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.