4.3.26 | The 6th Semi-Annual Festival of the Beautiful

Thank you to everybody who was a part of this years Festival of the Beautiful! There are so many people to thank — everyone who dressed up, gave out handmade gifts, sang William Blake, carried arks — here are some people we feel we should mention, but there are many many more that we ran out of room for!

Natasha Bowdoin and her wonderful installation, The Echoing Green.

She also made these groovy masks for festival goers to wear, here is Adam Marnie of F Magazine, getting into Tiger mode.

The day started off with poetry readings by Anthony Madrid (on stage) and Nadya Pittendrigh.

David Feil, returned to Galveston to help us with the William Blake Choir, as only he can.

Festival goers giving handmade gifts to each other is an ancient custom of The Festival.

Benjy Mason making delicious gumbo is an essential part of the Festival of The Beautiful.

This year, Dima of Queen Margie, helped us with awesome cocktails!

We had 3 different Cats of Gar T-shirts available at our Merch table! Designed by Minnesota based artist Kristina Estell.

The GAR, Keepers of the Sacred Fire, hats were also available, thank you to Gregory Ruppe, of Picnic Surf Shapes for designing and helping get these made.

Thank you to our super volunteers, Brenda Serrano (pictured) and Phil Walk, they ran the Merch table and took photos and kicked ass when needed.

Thank you GLICH3 for starting off the music for the festival!

Here is an ever helpful young Daschel, giving waters to the thirsty and assisting his Pops as need be.

Dan Schmahl getting the photo!

Andrew Graham of Swarming Branch, really captures the spirit of The Festival, so great having him return to Galveston from Santa Fe, New Mexico.

The Ark is ready but empty.

Add a message to the sacred Ark of the Covenant, with a Rural Pen for maximum effect.

The singing of The William Blake in the style of Allen Ginsberg.

Our Choir leader shows the way!

Ark bearers are locked in!

The Sacred Flame!

The Secret Plan!

Studded Left!

Thank you everybody for making this year’s Festival really Beautiful!

3.28.26 | Cats, Art, and Music

Galveston is pretty tropical most of the year, but it is possible to get a little snow, here is Pumaman leaving prints in the snow, and he is not very happy about it, though he loves rain!

It’s time to catch up on our blog! It’s been way to long and much has fallen through the cracks, but here are some highlights from 2025, starting with Anthony Almendárez and Métro Boulot Dodo, Galveston.

On a field trip with residents and gar staff at Moody Gardens Rainforest Pyramid, a frenetic game of Ping Pong breaks out!

Sugar Snap Peas growing in the front courtyard.

The Gar Gallery show for Spring of 2025 was “A Net Cast For Something Like Hopefulness” and it was a really great group show, made up mostly of past residents and friends.

Tree climbing cuties.

Along with the group exhibition, Basket Books curated a poetry reading with four poets, including Glenn Shaheen (pictured here).

In May we had the pleasure of welcoming back past resident, Lili Chin, to curate a screening of short films, titled “Passages” — featuring work by Bette Gordon & James Benning, Narcisa Hirsch, Karel Doing, Jayne Parker, Kevin Jerome Everyone, and Nancy Graves.

In the lush back courtyard GARden, we were lucky enough to get a visit from David Dondero!

Della and Dan at the opening for the 2025 GAR Resident Exhibition!

Our beloved kitty, The Ghost passed away in June. He was an incredibly special dude .

This is him as a young man!

Here is a photo from the opening of Danny Kerschen’s exhibition, ” Some Days I Just Want To Dream”!

Danny’s brother, Tex, curated the exhibition and programmed some really incredible live music during the run of the show — including his own band, Studded Left.

The painter Hilary Wilder is back in town installing her exhibition , “A Guesthouse” and totally back in her element!

“Persona”, by Hilary Wilder.

“A Guesthouse”, install view.

Devin T. Mays, Francesca Fuchs and Eric Schnell working on the East End Driftwood Sculpture Park.

This past fall and winter we hosted a series of Artist Talks by local artists and past residents. Pictured here is past-resident-turned-Galveston-local, William Warden.

We collaborated with The Galveston Arts Center on a performance by Barry Stone and Porch Swing Orchestra on a cold crisp winter night, the hot toddies helped!

Laura Hughes and Edwin Smalling of Basket Books in Houston gave a really great talk in the GAR gallery.

Stay tuned for an upcoming post, all about our 6th Annual Festival of the Beautiful!

12.20.24 | 2024 GAR Year in Review

We started off 2024 with a great talk on coral by George P. Schmahl – Marine Biologist and Former Superintendent of the Flower Garden Banks National Marine Sanctuary, NOAA.

