Hill Country Arts Foundation lost 75% of its property to the floods. It never closed. And two volunteers hung a show while the staff was shoveling mud.

Rachel Lovelace had forgotten she worked at an art gallery.

The Hill Country Arts Foundation had a major printmaker and photography exhibition scheduled to open in the weeks after the July 4, 2025, flood. The staff was consumed — entirely, exhaustingly consumed — with what Lovelace called “a mud shoveling business.” The show had slipped completely from her mind.

She did not know that local artists Randy Thompson and Al Zirkel had noticed. Because traffic lines onto the flood-damaged property stretched for hours, they met participating artists at Lift Coffee to collect their work. Then Zirkel went into the gallery and hung the entire exhibition himself.

“I walked through the door and just broke down crying,” Lovelace said Friday on Lead Live’s Nonprofit Week, “because I mean I had kind of forgotten that we were an art gallery. And so when I walked in and I saw all of this new art and I saw this beautiful show — it just reminded us of what we do. And we didn’t think hardly anyone would make it out — and it was just packed. It was so packed.”

The Hill Country Arts Foundation has been part of this community for 67 years. The floods destroyed 75% of its physical property. It never closed.

Executive Director Sarah Tacey and Director of Visual Arts Lovelace appeared Friday to deliver a message they say the community still hasn’t fully received: HCAF is open. It is running. Art classes are happening. Theater, dance, and pirate summer camps ran this summer. Many residents, Tacey said, mistakenly believe the floods shut the organization down permanently.

“Spread the word,” she said. “We are open and active.”

The parking lot served as a first responder staging area after the 2025 flood. Emergency workers from as far as Reno, Nevada set up on the property and between calls repaired things that needed fixing around the grounds. When Tacey’s tire blew out, four firefighters ran over before she had time to react.

“It was like I had a pit crew,” she said. “I have never seen that happen so fast.”

The indoor facilities will have to be demolished and rebuilt — this time further from the river, closer to the highway. An architect has been hired. A free public meeting is set for Tuesday, Aug. 25, at 5 p.m. for the community to help shape what comes next.

The rebuild carries one piece of genuine excitement embedded in the loss: HCAF’s blackbox theater has operated for decades inside a converted roller skating rink. It was never designed as a performance space. The new building will be.

“We really need a theater-shaped theater,” Tacey said. “A blackbox built for purpose. Higher ceilings and a flat floor — and have more people in it without hitting their heads.”

The new footprint will also include expanded visual art studios with dedicated space for blacksmiths and woodworkers. The outdoor stage — which survived both floods because its walls blew out exactly as designed — is the organization’s first repair priority. The Stonehenge stage’s underground electrical infrastructure needs attention, and the organization is making a direct call for licensed electricians willing to come out and quote the repair work; local contractors are heavily booked.

The fall calendar is full. The “Nature’s Bounty” exhibit opens Friday, Aug. 28, from 5 to 7 p.m. — a free public reception featuring three-dimensional gourd art from the Texas Gourd Society paired with nature art from local Master Naturalists. The 3rd Annual Ice Cream Social is Saturday, Sept. 19, from 2 to 4 p.m.; every ticket includes a one-of-a-kind hand-painted food-safe ceramic bowl. As of Friday, 19 tickets remained. Hot Shakespeare — in which actors perform serious Shakespearean scenes while being periodically forced to eat spicy chicken and attempt to continue — moves to the historic Arcadia Theater this year. Tacey performed in a past production and got the hiccups in the middle of Lady Macbeth’s “out damned spot.”

“Even if you don’t like Shakespeare,” she said, “you can watch us struggle through it while eating spicy food. Come and watch the torment of it.”

Art Mart opens Oct. 23. A card-reading donation machine has been installed at the front door for anyone who wants to give on the spot.

Public meeting: Tuesday, Aug. 25, 5 p.m. Ice Cream Social tickets and full event calendar: hcaf.com. Call for electricians: contact HCAF directly. To donate: hcaf.com.