dot com and put your email in. No spam, we promise, and you'll get a confirmation email, and we'll be on our way. And if you know me and you're lazy, you can just send your email to me, and I'll put it in for you. There you go.

Bob Rivard [00:00:47]:
Our guests this week are Elizabeth Stell Clayberg and Megan Ritchie, who join us to talk about the nonprofit parts and labor, which is the new Southtown artist residency that offers mid career artist residents focus time, space, and resources in pursuit of their creative work. I became aware of this year old residency when Alicia Fitz, a ceramic sculptor and a close family friend based in Mexico City, was selected to be an artist in residence here. And in addition to providing artists with a historic home in Lavaca in which to reside and work, The residency uniquely includes childcare support for artists with children. That certainly caught our attention. Well, Liz, welcome to Big City Small Town. Megan, welcome to Big City Small Town.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:01:37]:
Thank you for having us.

Bob Rivard [00:01:38]:
Great to have you both. Liz, why don't you start by telling us, the origin story behind parts and labor and how that brought you and your husband, Matt Klayberg, to San Antonio. Matt, is a well known artist in his own right, and the Klayberg name is certainly a celebrated one in South Texas synonymous with the King Ranch. So we're excited that you guys are here with parts and labor, and we wanna learn more.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:02:01]:
Thanks. Thanks so much for having us. And, yeah, super excited to just share parts and labor with a broader community and, like, get to share, you know, what inspired us to start it and how it's been going and how we've kind of really relied on the excitement and encouragement from the local community to keep it growing. So thanks so much for having us again. Yeah. I grew up in Virginia originally and went to school there. I went to the University of Virginia. I studied art, in Spanish.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:02:32]:
Originally, I I thought I would join the Peace Corps and was really not interested in pursuing an art career because it felt kind of silly and self interested and self focused. So, I was studying anthropology in Spanish, then I switched to public health in Spanish, found out I was horrible at science, decided I should stick with what I'm good at, which is art. So pursued an art degree at UVA and met my husband, Matt, there. So he was a couple years out of the program using painting the painting studio there. And so we got married, stayed in Charlottesville for a couple years, and then applied to grad school in New York. So took us to New York. We, both studied painting there. I started making video, and sculpture with another artist there.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:03:22]:
We started a collaboration and just kind of, like, really Matt and I both kind of grew artistically, like, just incredibly, you know, inspired by all of the institutions and the kind of creative community there. And then had 2 little kids while we were in New York. And at 2020, the pandemic kind of showed us that it was like time to transition and look for a place ideally closer to family. My family's in Virginia. Matt is from here or most of his family's here in San Antonio. He grew up in Fort Worth, but San Antonio looked like a super exciting, kind of like creative hub in a lot of ways. We knew a few artists who had moved here previously and obviously had a bunch of family, so it felt like maybe a place where we could start a new chapter, ideally find a space that we could make into a live work space and then also kind of look for opportunities to broaden our practices to include a more community facing experience, which I think for me always felt like an art residency, but didn't know exactly how that would work. And, yeah, when we moved here in 2020, we spent 2 years looking for, an industrial kind of warehouse space to create a live workspace out of.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:04:50]:
And eventually, we're super lucky and, like, really privileged to get Peter Zubiotti and Katie Pell's warehouse studio home in Lavaca. And we spent the last 2 years renovating that for our own live workspace. And it just so happened that the little bungalow next door to that building came available, and it became super obvious that that was, like, that was our opportunity to, host artists, host families, and bring kind of other creative connections, friendships, people we know from elsewhere bring them here to San Antonio and hopefully kind of broaden or connect those two parts of our lives and hopefully kind of infuse the creative community here with outside influence while also highlighting all of the amazing work that's happening here. So, highlighting all of the amazing work that's happening here. So when that that house came available, I immediately called Megan because, we're great friends from New York and have a shared art background. And Megan is incredible at the nuts and bolts of how these, like, beautiful creative visions actually come to life and how to kind of build supportive networks around them to make them happen. So I called Meghan and was like, will you have coffee with me? And will you start this, you know, giant life mission with me? And she was like, yes. Let's do this.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:06:21]:
So

Bob Rivard [00:06:21]:
And now wait a minute. Will you have coffee with me and move with your husband to from New York to San Antonio?

