{"id":669,"date":"2026-06-19T04:02:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T04:02:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=669"},"modified":"2026-06-19T04:02:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T04:02:36","slug":"new-art-installation-honors-ame-churchs-legacy-with-presence-of-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=669","title":{"rendered":"New art installation honors AME Church\u2019s legacy with \u2018Presence of the Past\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Engineers had designed every inch of the\u00a0San Pedro Creek Culture Park\u00a0several years back, when on a cool January day in 2020, workers encountered a speed bump in the project: they came across a stone foundation that would open up a whole new line of inquiry.<\/p>\n

Read more San Antonio\u2019s century-old preservation group names new director and elects officers<\/a><\/p>\n

That unexpected discovery was evidence that the\u00a0St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church\u00a0had been there in the 1870s and 1880s.<\/p>\n

Construction on that portion of the San Pedro Creek Culture Park was called off until project leaders could study it more closely.<\/p>\n

Eventually, work on the creek away from the church site resumed in early 2021. The decision was made to ensure the site would eventually include historical designations and interpretive signs integrated into the larger project.<\/p>\n

The San Antonio River Authority also planned for and revealed the way officials would honor the church and its legacy. There would be two art installations in the church\u2019s original footprint and in the location next door.<\/p>\n

The large new art installation called\u201cPresence of the Past\u201d was unveiled on Thursday morning on the San Pedro Creek Culture Park.<\/p>\n

The San Antonio Gospel Heritage Choir sang at the beginning and end of the dedication, opening and closing the ceremony and giving a taste of worship from the past.<\/p>\n

This location on the east side of San Pedro Creek at Houston Street was once a soap factory. It\u2019s also where the city\u2019s first downtown Black church once stood.<\/p>\n

Former San Antonio Poet Laureate\u00a0Andrea Vocab Sanderson\u00a0felt the call of history as her part of the ceremony.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur history will always call to us, and the things that need to be spoken of and need to be documented will come up,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Read more City Council delays SAWS rate increase citing concerns about trust, efficiency<\/a><\/p>\n

Sanderson was there to recite and perform a poem written about the church and its people. She notes that the site of the church has an unexpected parallel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s interesting that, you know, the place that was meant for cleaning and creating soap became a place of spiritual cleansing,\u201d Sanderson said.<\/p>\n

California artist\u00a0Gordon Huether\u00a0was delighted to have been chosen to help execute the project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember being inspired by the words of Alex Haley, the author of\u00a0Roots<\/em>, who once said, in order to understand where you are going, it\u2019s important to understand where you\u2019ve already been,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Huether\u2019s muse was all about doing justice to those who came before.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking about the shared African American experience with the freedom quilts,\u201d Huether said. \u201cWe\u2019re standing on the shoulders of the 300 original congregants, and so it made me think of using these patterns that are transcribed from quilt patterns into laser cut steel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking carefully, one can see the repetitive patterns of quilts in the white steel.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0San Antonio River Authority\u2019s Mario Siller said he is a fan of this kind of project.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just love how projects like this bring community together, and I think that if there\u2019s any time that we need it more than ever, it\u2019s now,\u201d Siller said.<\/p>\n

Read more San Antonio weighs cutting Fiesta budget as it faces looming deficit<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A large new art installation called\u00a0“Presence of the Past” was unveiled in downtown San Antonio on the San Pedro Creek Culture Park.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":668,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nNew art installation honors AME Church\u2019s legacy with \u2018Presence of the Past\u2019 - San Antonio moving report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sanantoniomovingreport.com\/?p=669\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"New art installation honors AME Church\u2019s legacy with \u2018Presence of the Past\u2019 - 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