Greater than a decade in the past, artist Diana Kersey lived near San Pedro Creek, typically strolling alongside it on her strategy to work.
She wasn’t drawn to the creek as a result of it was a nice spot — “It was a nasty outdated ditch,” she mentioned — however it was the quickest path to her job as a ceramic tech on the Southwest Faculty of Artwork (now the College of Texas at San Antonio’s Southwest campus).
Now when she visits that space, it’s as a result of she needs to be there. The ditch has been reworked into the San Pedro Creek Tradition Park, a linear park dotted with public artwork items, together with a number of crafted by Kersey.
“To see how a lot it has reworked, and the way stunning it’s, is absolutely thrilling,” she mentioned.
Paving the Approach
The transformation was a gradual course of.
In about 2012, management in Bexar County and on the San Antonio River Authority began speaking about methods to cope with recurring flooding points within the space.
“Whereas that was the primary function of the challenge to type of get it began and get it funded, the management on the time actually wished to check a multi-benefit piece that could possibly be extra than simply an upgraded concrete ditch,” mentioned Amy Zola, who was the challenge supervisor in the course of the park’s development part. “In order that was the concept behind the challenge.”
Building took a couple of decade. The ultimate section, stretching from Ruby Metropolis to the Apache Creek Greenway, was accomplished in Could.
What to Anticipate
The San Pedro Creek Tradition Park is now a peaceable place to walk. (It’s additionally attainable to do this just about at spcculturepark.com.) Broad paved paths line the creek. Interpretive panels pop up right here and there, giving snippets of details about the wildlife that dwell there in addition to insights into the town’s historical past and tradition. Waterfalls may be discovered alongside the route, and guests can also wade within the water on the Plaza de Fundación. (Facet notice: That’s the solely place within the park the place people are permitted to work together with the water with something aside from their eyes and ears.)
Herons continuously go to, as do geese and different birds. The scent of native grasses wafts by the air, and dragonflies and damselflies dart about. Riots of wildflowers burst from planting beds and the earth, and practically 300 shade timber present respite in the course of the hottest instances of the yr. There are also a number of spots, together with Mustard Seed Plaza and the Salinas Boardwalk, that may be rented for gatherings.
Public artwork items giant and small are woven all through, together with murals, sculptures, tilework, poetry and installations. Practically 70 benches have been put in, lots of them adorned with tilework by Michael Menchaca and Leticia Huerta.
“The way in which the artwork was used could be very intentional, to tug you in and pull you thru the park,” Zola mentioned. “It’s meant to work collectively and pull you down the creek so that you simply really feel enticed to see what’s across the subsequent nook.”
The ultimate section consists of poetry by San Antonio Poet Laureate Eddie Vega. He wrote three items for the park, every of them etched into limestone.
Vega, who was chosen for the challenge earlier than he was named poet laureate, sought inspiration on visits to the park throughout its development. He additionally researched the native vegetation and different elements of the realm in order that he might fold these particulars into the poems, making them really website particular.
“The opposite factor I actually wished to do was to someway write them in Spanglish, simply to replicate the tradition, replicate our space, the way in which that folks really speak,” he mentioned.
The works aren’t designed to be skilled passively.
“The poems are supposed to be learn out loud,” he mentioned. “I don’t assume that you simply actually get the artwork of it if you happen to’re simply watching it.”
One of many final items of public artwork to be accomplished was New York-based artist Mark Reigelman’s “Falling Water,” an enormous hand with an open palm rising gracefully from the earth slightly below the freeway. It’s visually hanging, however it additionally serves a sensible function, catching and filtering stormwater runoff from Interstate 35 and guiding it to the beds of native vegetation round it.
The lion’s share of artwork items within the park had been created by San Antonio artists, together with murals by the likes of Alex Rubio, Adriana Garcia and the late Katie Pell; poetry by Vega and John Philip Santos; an set up of brightly painted metal panels evoking papel picado by Elizabeth Carrington; and a painted sewn tensile material cover by Rikkianne Van Kirk.
Kersey is accountable for “Crayfish,” a vivid purple crustacean resting on a pedestal on the trailhead on El Paso Avenue.
The concept for it got here from people who attended Creek Fest, a river authority occasion, just a few years in the past. Kersey had a desk on the occasion the place she had coloured air clay and invited folks to make issues with it. She additionally allow them to know that she had been commissioned to create one thing for the trailhead, and requested them what they thought she ought to make.
“I used to be writing down notes, and other people had been making issues and speaking about their experiences with the San Pedro Creek, and so many individuals talked about enjoying with crawdads. It was such a profound reminiscence for therefore many individuals,” she mentioned. “After which I walked up and down the creek and seen birds had been catching crawdads and consuming them, and I might see crawdad bits everywhere in the sidewalks. I assumed it will be a enjoyable factor to make.”
Kersey additionally created glazed ceramic items illustrating the historical past behind some downtown road names. They are often discovered on the bridges at Santa Rosa Avenue, Martin and Travis streets.
It means quite a bit to Kersey that her work is featured within the park.
“It’s good to be part of that,” she mentioned. “And it’s good to see all of the plans I’ve been studying about for nearly a decade now lastly accomplished.”