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:06:28]:
Well, Meghan was actually here already. She had already moved for her family and was doing lots of different, remote projects. And so I was like, what's one more project for you? We'll just start a nonprofit.

Bob Rivard [00:06:42]:
Well, Liz, I your story resonates with me because only 35 years ago, I was, living and loving, my work and career and life in New York.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:06:51]:
Yeah.

Bob Rivard [00:06:52]:
But my wife and I had 2 little ones, and, she was from Texas, and most of my career had been here in Latin America, so we moved back here.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:07:00]:
Yeah.

Bob Rivard [00:07:01]:
And, that's quite a leap to leave New York for for San Antonio, but it it, it was the right move then, and I'm sure it's the right move for you. Megan, what brought you from New York to back to San Antonio?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:07:13]:
So Matt and Alyssa's arrival in San Antonio predated mine by about 2 years. I decided for better or for worse to weather the pandemic in New York and left in 2022, really having no idea why I was coming to San Antonio. Other than that, after 18 years in New York, it just felt like it might be time for a change.

Bob Rivard [00:07:35]:
And what were you doing there, if I can interrupt now?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:07:37]:
Sure. A variety of things. I had worked for several large magazines, magazine called Commonweal, a magazine called Image, and I had also worked for a variety of arts nonprofits and collecting family foundations. When I left New York, I was actually living in New York, but working remotely for a gallery based in Los Angeles called Bridge Projects. And part of the reason I thought I might come to Texas is that it was looking like the Los Angeles outpost of Bridge projects might also do something here in Texas. So the kind of constant pull from my parents to come home, and just a change in my personal circumstance made me consider whether or not this was the right place. And I moved down pretty reluctantly thinking, I think I'm just gonna, like I'll just hang out for a while. I was working remotely, so I had that flexibility.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:08:28]:
And then I bought a house, and then I met great people, and, a lot of the remote work that I was doing persisted, thankfully, and more local opportunities began to bubble up like parts and labor. And so I decided to stay.

Bob Rivard [00:08:44]:
And your husband's in the nonprofit space here too in San Antonio?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:08:48]:
He is. He's, he's from San Antonio. He went to school at UT, but has mostly lived in San Antonio. And he had been working in finance for a large restaurant group that a lot of people know, but recently transitioned away from the restaurant group into finance for nonprofits. And, yeah, he's he's a local boy. He's a musician. He plays in a couple bands, and meeting Kim when I moved here, I think, also helped to kind of settle me into town. And now we have our own little family, and interestingly enough, like, when we started parts and labor, we were committed to serving artists that are caretakers, whether it's artists with kids or artists with dependent parents or dependent partners.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:09:33]:
But I was, like, totally single and didn't really have any dependents, but still felt very compelled by the mission. And now, like, less than a year later, I have a husband and a son and a baby on the way, and I feel very much, like, a little bit closer to the people that we're seeking to serve. So it resonates with me even more now.

Bob Rivard [00:09:54]:
Well, congratulations on the coming baby.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:09:56]:
Thank you.

Bob Rivard [00:09:57]:
When's when's the big day?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:09:58]:
June 1st.

Bob Rivard [00:09:59]:
Okay. Well, we'll we'll keep an eye on that. Liz, I'm familiar with, the the PACE Foundation has a pretty celebrated international, artist residency. As a matter of fact, Nicholas Frank, who's, was the longtime arts and culture reporter at the Rivard Report, which became the San Antonio Report, I met him. He was the international artist in residence here from I think he's from, yeah, from Milwaukee and was a sculptor. And then I'm aware of a Blue Star Art Residency that is the work of, Angela. Her last name escapes me, but it's a, a residency in Berlin. Mhmm.

