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The Arts - From Mariachi to Mozart to Morrissey, El Paso's vibrant arts community puts on a show that's hard to follow.
By Steve Larese
Seen at right - Plaza Theatre opened in 1930 as a film house performance stage. It eventually hosted traveling shows, becoming a fixture in the lives of theatergoers for generations.
Photo by Sean Mathis
For music lovers, the El Paso Symphony performs year-round, as does the El Paso Wind Symphony, the El Paso Opera, the El Paso Choral and the El Paso Friends of Jazz Society, keeping the Abraham Chavez Theatre, Plaza Theatre and Performing Arts Center, Fox Fine Arts Center and UTEP’s Dining Theater in the spotlight.
The University of Texas at El Paso is proud of its new Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts that promotes contemporary art, in addition to UTEP’s Union Gallery, where student work is presented. Its Fox Fine Arts Music Department offers frequent concerts covering all ranges of music.
El Paso Museum of Art is a treasure that houses the permanent Samuel H. Kress collection of 12th- to 18th-century European art. Works by Giovanni di Paolo, Francisco Zubarán, and other masters grace the museum’s walls, as do works by American masters such as John Sloan, Max Weber, Frederic Remington, Joseph Henry Sharp, and Henriette Wyeth. Its Spanish Viceroyal collection celebrates Spanish masterworks created during the 17th through 19th centuries. The contemporary collection displays the best of Mexican, Texas, and Southwestern artists, including Luis Jiménez and Linda Ridgway.
Located in the stately Turney home at 1211 Montana Ave., the International Museum of Art offers tours of its galleries displaying African, Chinese, Mexican, and American West art, as well as the work of El Paso Artists’ Hall of Fame member William Kolliker.
Relish El Paso’s summer nights in Chamizal National Memorial for the free "Music Under the Stars" concert series. Concerts and performances such as "Shakespeare on the Rocks" and "Viva El Paso!" are frequent at McKelligon Canyon Amphitheater, where a perfect natural stage creates excellent acoustics.
And artists apparently find plenty of inspiration in El Paso’s cultures, history, and natural beauty, as art galleries continue to open in downtown and throughout the region. The annual Kermezaar Festival, in late September, fills downtown El Paso with art to benefit the El Paso Museum of Art.
Follow the links below for more information on the El Paso cultural scene.
El Paso Culture Guide »»
Whatever your artistic passion, El Paso delivers in fine fashion.
