With live music and colored streets, the annual Texas Arts and Music Festival is hoping to draw in spectators that need an uplifting and inspiring weekend Oct. 16 through 18 in downtown Brenham.
The art village, an outdoor market, will feature artists from throughout the state of Texas on Saturday, Oct. 17. The market will have double the spacing between booths for precautionary purposes and only up to 30 vendors, which is a lower capacity in comparison to previous years, says founder and Chairman Brad Stufflebeam.
Live music is also being provided by the city of Brenham, Stufflebeam says, with the band Texas Unlimited playing that Friday and Escape, a Journey cover band, playing that Saturday. The city is going to be managing social distancing during the concert, he says.
“Both of our featured artists will be doing live mural installations, and it’s going to be a very positive and uplifting message,” Stufflebeam says. “We’re excited about both of these murals, and we’d like to leave it as a surprise as much as possible because that’s the excitement of seeing them created over the space of three days.”
Like previous years, the Texas Arts and Music Festival will support art scholarships for local school systems and produce two new mural installations in downtown Brenham.
“I am excited to create a mural that connects with the residents in that part of Texas, something that speaks to what life is like in that area,” featured artist Luis Angulo says. “I love creating art that is not just about the artist, but it's also about what context it is taken in as it depicts the surrounding environment.”
Angulo says growing up in Venezuela as a child, his heritage plays a large role in his art. As an immigrant, he says he has been able to work on projects where his art resonates with his culture and other members of the Latinx community.
“My identity is a big part of my work,” Angulo says, “Austin plays a very important part in my artistic journey because when I first got here, I didn’t know what to do as far as art goes. I didn't realize there were several muralists that were working full time in Austin and continued getting projects. I then saw an opportunity for me there.”
Featured artist Tara Johnston says her identity as a Texan played an important role in her artwork at the beginning of her career as she pulled from the aesthetic of the natural environment in Texas.
“My inspiration comes from a lot of personal memories; growing up, my mom loved tending to her gardens,” Johnston says. “She used to plant a lot of flowers. Every weekend, that's what she was doing — she was out in the flower beds.”
Johnston says she was asked to be in the festival in the first months of COVID-19 pandemic. In that time, she was reflecting on what the future looked like for her and everyone.
“I’m a lettering artist so I always try to convey some kind of message of hope or positivity in my work,” Johnston says. “I came up with the idea of ‘Keep Growing’ for my mural because, for me, I really needed to have that reminder daily that life hasn’t stopped. We need to keep learning, we need to keep pushing, and keep growing in whatever capacity we can right now so that when we come out on the other side of this, we’re just ready to take on the world.”
For more information about the 2020 Texas Arts and Music Festival, visit texasartsandmusicfestival.com.