Bob Rivard [00:10:38]:
And those are the only 2 that I'm really familiar with in San Antonio. So I was really intrigued with the concept that you guys had, particularly the caretaker concept. But but, you know, that was it's a big undertaking to to to establish something like that in San Antonio and recruit artists from near and far. Give give us a little bit of understanding of how that's working and who's been here and who's coming here.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:11:02]:
Yeah. I, would mention one more. Sala Diaz has Casa Chucks from time to time, they host residents there. So we were also aware of these other things happening in town and being super aware of how new we are in the community. We were, like, wanted to kind of talk to all of those people about, like, how do you feel about, like, us doing this thing in Southtown? We're new. We obviously are super eager and excited. We don't wanna step on anybody's toes. You know.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:11:37]:
We don't wanna be redundant. We don't wanna take away attention from your programming. And to a person, every single person that we talked to involved with, you know, Artpace, with Saludias, with the contemporary, everybody was super supportive and basically said more is more. And, they were, like, we're super happy to have new energy in our community, and we wanna support what you're doing. And let's I I think that that attitude was, like, incredibly motivating for us because, you know, we came from New York where it's pretty you know, the competition's is pretty ruthless, and the resources are abundant, but scarce at the same time and space is hard to find and everybody's competing for resources and, and attention. And sometimes it can feel like, you know, a competition, like, just a hustle. So it was like a breath of fresh air to just get to kind of, like, seamlessly, like, jump into that creative energy here. So I think what sets parts and labor aside apart from, these other programs is that we're specifically hoping to invite artists and their families, artists and, you know, they can are welcome to bring their kids.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:13:02]:
They're welcome to bring a dependent partner or a parent who has, you know, any any sort of, like, extenuating circumstances that make it difficult for the artist to participate in other residencies. And it's not like it has to be an extreme circumstance. I'm not saying that. But sometimes it's hard to kind of organize your schedule in your life around these other obligations and it makes it difficult to up and go to, you know, another place for months at a time. So we're hoping to kind of alleviate some of that stress and, make the residency super flexible for artists. They can bring their families or not. It's just an option. They can bring them for part of the time, also have some solo time.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:13:47]:
The length of stay is very flexible.

Bob Rivard [00:13:49]:
The residency doesn't have a, start and finish sort of time, like at 1 month, 3 months?

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:13:55]:
You you know, we're hoping for at least 2 weeks. That's kind of the very minimum. And then up to

Meaghan Ritchey [00:14:01]:
6 or 8. It's it's easier to accommodate someone for a longer stay because they're able to be that much more productive and and really integrate and kind of settle into the community. So I think, you know, parts and labor is only a year old, but I think in the next and labor is only a year old, but I think in the next 2 to 3 years, we will have kind of formalized stays and a whole process by which we welcome people. But right now, we were just trying to be as gracious and accommodating as possible because we wanted to spread the word and get people down here.

Bob Rivard [00:14:33]:
Well, I mean, it's a great concept, but wouldn't most artists say I can't pull my kids out of school and come down to San Antonio for 6 weeks. That's not practical even if you're willing to support support us bringing them.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:14:44]:
Mhmm. That we've definitely come up against that with school aged kids or parents have school aged kids. Some of them have, like, sandwiched their stay around a school break. So they have their family for that, like spring break or winter break or whatever, and then they'll stay for the another week or so, or 2, you know, so it kind of, like, makes it, like, less of a big chunk away. And then there are obviously families with younger kids. Right now, we have an artist who has a 7 month old, and he and his wife came with her, and we've been able to provide childcare for them during the day while they both work. So, yes. And those people who have school, you know, commitments have asked to come in the summer, which, originally we were like, summer's off limits.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:15:35]:
It's just too hot. But some people are interested just to have that time, to work. So we're trying to be flexible with that and also offer opportunities to, like, here's, like, access to a pool or, like, here's ways to stay cool in San Antonio because the summertime is really sought after.

Bob Rivard [00:15:54]:
I think we might like to hear about those options.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:15:57]:
Yeah.

Bob Rivard [00:15:57]:
How who's eligible? First of all, obviously, if we have listeners who are in the, art space here, they're artists locally. Are they we're only arts and laborers for artists from elsewhere to come to San Antonio?

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:16:13]:
Yeah. We're we're sort of focusing on inviting artists from elsewhere to come stay and and engage with the local community. So while they're here, we're asking them to provide some sort of public programming, whether that's a show that has an opening at the end of their stay or, an artist talk or a family workshop or studio visits at UTSA or, you know, Texas State, any of the local kind of art programs, in order to kind of provide new opportunities for, like, artists here to connect with artists from elsewhere. That's the focus right now, but we are really aware of how, you know, wanting to make it, generative for the local community. So I think right now, we're not hosting local artists, but we are looking for ways to kind of serve the local artist community.

