Join the Contemporary in a two-day weekend symposium of programs and events celebrating Chicana/Xicana artists, activists and figures, and their significant contributions to Chicano movement and impact on culture. This event is free, but registration is required for each program. The Xicanx Symposium is organized in conjunction to Xicanx Month, a city-wide celebration of xicanx art and culture.

Educators can receive up to 8 hours of CPE credits for this event. For details contact our Education and Programs Manager at juan@contemporarysa.org.

The symposium will take place from 10am–2pm each day. You can register for all or some symposium events on either day. To learn more about each event and to register, scroll down this page. When you’re ready to sign up, click the registration link for the day(s) you’d like to attend. You will be able to make your symposium event selections on the second page of the registration form. Email us with any questions or concerns!

Explore the possibilities of linocut printmaking in this hands-on art master class. Participants will learn a range of carving techniques and the basics of relief printing from concept and design to editioning.

The Contemporary’s Master Class program is a community engagement education program that focuses on hands-on learning from a professional artist that demonstrates a mastery of their working medium. This program offers participants exceptional instruction of art techniques and culminates in a showcase of the participants work. Materials and supplies will be provided to participants at no additional cost.

Linocut Relief Printmaking’s showcase will be displayed in the Contemporary’s Learning Lab Thursday, August 21, 2025.

Schedule

Saturday July 5, 10am–1pm
Saturday July 12, 10am–1pm
Saturday July 19, 10am–1pm
Saturday July 26, 10am–1pm
Saturday August 2, 10am–1pm
Thursday August 21, 5pm–7pm

The Contemporary invites you to connect with nature and create a unique piece of art in a mobile making workshop with exhibiting artist Alyssa Danna. Inspired by elements of Danna’s installation Tantalizing Middle Part, workshop participants will create a hanging mobile with both natural and repurposed materials which they can take home and display. Some materials will be gathered in a short foraging expedition along the river across the parking lot from the Contemporary. All other materials are provided, but participants are welcome to come with any objects they’d like to add to their artwork.

This event is free and open to everyone with registration. Space is limited, so sign up soon (below).

About the instructor
Alyssa Danna was born in Beaumont, Texas and raised in rural LaBelle. She holds a BFA in Painting from Lamar University, Beaumont, TX and an MFA in Sculpture from the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her installations have been commissioned by and exhibited throughout Texas including with French and Michigan, the McNay Art Museum, K Space Contemporary, and more. Her career in museums and galleries and as a landscape designer serve as vehicles to explores her passions for visual art and ecology and influence her artistic practice.

 

Looking for another way to express yourself? Whether you’re an aspiring poet, an experienced writer, or just looking to try something new, join us at the Contemporary for a poetry workshop. Acclaimed performer, playwright, and author Amalia Ortiz will lead attendees through writing exercises to create autobiographical poems of angst, heartbreak, and rebellion inspired by the music of their youth and the Mosh Now, Cry Later exhibition.

This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required (below).

About the instructor
Amalia Ortiz is a Tejana spoken word performer, playwright, and author of 2 award-winning books of poetry. She was awarded the 2020 American Book Award for Oral Literature, and appeared on three seasons of  Russell Simmons Presents Def Poetry on HBO and the NAACP Image Awards on FOX. She was awarded a City of San Antonio Individual Artist Grant and her band, Las Hijas de la Madre, were awarded a Democratizing Racial Justice Artist Residency from the Mellon Foundation to complete their new project Diatribas Punk. The band was awarded a Project Development Grant from Alternate Roots to record their album due out in summer 2025 She currently is in the Spring 2025 cohort of Music to Life’s Musician Changemaker Accelerator Academy. Amalia received her MFA in Creative Writing from The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.