SAMA brings more than art to the heart of S.A.

In 1981, the San Antonio Museum of Art moved into the old Lone Star Brewery on the northern edge of downtown following a yearslong, $7 million renovation that made it one of the biggest stories in the museum world. The museum won accolades as “a stunning display of design virtuosity and adaptability” in the New York Times.

At the time, the museum was a lonely outpost. The area was sparsely populated and featured few commercial developments, and the nearby stretch of the San Antonio River was weedchoked and neglected.

SAMA’S presence changed that.

The neighborhood that SAMA pioneered more than 40 years ago is a vibrant mix of residential and retail buildings, and the museum now sits on the Museum Reach, a verdant expansion of the River Walk popular with joggers and bicyclists.

Studies consistently demonstrate that vibrant cultural scenes attract tourists, spur local spending and stimulate economic development. By serving as an anchor to downtown, SAMA anticipated and helped drive the robust development we’ve seen in recent years at the Pearl and along the Broadway corridor.

This is an exciting time for downtown San Antonio and for SAMA as steward of the last green space along the Museum Reach and owner of the largest property adjacent to the river. Our strategic location aligns perfectly with the rapid growth — both individual and corporate — of San Antonio. This convergence creates a perfect storm for exponential growth and impact.

Several projects are continuing the transformation of the area, including developments at Pearl, Oxbow, the Soto, Broadway East and next door, where Mccomb Enterprises is preparing to build an ambitious, $295 million mixed-use development.

In the same way that SAMA sparked growth north of downtown, the recent wave of development will help spark SAMA’S growth in the future, bringing thousands more residents and visitors into the museum’s sphere.

There will be a lot for them to discover. The only encyclopedic museum in South Texas, SAMA has holdings of more than 30,000 artworks that span the globe and 5,000 years of history, including one of the largest collections of ancient Mediterranean art in the southern United States, and important collections of Asian, Latin American and contemporary art. To see a comparable collection, visitors would have to travel to Houston, Dallas or as far as the East Coast.

San Antonio is positioned in the southern section of the Texas Triangle, which is home to nearly 20 million people. It also serves as the northern gateway to the Rio Grande Valley and Mexico. San Antonio is in the museum’s name, and more important, in its heart, but it has always served the entire region. As the metroplex explodes, SAMA has the potential to become a greater regional force.

Multinational corporations moving to San Antonio and Austin would do well to recognize that investing in the arts is not just a philanthropic gesture, it’s a strategic imperative.

Beyond enhancing the quality of life for residents and attracting visitors, such investments hold the potential to foster meaningful partnerships that enrich the cultural ecosystem of our region while driving economic growth and social progress. SAMA is a prime example of what art and innovation can do for a community.