Bob Rivard [00:17:13]:
I've been invited to events at, at the PACE Foundation to meet the international fellows and also to see their work. I've been to the Blue Star to see the results of people that have had the residency over in Berlin. Are, people in the local art community being invited to see meet the artists and to see their work here in San Antonio while they're here?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:17:34]:
Yes. I would say that that's something that we are so committed to and an area in which we really wanna grow because we feel like that's one of the really distinctive things about the San Antonio arts community is that it is so hospitable, accepting, warm, and gracious. And it would be a shame for our artists to come here and not have, like, lots of points of exposure to that. Because it is kind of countercultural as Liz described. Like, New York is deeply inspiring. It was for us. But it's also extremely competitive and can be very, like, cutthroat and hard. So for artists that maybe are visiting from New York or LA or some of these markets that are more competitive, to find themselves in a place where people are having really thoughtful conversation and working at a high level, but are also just available and warm is really important.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:18:27]:
So all of the programming that we do is open to the public and it's almost always completely free, and we do our best to promote it, though we're always trying to find new audiences. We just think that it would be a shame for people to come all this way and stay cooped up in the house and not kind of enjoy the city for what it is. So and really, we'll rely on partnerships with other organizations to increase our visibility so that more and more people are able to come to things.

Bob Rivard [00:18:56]:
Now whether somebody is a a sculptor or a ceramicist or a painter, does their art leave with them? What happens to the art that's created here?

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:19:07]:
They take it with them or

Meaghan Ritchey [00:19:09]:
yeah. They're asking them to leave a piece. Yeah.

Bob Rivard [00:19:11]:
Well, that's what I'm wondering. Does parts and labor eventually become its own kind of gallery or sort of residency museum?

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:19:19]:
We do host this one auction fundraiser. I mean

Bob Rivard [00:19:23]:
aware of that. When was that or when is that?

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:19:25]:
So it's has been the last 2 have been early December, and we've hosted them at local restaurants. Last year, it was at Liberty Bar, which was, like, super special to kind of connect with, like, the history of the kind of creative community, that Liberty Bar has kind of been a part of. This year, it was at Magpie on the east side. Oh,

Bob Rivard [00:19:46]:
you're picking great spots.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:19:48]:
I know. Right? It helps.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:19:49]:
Spots that gets when people know the food will be good.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:19:51]:
It's a really fun night. And each artist who has come has donated a work for a small works auction. So that's kind of the only requirement so far is just if they could leave an, a piece for the auction. It's really great for people to get to see a variety of works by the by past and future upcoming artists as well. This last auction, we had both, a mixture of both. And also I feel like artists are really excited to leave for work. Everybody has been so generous and has had such, you know, people who've previous artists have been so kind of, like, filled up by their stay that they're, like, eager to get leave something behind, which is really wonderful. And that has generated a portion of our I wouldn't say, like, we have a very it's pretty small operating budget, but that's been, like, a big part of our fundraising, which is cool that it gets to be a community event and people get to kind of, like, celebrate, you know, and have a big dinner party together.

Bob Rivard [00:20:54]:
Well, we'll talk about that nonprofit aspect in just a second. But first, for people who are saying, I wish I had been at Liberty Bar Magpie, do they have to wait until next December for the next, auction or parts and labor event, or do you have something planned earlier than that?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:21:12]:
We don't have a a huge party and auction planned currently like we do at the holiday season, but we do have very regular programming. And some of it is meant to be very family oriented, some of it's meant to be educational, and then a lot of it is just meant to be fun. So, people can check our website to see all of our upcoming programs, and I think that we'll be doing something through the spring and into the summer that maybe resembles the auction without being the full on auction. I wanted to just kind of piggyback, if that's okay, on your question about, about artists leaving items behind. That is if they are able to do that, we find it to be super helpful and generous, and it does help us to raise our budget. But a bigger kind of victory for us is actually when an artist goes home and continues the body of work that they started at the residency to have a show and a space that's more reputable or, you know, just isn't the parts and labor house. So one of our artists, Michael Gat Glavin, who lives in Brooklyn, started a small body of work, and he was making I think he made something like 10 paintings when he was with us for just a few weeks. And he just closed a big show in New York that was covered by lots of press, and he did really well.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:22:38]:
And he credits Parts and Labor very specifically with the inspiration behind what eventually became that exhibition. So for us, we could sell works by people, but it would but we see it as more like a feather in our cap that he went on to have this, like, great show, somewhere else.

