The small, unassuming contemporary art space Sala Diaz is experiencing a wave of momentum as it approaches its fourth decade.
Ensconced inside a King William neighborhood duplex, the space started in 1995 as the project of San Antonio visual artist Alejandro Diaz. Over the intervening years, the nonprofit has shown a succession of artists from the city and far beyond, establishing a reputation as “a center of San Antonio cultural life,” according to one national art writer.
Having just received two grants totaling $100,000 from the Ruth Foundation in Milwaukee — by far the largest such gifts in the space’s 28-year history, according to current director Ethel Shipton — and acquiring the property next door thanks to an anonymous donor, Sala Diaz is riding a wave of momentum.
Artist to community
The most recent Ruth Foundation grant arrives through its Sites and Stewardship program, which according to its website, supports projects “that connect location to creativity, artist to community, histories to futures.”
The Sala Diaz mission statement identifies the space as community-driven and artist-focused, reading in part, “we promote a down home—and world-renowned—artist-centric model of operation.”
Artist Hills Snyder took over directorship of the space in 1997 when Diaz left to attend curatorial school in New York, where he remains to this day. Snyder kept the space going with a succession of shows that followed Diaz’s intent to give complete artistic freedom to the artists.
Snyder recalls inventive exhibitions such as a 2002 show by Rae Culbert that made the space accessible only through a tunnel underneath the house, and a 2009 show by Kristy Perez that embedded brass letters into the floorboards, among many exhibitions that creatively showcased San Antonio artists.
Under Snyder’s leadership, the space achieved nonprofit status in 2007, soon after acquiring a $10,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant thanks to curator Risa Puleo. Local arts patron and philanthropist Mike Casey owned the building as one of several adjoining buildings on the corner of South St. Mary’s and Stieren Streets, known collectively as “The Compound.”
Recognizing the future potential of Sala Diaz as a nonprofit, Casey donated the property to the organization.
In 2011, Sala Diaz added a curatorial residency space in the adjoining apartment once occupied by graphic designer and artist Chuck Ramirez, who died in 2011. Paying homage to Ramirez’s substantial influence on the social scene surrounding the art space, the residency was named Casa Chuck.
Snyder ran the space until 2015 when he chose Anjali Gupta as his successor. He’d been impressed with her work as editor-in-chief of Art Lies magazine and appreciated Gupta’s independent thinking.
“I just saw her as someone that knew how to make things happen,” Snyder said, praising the exhibitions she programmed and her establishment of a professional website for the space.
Gupta received a Contemporary Art Month award in 2018 for events programming that made use of the space’s sizeable backyard, well-suited to frequent social events held during her directorship.
Texas-based artist Heyd Fontenot succeeded Gupta in 2020 and shepherded Sala Diaz through the coronavirus pandemic with exhibitions and by hosting curators and arts writers in the Casa Chuck space.
Future possibilities
Board president Ethel Shipton now takes over directorship of the space with a year of exhibition programming dedicated to women artists. Shipton said the decision to focus on art by women was in part a reaction to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, a decision denying guaranteed access to abortion and widely seen as a blow to women’s rights.
Visual artist Barbara Felix began the exhibition year with The Glorious Way She Moves – New Works, an extension of her 2021 exhibition at the Carver Community Cultural Center, and Kim Bishop’s exhibition Threads & After Shocks closed March 24.
Upcoming exhibitions will feature artists Nida Bangash, Cristina Cardenas, Mari Hernandez, and Kat Cadena, and a collaboration with the National Conference of Women Artists. Over the summer Cadena will be the first artist to take over the gallery space for the new Summer Studio program, offering local artists a free space to work for two months.
Meanwhile, progress continues on the renovation of the building next door, a residence damaged by a fire in 2021. Once completed it will be named the Compound House, a sizeable space with apartments to be rented out — an innovative arrangement that will lend a steady stream of income to the nonprofit — and a place to stay for artists visiting San Antonio.
The Ruth Foundation gifts are a game-changer for Sala Diaz’s present and future plans, Shipton said. Regarding the possibilities, “I get goosebumps just thinking about it,” she said.
Having lived in The Compound from 1998-2002 with artist spouse Nate Cassie, Shipton has a long history with the place as a resident, as an exhibiting artist and as a board member. But she said she has no plans to hang on forever, instead bringing on younger people to learn how to run the organization and one day take over.
“I don’t need to hang on to anything. I just need to make sure it’s in good hands,” Shipton said.
Disclaimer: Nicholas Frank’s work was featured in a Sala Diaz exhibition in 2018.