We were excited to welcome back David Dondero for a live show in our gallery space — always great!

Our spring exhibition in the GAR gallery was by Russian/New Mexico artist, Masha Sha. It was such a beautiful show!

In the GAR project space we had works by James Elaine — Texas based artist and curator.

Thank you to Hemlock (Austin, TX) & Laith (Portland, OR) for coming to play in our back courtyard!

Our 2023-2024 Artists in Residence gave artists talks on their work. Pictured here is Devin T. Mays.

Next in our spring-time programming of artist talks was Galveston based artist, Ann Wood…

… And Houston based artist Doug Welsh. Thanks so much for sharing your work with us, Ann and Doug!

Next we welcomed “Hi-vis Transfer” by Noah Leen — a quiet, sculptural intervention in our garden spaces.

Thank you to the Art League Houston Summer Program for coming to visit us! Pictured here in Preston Gaines’ dynamic studio.

We kicked off the summer with our Artists in Residence Exhibition by Crasis (Andy Davis & Anne Lukins), Preston Gaines, and Devin T. Mays. The residency exhibition is always one of our favorites!

Crasis (Andy Davis and Anne Lukins) performing their piece “Demonstro” in the GAR Gallery.

We were excited to host a talk by historian and writer, Lance Scott Walker (b. Galveston, Texas) on the life of Houston’s own DJ Screw and the artist’s ties to Galveston Island. Moderated by Francisco Santillan and Gregory Ruppe.

Thank you to Alex Dupree (Austin, TX), for sharing his Texas Doesn’t Care Tour with us!

This Fall we were a part of the Texas Biennial with our exhibition by Fred Schmidt-Arenales and his film “It Is A Good Project And Should Be Built” about the Coastal Ike Dike.

And in the small gallery we were pleased to share Juan Juarez’s work, “The Last Sky: Looking for Ghosts” with Galveston.

Many thanks to Max Tolleson for joining us and giving a talk on Marfa and Minimalism!

And now… A break for the GAR kitties!

PumaMan being a little gremlin.

You’d never know it from how cute he is!!

Sweet Ghost.

And Silly Ghost!

This Fall we welcomed our new residents! Here we are touring the Masonic Temple with Janaye Brown & Stephanie Ramirez.

And the Fog/Queso Birthday Party for Janaye Brown with the Galveston Crew!

Our Winter exhibition is by Galveston artist, and GAR’s longtime neighbor and supporter, Marie Leterme. We are so honored to be able to share Marie’s work with the community!

In the small gallery we have Selections From the Collection of Engineer Rolf Pessier — Marie’s husband and GAR’s neighbor.

Thank you to everyone who came out to support Marie and celebrate her work!

We rounded out our year by inviting past GAR resident, Andrew Wilson, back to talk about his work and his upcoming project, The Void, in Detroit. Thank you, Andrew! It was so good to see you!

Walking on the GAR jetty with 2024/2025 GAR resident, Anna Mayer.

Thank you to everyone who shared a part of their year with us. Looking forward to seeing you in 2025!

1.10.24 | 2023 Year in Review. Briefly. Not all of it.

Happy New Year! Here’s some highlights from the past year.

In 2023 Festival of the Beautiful made its return for the 5th time.

Our event filled day started in the morning with a Native Plant workshop led by Nick Barbee.

There were music performances throughout the day by Post Trance Tea Ceremony, Swarming Branch (pictured here), David Feil, Robert Kuhn, Studded Left and Future Blondes.

Benjy Mason provided both lunch and dinner this year.

And we opened a companion group exhibition in the gallery featuring work by 34 different artists from Texas and beyond.

And of course, there were costumes. Here’s Lynne McCabe in her epic ship hat.

After sunset we burned the Ark, and with it all the things we wished to do away with in the coming year.

In the spring, the front courtyard garden gets very green. A perfect hiding spot for tree frogs.

GAR resident Lili Chin catches a Whiting out of the surf.

2023 resident Samira Yamin on her birthday assists in unhooking a Gafftopsail Catfish.

2022-2023 GAR resident show featuring the works of Lili Chin, William Warden and Samira Yamin.

On Juneteenth we enjoyed a talk by our 2023 writer in residence and Andy Warhol grant recipient, Dr. W. Jamaal Wright, on the Houston arts collective Otabenga Jones.

GAR kitties, The Ghost and The Darkness, doing what they do and looking extra cute.

A Night Heron making a daytime appearance.

In August we put together a survey of works by the late, Houston based painter, Robin Utterback titled “Introduction” after the poem by John Ashbery. Pictured here is 2023 GAR resident, and co-curator William Warden.