Bob Rivard [00:22:57]:
Well, that kind of conversation or publicity about career advancement is something money can't buy, and I I wonder how many artists because I know that you drew on your New York network for a lot of the initial artists in the 1st year. How many of them are going back with a completely different understanding of San Antonio? And, I mean, people can be pretty negative about Texas and New York, and and we're not even gonna go there. But but, you know, we're an urban island as most of the major metros are in Texas, and I wonder how many people are going back and and sort of engaging in what I'd call word-of-mouth marketing for you and and and perhaps generating interest from other artists. You can be a a a really promising artist in New York and still fail to get a toehold anywhere because it is can be so cruel, the big city. And so I wonder whether or not, people, perhaps have had the kind of experience where they have considered maybe I should leave New York and come to a San Antonio or or whether you've had other New York artists say, I I know somebody that did the fellowship and I'm interested.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:24:03]:
I don't know how many of our former artists are gonna pick themselves up and move to San Antonio, but I do know that everybody has left with a real fondness for it that they didn't have before, either because they had never been here or because they had misconceptions about what it meant to be, like, a Texan. Misconceptions about what it meant to be, like, a Texan. On a yeah. We have lots of great testimonials from artists that have said, like, I came prepared to work, really just excited to get out of, like, the grind, to take a little break with my family, and I left with, like, a lot of affection for this place that I really hope to return to. And they're talking about San Antonio, and they do, they spread the word and we get emails from artists saying, you know, I just talked to so and so, they were there for a month and they loved it, can I come? And we couldn't have expected that. I mean, we love living here and and we hope that people love it as much as we do, but you never know. And so we're really relieved and delighted that people have had such a great time, especially in the heat of the summer or even on days like this where, our little house is not so well insulated.

Bob Rivard [00:25:13]:
A discovery.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:25:14]:
Yeah.

Bob Rivard [00:25:15]:
Well, how many, artists are you going to, host in 2025, would you guess?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:25:22]:
We have 8 artists lined up between now July, and it is we've actually just kind of,

Bob Rivard [00:25:29]:
That's busy. Mhmm.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:25:30]:
It is busy. It's much busier than we expected it to be. But as I said, we're kind of in this period of really trying to experiment and learn about what we should keep doing and what we should stop doing. And the more people we get feedback from, the more it helps us to refine exactly what we're doing. For the second half of twenty twenty five, we don't have our artists lined up yet, but we've just sort of announced to we both have networks of friends in Los Angeles, some of whom have lost their homes, or have friends who have lost their homes. And so we've just announced that we're really eager to host artist families from LA for the second half of 25.

Bob Rivard [00:26:09]:
That's a great idea. I'm sure you're gonna get a a a response.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:26:14]:
Yeah. We've known multiple artists who've lost, you know, bodies of work, their studios, their studios and homes, you know, like their whole livelihood basically, or, you know, they have shows lined up that, or, you know, the work is ready for and it's just gone. And that kind of devastation is like so impactful. I feel like, you know, when you are living in a place like New York or LA and you're trying to make work and make living and then you kind of have to start from scratch in so many ways. We're hoping that, you know, offerings people the space and time, you know, can help somebody rebuild that, but it seems like such a, yeah, we're just hoping that we can parts of labor can play a small part in that rebuilding. But

Bob Rivard [00:27:02]:
Well, looking ahead, if you have 8 artists in the first half of the year and and double that, to 16, do you have the resources to sustain that kind of pace?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:27:12]:
That's a great question, and that's something I should say that yeah. To have 16 artists in a year far exceeds our initial strategy. So I don't know that that'll happen, but it's just sort of how it worked out, in part because, 2 of the 2 groups of the 8 are husband and wife pairs that are both artists, which is really nice in that we can serve 2 people at one time. But, no. At this point, we are not

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:27:40]:
on track

Meaghan Ritchey [00:27:40]:
to be able to host 16 people, and so we're we're really this is a season for us where we're really focusing on development and infrastructure and shoring up our resources so that we can host people.

