Kerr Arts and Cultural Center: Navigating building capacity and there’s a vault sale in the basement

The building at 228 Earl Garrett Street has survived everything Kerrville has thrown at it since the 1930s. The Kerr Arts and Cultural Center — housed in a WPA-era post office designed by prominent San Antonio architects Ayres & Ayres on land donated by Captain Charles Schreiner — lost one tree to the floods.

But Lanza Teague, KACC’s executive director and a local historian whose family arrived in Kerr County in the 1890s, was not here Monday to claim the institution is fine. It is not fine financially.

“There’s been so much exhaustion when it comes to the impact of the floods and giving,” she said Monday on The Lead Live’s Nonprofit Week. “All we’re all hungry right now. People just aren’t giving to the arts right now.”

The charitable giving environment — redirected almost entirely toward flood recovery — is squeezing arts organizations that did not sustain flood damage but depend on unrestricted donations to operate. KACC hosts up to 36 shows per year, is free to the public Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and operates on a budget that requires consistent community support.

To raise general operating funds, the center is currently holding a basement vault sale of donated works — including portraits by Joe Russell, pieces by aviation illustrator Joe Culla, and works by local artists including Betty Bird and Idana Coughell. The sale is open to the public.

Teague is also seeking sponsors — starting at $300 — for the center’s signature plein air outdoor painting program, as well as location hosts and artist hosts. Sponsors receive entry to a VIP reception. The plein air painters will walk through the Water Street Festival on Oct. 24, creating live works.

Teague drew a long historical line when reflecting on the floods — her uncle watched his home float down the river in Ingram during the historic 1932 flood. That personal history gave her a frame for the current moment.

“I’m living in unprecedented times,” she said, “and I’m really kind of tired of that. But KACC will persist. Art enriches life. And art needs the appreciator as much as it needs the artist.”

Donations and information: kacckerrville.com. Vault sale: in person at 228 Earl Garrett Street, Tuesday–Saturday, 10 a.m.–4 p.m.