In 4th Grade We Learn That Differences Make Us Unique.
S.M.A.R.T. Believers
S.M.A.R.T. PROJECT SPACE
E X H I B I T I O N S
Since 1998, S.M.A.R.T. projectspace has provided a professional platform for exceptional artwork. In 2024, we welcomed artists and curators Mark Martinez and Allysha Farmer to lead our monthly exhibitions. Driven by a mission to spotlight our students, they seamlessly blend student creations with works by both emerging and established professional artists.
See the Sea in You and Me
by Briscoe Elementary 5th Grade
Opening reception
Saturday
Oct 10th / 7-10 pm
Over the span of 4 weeks sixty-four Briscoe Elementary 5th grade students were immersed in the topic of Contemporary Art. One lecture, two experiential studio classes and one collaborative installation were led by Executive Director Andy Benavides and Director Yvette Benavides. Students were challenged to reimagine the space as an underwater world. As a result they followed the objectives of environmental artists Christo and Jeanne Claude and worked to interrupt the gallery space, forcing the viewer to slow down, stop and recognize the organic quality of their structural network of sea life. They combined magic with the real issue of water bottle destruction and See the Sea in you and Me was born. This installation is a demonstration of an eco-system led by 10 year old creativity in response to eachother’s collaborative actions. The outcome was harmony that can be achieved when there is total inclusion, mutual respect for one anothers ideas and literal connectivity of being curious, creative humans.
Event Details:
Open Hours hosted 6-9pm Oct 17th, 2026
Closing Reception 6-9pm Oct 24th, 2026
Otherwise open by appointment
Mark Martinez, S.M.A.R.T. curator
Mark Anthony Martinez is a conceptual artist and independent curator based here in his hometown of San Antonio, Texas. Martinez holds a BFA in Intermedia Arts from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (2012) and an MFA in Studio Art from Portland State University (2014). He currently adjuncts at Our Lady of the Lake University, for the Visual arts & New media program (2025 – Present).
His studio practice, has had him exhibit in numerous group shows locally and nationally, including; The Contemporary at Blue Star, San Antonio, TX (2024), Centro de Artes, San Antonio, TX (2020), The Clemente Soto Velez Cultural and Educational Center Inc., New York, NY (2019), Mexic-Arte in Austin, TX. (2017) and, Co-Prosperity Sphere, Chicago, Il. (2014).
Martinez has served as Visual Arts Director to the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center (2015-2017), Gallery Manager for the Michael and Noemi Neidorff Art Gallery at Trinity University (2018), co-curator for pop-up space, Fake Gallery (2019), co-director of JANUARY (2023) and currently co-curator to both INTERLOPER GALLERY and the S.M.A.R.T. Project Space (since 2024); respective arts incubators within the “1906 Studio.”
@markanthonymartinezstudio
@markanthony-mfa.bsky.social
markanthonymartinez.art
Allysha Farmer, S.M.A.R.T. curator
Born and raised in San Antonio, Allysha Farmer is a multidisciplinary studio based artist and curator who holds a BFA in ceramics from UTSA (2015). She’s had two solo shows featured in San Antonio’s Blue Star Art Complex; “Abnormal Mass” (2020) in Un Grito and “Guilty Forms” (2024) in Carbon Bloom respectively. In 2023, she co-founded the short run project space, JANUARY; located along San Antonio’s prominent Second Saturday artwalk, where she practiced, curated and exhibited her third solo exhibition “Goodbye Adelina”. Currently, Farmer’s partnered with the S.M.A.R.T. program (since 2024) at the 1906 Studio, through another project space she co-founded; known as INTERLOPER Gallery.
@allyshafarmer
allyshafarmer.carrd.co