Bob Rivard [00:27:51]:
You are a 501 c 3 nonprofit. Correct?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:27:54]:
We are.

Bob Rivard [00:27:55]:
So there's got to be a development strategy, a fundraising strategy, and I don't know if that also falls on your shoulders, Megan, is the your staff.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:28:04]:
Yeah. I'm I'm well, thankfully, Matt and Liz have a lot of vitality and commitment to parts and labors and, you know, a very large network, so that helps. But the sort of, the practical outworking of our development strategy falls on me, falls on me. It sounds negative. I joyfully get to do our development work. It's a lot. Yeah. So, we're we write grants pretty regularly.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:28:34]:
At this point, all of the grants that we've applied for have been through private family foundations.

Bob Rivard [00:28:41]:
That's a that's a very significant source of income for every nonprofit, basically. So, I I would think particularly, you know, with your previous Texas Connections, Family Connections, and so forth that family foundations would, would at least give you guys a serious look.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:28:58]:
They are giving us a serious look and they're they know that we're young, so they're interested to see what we have done and what we hope to do. And we feel like we have a pretty compelling narrative. Surprisingly to us, and this has been, like, a great bit of encouragement, you know, there's families in San Antonio and Central Texas that very regularly give to the arts, and a lot of us know who some of those families are. And, thankfully, they've really there's not as much public funding, so it's great that they're as generous as they are. Because of our interest in supporting families and children, we've qualified for funding that we might not otherwise have qualified for. For people that are interested in family dynamics and education and childcare, they've kind of taken an interest in us, and so that's something that we're grateful for. But our budget is composed of small donations, things like $25, $50 purchases at our arts auction, and then larger grants, which we hope to qualify for

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:30:05]:
more

Bob Rivard [00:30:05]:
and more. Started to build a donor base?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:30:07]:
We have.

Bob Rivard [00:30:08]:
You you have some donor strategies that every nonprofit has to adopt to be viable?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:30:14]:
Yes. My my background is in nonprofit management and strategy, so I'm not doing anything too genius over here. I'm sort of doing what I've observed at lots of other nonprofits. But, we're small enough at this point that we've been able to be pretty high touch with our donors and regularly in touch with them, and I think that that

Bob Rivard [00:30:35]:
has helped. Have you explored whether the city of San Antonio's arts funding, is something that, you would qualify for? Because that can become an annual sort of line item gift that really can help it it's bolstered many nonprofits in the art space.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:30:50]:
Yes. And we we are eager to learn more about what's available from the city. Very eager. We've had lots of conversations with different people. At this point, we're sort of in our infancy, and a lot of the grants that we might qualify for because of our mission and vision are not available to us yet. After we've existed for 3 or 5 years, I think that we'll qualify for more, but that has not been the case yet. But we're really hoping that it will be, and we're eager to hear from any of your listeners about, resources that we might avail ourselves of that we don't know about.

Bob Rivard [00:31:28]:
Well, it wouldn't surprise me if some of our listeners step forward and help you. So how would they do that?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:31:33]:
Thanks for asking that. That's a big help. You can go to our website, and on our website, it's pretty immediately clear how to donate.

Bob Rivard [00:31:41]:
That's parts and laborssa.org, I believe.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:31:43]:
Yes. Exactly. Partsandlaborsa.org. If you Google parts and labor San Antonio, we're the first thing that pops up. Also, on our website is my contact information and Liz's contact information, and we would be happy to correspond with you or meet with you for coffee to tell you more about what we're hoping to achieve. We're very available.

Bob Rivard [00:32:05]:
Alright. Who's your current artist?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:32:08]:
Our current artist is Chris Baker. He and his family are here from Michigan.

Bob Rivard [00:32:13]:
Family?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:32:14]:
Family, partner Britney and newborn Winnie.

Bob Rivard [00:32:19]:
Okay.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:32:20]:
Chris is a graduate of Cranbrook and he makes his living as a graphic designer. He's designed lots of books for museums and he's even done a little bit of design work to help us. He offered an art workshop at Keystone School last weekend for families, and that was a lot of fun. And he'll soon be delivering an artist talk, which is just sort of like a way for an artist to articulate their overall studio practice and some of the work that they've made in the past and are making in the during the course of the residency. He you can imagine in our little house that we don't have printmaking facilities and our backyard shed. So a couple faculty from UTSA very generously let Chris use their facilities, and he's been spending time down there.

