SAN ANGELO, Texas — San Angelo is only a couple years in to being declared the official Visual Arts Capital of Texas, and if you’ve ever taken a leisurely walk downtown, you probably understand why.
From the recently re-domed San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts to the rustic charm of the Chicken Farm Art Center (not to mention the dozens of galleries, sculptures and murals in between), the city is emerging as an oasis of color among the mesquite trees and tumbleweeds.
One of the leading forces in the artistic charge is Art in Uncommon Places, a nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing expression to muted streets and color to drab buildings, with more than 500 art pieces installed across San Angelo since 2006.
“We wanted to change what the art district looked like and put a stamp of how artistic and wonderful San Angelo is,” AIUP President Julie Raymond said. “I really wanted to bring the arts to the city and out to the streets, so people could see what was going on.”
But when they got the idea to throw some technology into the mix by digitally augmenting 10 new murals, they… well, hit a brick wall.
“I went to tech companies and I didn’t get a very good response,” Raymond said.
And that’s when Central High School teacher Scarlet Rodriguez’s Graphic Design II class stepped up.
“[Art in Uncommon Places] had this vision of these 10 murals that they were going to put up around town, and they wanted a way to augment those,” Rodriguez said. “And she actually contacted five tech companies and every one was like, ‘Oh no. It’s too hard, there’s no way we can do that.’ So [Raymond] had found my name and she called me, and I said, ‘Yeah, we can kind of do something like that.’”
Rodriguez had her class augment one of the pieces in the Pop Art Gallery as an example for Raymond.
“And I said, ‘This is all that we can do.’ And she starts crying and saying, ‘This is exactly what I wanted!’” Rodriguez said. “So we just kind of went from there.”
With nine of the murals fully augmented and a 10th on the way, it’s a good excuse to take a long walk in the autumn weather.
“If you go to ArtinUncommonPlaces.com and you can find a map and you can go through the whole tour,” Raymond said. “It takes you, walking, about an hour.“
Rodriguez said she’s proud of the new ground her students are breaking.
“And those students have a legacy and a stamp on something in San Angelo, Texas. I’m very big into ‘Look what these kids can do, look what these kids can do.’ I think high school kids always get a bad rap, I think this generation of high school kids get a bad rap. And we have great kids, we really have great kids. They’re kind, respectful, they have talents and skills, and you just gotta give them a little room and they’ll always surprise you.”