Art Fest Nacogdoches, September 21 11am-4pm, has been moved down to Festival Park due to multiple construction projects around the square. However, this means more room for vendors! Over 60 are confirmed with 4 food trucks! Make plans to attend this fun event and support your local arts vendors. Vendor applications can be found here: https://forms.gle/pVZNpPHsUaSJob3Z9
Plans are underway for ARTS BALL: Speakeasy! October 12 at the Mill Room. We are delighted that Sean “the good lawyer” Hightower will once again chair the event this year. Current sponsors are Hightower, Franklin & James PLLC; Nac Junior Forum; and Steve Kirkland & Mark Parthie. Tickets go on sale September 1. Come join us and party like it’s 1924!
NAC is moving! We’re stoked to announce our new space at Williamsburg Plaza, 320 North Street, with a back entrance just north of the Fredonia Hotel and room to grow. Two special art workshops with noted collage artist Aloma Marquis are scheduled for September 11 and 19 at 5:30pm in our new classroom. Details and sign up can be found on our website. Otherwise, our new location will not be open until November while we work on the big Arts Ball! Stay tuned!
There’s a new way to support NAC and the arts! Visit Blue Eyed Cocos Market downtown and check out our booths. Many vintage items as well as t-shirts, DVDs, Blu rays, and art. All proceeds support Nacogdoches Arts Collaborative.
September Artist Spotlight
Meet Josh Gentry!
Josh is an enthusiastic and dedicated gamer, a proud member of the Nacogdoches Arts Collaborative board and also the chair of the sponsorships committee for the upcoming Arts Ball: Speakeasy fundraiser in October.
Josh was born in Lubbock, Texas and because his father was in the cattle business, eventually moved to tiny Tuscola, about 17 miles south of Abilene, where he graduated from high school in 1998 with a class of 52. Like his dad, Josh returned to Lubbock to get his degree from Texas Tech, “which took a while,” he says, laughing, “because I didn’t know what I wanted to do.” He graduated with a major in technical communications at a moment when no one was hiring technical writers. Luckily, he had minored in computer science and had a flourishing home business in computer repairs, largely geared to an elderly clientele who were often baffled by their machines. After time in both Austin and San Antonio, Josh’s job as Senior Manager of the Major Incident Management Department with Dell Computers went remote, and he and his wife decided they wanted less concrete and more green in their lives. They fell in love with Deep East Texas and moved into a house “across the street” from Lake Nacogdoches.
In the tabletop gaming community, players often build and paint miniatures that serve as avatars for the characters they are role-playing in a given game. Painting and drawing were prize-winning hobbies for Josh as a kid and as his passion for gaming grew (particularly for Warhammer 40K and Dungeons & Dragons), those talents reemerged. Josh assisted in the establishment of a paint club in Nac and then found a place to sell his creations via the art vendor markets sponsored by the NAC. “What I love about the Arts Collaborative,” says Josh, “is that it’s supporting all of the arts– not just painting and the visual arts, but music, dance, creative writing and theater too. Gaming involves creating and painting with your hands and then writing and theater skills, like acting, when you’re role playing during the game. You’re collaborating with others both in the creation of a character and a story. The arts are for all of us and I’m dedicated to opening more doors for artists of all kinds here in Nacogdoches.”