Bob Rivard [00:33:12]:
Oh, that's terrific. At at the, UTSA Southwest School of Art?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:33:15]:
Actually, at the 1604 campus.

Bob Rivard [00:33:17]:
At the main campus.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:33:18]:
Yes.

Bob Rivard [00:33:18]:
Okay.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:33:19]:
And so he'll actually this is kind of one of the great things about the artists we work with. In exchange for all of that access to their facilities, he is going to be doing portfolio reviews with students. So that'll be happening in the next few days with graduate students and undergrad students. And that's the kind of exchange and reciprocity that we're trying to cultivate.

Bob Rivard [00:33:41]:
That's great. And who's coming after Chris?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:33:43]:
Our next artist is Katrina Chamberlain who was referred by one of our previous artists, Peeta Potter.

Bob Rivard [00:33:50]:
So your networks your your network in action is proving valuable that Yes. Word-of-mouth in New York is is spreading.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:33:59]:
Yeah. We actually asked our the the first few artists that we invited for, like, kind of inaugural season after they came. We reached out to them and asked them to, kind of nominate somebody that they thought would benefit from parts and labor based on their own experience, and so we got several recommendations from those first few artists. And I think that's been really cool to see this kind of, like, personal kind of sharing of, you know, artists' experience and then, like, kind of inspiring, like, kind of this organic web of connection to parts and labor. And I would say, I hope that it's reciprocal. You know, Ada Potter also runs a nonprofit art gallery in Brook, or actually, it's not in Brooklyn anymore. It's in Manhattan. It's called Parent Company, and it's basically like an artist run exhibition space.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:34:57]:
And she's doing, I think, incredible work for, her own kind of local community offering space and exhibitions. The most recent of which was just written up in the New York Times, which is super exciting. So, it's it's cool to get to kind of see, and, like, share in the work that our artists are doing elsewhere. So and follow them and keep up with them. So

Bob Rivard [00:35:23]:
Well, we're running out of time, but one last question before, we go. Can people go to your website and see the work of all these artists? Are you posting what they're producing here?

Meaghan Ritchey [00:35:33]:
We have a little feature called diary of an artist, which is sort of like a blog that we ask each artist to contribute to where they document their time with their family, their time around town, and their time in the studio, and you can see works if they photograph them there. But you're making a great point. We should do an even better job of capturing photos of work that's made while it's being made. So, yes, you can see some, but we should have even more of that.

Bob Rivard [00:36:02]:
Well, it's easy to tell a young non nonprofit what they should be doing that they're not doing. But having been there myself, I'm I appreciate how incredibly hard it is to just launch and sustain one of these. So congratulations on getting through your 1st year and and looking forward to your 2nd year, and, hopefully, we'll be at more events where we meet some of your artists that, come to San Antonio. I'll be curious to read the blog and see what kind of observations they have about our city.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:36:29]:
Thank you.

Elizabeth Stehl Kleberg [00:36:30]:
Thank you so much. Yeah. People have been really excited about San Antonio. I know you mentioned this earlier, but at one point, Mike, when he was here, was, like, literally talking to his wife, Melina, about, like, I don't know. Like, maybe maybe we should move. He was, you know, people are super excited about what's going on and, so I feel like props to the San Antonio community for being welcoming and, encouraging that way.

Bob Rivard [00:36:57]:
Well, Elizabeth Estelle Clayberg and Megan Ritchie, thanks for coming on to Big City Small Town.

Meaghan Ritchey [00:37:01]:
Thanks. Thanks for having us.

Bob Rivard [00:37:06]:
Well, that concludes this episode of Big City Small Town. Thanks again to our sponsors, Westin Urban, building the city our children wanna call home, and here at Geekdom, our sponsor, where startups are born. Thanks to our producer, Corey Ames, Moira Bobbitt, our in studio production, Erica Rempel for video and social media, and Alfie de la Garza of Sound Crane Studio. We'll see you all next week.