With an accompanying risograph zine.

We’ve had a lot of student groups come through this past year. This group was from Alvin Community College (ACC).

In October we welcomed a new crew of residents. Andy Davis and Anne Lukins pictured here, along with Dawolu Jabari, Greg Ruppe, Miguel Sbastida and Eric Schnell, during the October 14th solar eclipse.

Passionflower vine from the back courtyard.

Biker Rally 2023! Was crazy loud and pretty fun. We had a headache by the end, but we always do!

This fall we were excited to host the Madrid based artist, Miguel Sbastida, as he worked on a sound and sculpture installation for the GAR Gallery. The project, which was facilitated by curator Regine Basha, focuses on the Flower Garden Banks Marine Sanctuary — a coral reef in the Gulf of Mexico.

Regine and Miguel did an excellent talk for the opening of the exhibition.

Regine Basha and GAR Director Eric Schnell at the opening.

And Miguel warming his feet by the fire after his opening.

This year we started a new tradition – the Letter Writing Club.

GAR Resident Devin T. Mays explores the East End of Galveston island.

Thank you to everyone who joined us this past year. We’re looking forward to more art and adventures in 2024.

1.26.23 | Fall & Winter Highlights

Congratulations to J.R. Roykovich on their exhibition Travel in Light Years on display in the GAR Gallery August 27th – November 12th, 2022.

Part of the exhibition included public programming – an evening of Galveston Ghost stories.

Thank you to everyone who came out to share a spooky story around the fire! Here is GP retelling the terrifying tale of the haunted research ship!

On October 20th GAR was happy to host the Ascend Art Market in our front courtyard.

It was a fun night, with music and food! Here is Raudiver (Galveston, TX) playing an experimental set in the back courtyard.

The Galveston festival season kicked off with Oktoberfest. Pictured here is a giant stine, Glasstire writer William Sarradet, and GAR’s new artists in residence, Lili Chin and Samira Yamin. Proust!

We survived yet another Lone Star Biker Rally. Pictured here: possibly the prettiest bike at Biker Rally…?

Rounding off the winter festivities with Dickens on the Strand, here is artist in residence, Lili Chin, posing with the AMAZING Edgar Allen Poe who’s performances are not to be missed!

A big thank you to Eric Heist and Benjamin Tischer for coming to Galveston in November to introduce our current exhibition, Candy Factory by Eric Heist and BREYER P-ORRIDGE.

Install shot of Candy Factory on a lovely winter day.

Programming for the exhibition included performances by Future Blondes (Houston, TX). Pictured here is Domokos during the first, ambient set.

Thank you to Future Blondes for a great night!

And now! It’s time for…. CREATURE FEATURE!

Valentine’s Day preview with these Sweet Creatures, our resident GAR kitties, The Ghost and The Darkness.

Not to be outshone, Our third resident kitty, Pumaman: Cat of Legend.

If you walk the winter beach, you may find a fossil crab! A good authority tells us it’s at least several million years old.

Last, but not least, on January 22nd, 2023, we were lucky enough to have Karima Walker (Tucson, AZ) and Little Mazarn (Austin, TX) perform in our back courtyard.

It was a beautiful, magical night of music.

8.31.22 | Cuckoo in the Courtyard

This past years artists in residence — Manuel Rodríguez, Jean Shon and Andrew Wilson — finished off the year strong with an amazing exhibition in the GAR gallery. We sure are going to miss these three!

Thanks to everyone who came out to the artist talks. It was an awesome night!

A much needed DTO happy hour!

Late Night Jenga Fun.

The whole GAR gang at the beach house!

Manny barbecuing in Middle Earth?

Gratuitous Galveston beach sunrise.

What’s going on in the GARden? Early summer we had oodles and doodles of little tomatoes.

Banana flower with bananas.

Only flowering by moonlight, this dragonfruit flower…

And dragonfruit!

Now at the end of August we’ve got tons of delicious muscadine grapes. All you can eat!

Creature Feature starts with the cat creatures! Here’s The Ghost looking sweet.

Pumaman, looking philosophical. No good photos of The Darkness this time. We’ll make sure to have some next time!

Rescued this sweet little eel on the beach.

And finally! This very observant young cuckoo in the courtyard!

That does it! We’re done with summer, bring on the fall!

4.28.22 | SpringSprungSprang

The boat planter in full bloom.

The bounty from the GARden has made for some gorgeous lunches.

Thank you to GAR Year 2 alum Zahar Vaks for putting together a great group show for the gallery! 3 going through 9 to get to 27 will be on view until Saturday May 7th!

Even though the weather threw us a curve ball, this was still such a special night with performances by Post-Trance Tea Ceremony (Houston, TX) and W. CREEVES (Marfa, TX).

