Local artists gain added venue to exhibit their works.
Giving local artists an added venue for exhibiting their works, a new cultural center has opened in Waxahachie, Texas.
Located inside Glenn’s Warehouse Carpets in Downtown Waxahachie at 301 North College Street [listing], the Glenn’s Warehouse Carpets Cultural Center opened in April 2021 with its first exhibit, the paintings of Ennis High School art teacher Leah Lawless-Smith.
David Smith, a longtime patron of the arts and owner of the flooring store that houses the center, said the new venue adds to Waxahachie’s outlets for art and culture.
“This is another avenue for artists to show what they do,” David says of the roughly 400 square feet of exhibition space.
David says he’s chosen to format the space as a cultural center rather than an art gallery so that it may accommodate a greater variety of artistics expression.
“For 16 years, I’ve been an active cowboy poet and I go to Alpine and La Grange and Lubbock and recite cowboy poems that I write. And so that being called a cultural center, I can develop a venue for poetry reciting, maybe a music presentation and the paintings,” David says.
The family-friendly art space opened with the works of David’s daughter-in-law and next month will feature the work of his son, Daniel, a teacher of art too at Waxahachie High School. Afterward, the space will exhibit the works of local artists on a monthly basis. Each exhibit will begin with an evening open house and artist reception, and then the art will be available for viewing during the flooring store’s usual business hours for the remainder of the month.
David has had a lifelong interest in art, working as an evening docent at the Dallas Museum of Art for 15 years, teaching on art topics for the Lighthouse for Learning continuing education program with Waxahachie I.S.D. and presenting talks to local groups such as the Ellis County Art Association. His recent endeavor of writing and reciting cowboy poetry has taken him to venues throughout the state.
David says he grew up with a culturally-literate family and has always found himself gravitating toward anything that delves into the inner core of human expression.
“My mother painted. My dad wrote poems. So, I grew up in a house that was aware of culture,” David says about his childhood in Lancaster, Texas. “I took a little bit of architectural history in my college times, and that’s what I loved. So, I knew by 1971 as a freshman in college that what I liked was the history of art, the history of everything, really — architecture, art, cattle drives. And I’ve told people many times the history of everything is interesting.”
He describes his interest in both learning and teaching about art and his endeavor to open a space for artists to exhibit their works as part his innate passion for artistic expression.
“It’s just been my avocation,” he says.
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