Just your friendly neighborhood Gas Friend.

Residency Shenanigans: All The Dogs.

And a very serious game of pool at Market Street Station.

Andrew, lining up the shot!

Andrew Graham from Swarming Branch made our April Artwalk a night to remember! Thank you, Andrew!

Ending the night with a Happy Birthday fire for past resident, Katrina Moorehead.

Kicking off our Creature Feature with this Mermaid’s Purse. They wash up on shore quite a bit in early spring. They are actually the egg sacks from sharks and rays.

Well hello handsome.

Aren’t you a tall drink of water?

Cool hair, bro.

A Summer Tanager waiting patiently by the bee hive. Tanager’s love to eat bees!

Spotted these prehistoric beauties at High Island. Roughly 6 feet long.

Thanks for visiting GAR, Veronica Roberts, and joining us for a fun day of birding at High Island!

The stop at Stingaree’s on the way back to Galveston was well worth it!

MSA, is that you??

The GAR cats, being cute. Aw!

Aww!

Awww!!

Awwwwwwww!!!!!!!

Thank you to everyone who came out to help make our spring so special! We can’t wait to see you this summer!

1.19.22 | If there’s one thing I always have, it’s a creature (Fall/Winter ketchup blog).

After a noticeable absence, and due to customer demand, the GARblog returns with a beach-found baby Ankylosaurus.

Pumaman relaxing.

Manny manning the grill.

Oktoberfest in Galveston. Prost!

Thanks to Jabari, we’ve been getting some serious games of chess in.

Shoutout to Dawolu Jabari’s show Lessons from Above: Constellation Quilts.

Kitty love.

Big Hairy Spider.

Andrew admiring the patches at the Biker Rally.

If you turn 30, Jean will make you a Punch Cake.

First you punch it. Then you eat it!

Take a short drive to Brazos Bend and hitch a ride on an alligator.

Susie calls the Desert Oracle from the ghost phone.

Sweet potato crop was very bountiful.

Now that we are back on our blog game, we’ll try to update every season.

12.19.19 |Hanging in the Holidays

GAR’s Fall programming got off to a great start with Colin Hunt’s show “Keeping Things Whole”. Thank you, Colin, for bringing us some sweet egg tempera paintings.

Here’s Colin doing a technical demo on preparing egg tempera. He is the master of the yolk.

We survived the annual fall rains, courtesy of Imelda.

Thank you to this years new residents, Anne Buckwalter, Beth Cooper, and Liz Glaessner (pictured) for introducing their work to the community.

Passion flower – native to outer space and the GARden.

Thank you to Da Camera for bringing us The Music of Mieczysław Weinberg (piano quintet in F Minor, Op. 18) with pianist Sarah Rothenberg and Da Camera’s Young Artists. It was a powerful and emotionally charged performance.

And here are Potted Kitties.

This year’s Oktoberfest featured some beautiful weather, warm strudel, a shit ton of beer, and introducing Kraut Balls!

If you’re on the island this holiday season be sure to come by and see the beautiful show by Albany TX artist Patrick Kelly, “The Divided Self”.

Racing sail boats in the Gulf. 

Big thank you to Sue de Beer for giving a visiting artist lecture and screening her werewolf film “The White Wolf”.

Deluxe GAR lunch.

Dragon fruit climbing.

Damn, it was good!

Current resident, Anne Buckwalter, has been keeping us all well fed with her amazing baked goods. Thanks, Anne!

Thank you to Velveteen Echo and Astragal for coming down to Galveston and playing a great courtyard show!

He’s baaaaaack! Barry once again graces this years GARchangel. Happy Holidays, friends! See you in 2020!

 

 

 

6.26.19 |Now is a good time

When you come to GAR, can you find the mirror ball in the bamboo?

Or Phil in the back garden?

Or the ladybug larvae hunting aphids on the arugula?

And then transforming into a ladybug?

One of our favorite spring events in Galveston is when the cemetery on Broadway erupts in these bright yellow flowers.

Also, this dude! Playing with his snake on the beach.

Cucumber seedlings.

We had a great spring and early summer in the GARden. The cucumbers were particularly bountiful and delicious.

Be sure to swing by the gallery while you’re visiting Galveston this summer to check out the current Artists in Residence show. On view through July 20th!

Thanks to everyone who came to the opening, it was a great night! Special thank you to chef Benjy Mason for his amazing Tomato Sandwiches and cocktails inspired by the artists. Also a huge shoutout to David Feil and his Slightly Larger Band for the music!

We’re always making art around these parts. Stay cool this summer, friends!