Recap: Small town now big spot for art

Growing number of enthusiasts find their creative space out west in Slaton

According to the Lubbock Avalanche-journal an artists' enclave is forming in an unexpected place 15 miles southeast of Lubbock.

On any given weekend, hundreds of art enthusiasts pack into downtown Slaton's town center square.

They come to see the latest works from local artists in stylish art galleries, which are quickly filling many of Slaton's deserted buildings.

Over the past decade, at least half dozen artists have bought buildings in downtown Slaton and refurbished them into art galleries and studios.

Sara Waters, a fine arts professor at Texas Tech, started renting an abandoned candle factory for an art studio in downtown Slaton in the spring of 2003.

In 2005, she bought the 9,000-square-foot building she had been leasing and converted one side into an art gallery she named Waterspace South.

In the short time Waters has been in her Slaton loft, she has hosted more than 30 art shows.

She also has bought a second building, which is in the process of being converted into another art studio and gallery that will be called Waterspace North.

Waters isn't the first artist to relocate to Slaton.

Slaton Mayor Laura Lynn Wilson said the art movement in Slaton has been growing over time and recently exploded.

"It was very gradual, and then one day we looked up and realized it's here," said Wilson, who hopes the town's art scene expands and helps diversify Slaton's economy.

"All of these little towns on the South Plains are going to have to reinvent themselves," Wilson said. "We hope the arts are going to help us in that process."

So why are artists setting up shop in an agricultural town of just more than 6,000 people on the high plains of Texas?

"Slaton just feels different," Waters said.

Unique design

There's a reason downtown Slaton just feels different.

It wasn't designed to feel like West Texas.

When the town was founded in 1911, planners designed the street pattern after the design of downtown Washington.

That unique, wagon wheel-shaped street design and the turn-of-the-century buildings that face each other are a big part of why artists find downtown Slaton so appealing. That, and the price.

"I went to Slaton, and there were a lot of large, older buildings that were vacant and had the potential to be studios," said Robin Germany, a photography professor at Tech, who bought a building there and turned it into an art studio three years ago.

Germany initially had looked into getting a loft in Lubbock, but the prices were too high. Then she heard about the little town less than 30 minutes from Lubbock where she could find the building she needed at the price she wanted.

Germany and Waters are just the latest in a growing number of artists who have relocated to Slaton.

Art Locke, an artist who earned his master's degree in fine arts from University of North Texas in Denton, has lived in Slaton for eight years.

"You can't find buildings like this in Lubbock," said Locke, who lives and works in the old Texas Avenue Opera House, a building he believes was built in the early 1900s.

Original architecture

Locke, who uses 800-pound tires, railroad ties, 55-gallon steel drums, old bowling balls and other recycled materials in his art, needed a space large enough for his art work, which he calls "installations."

With more than 6,000 square feet, Locke's loft on the north end of downtown gives him all the room he needs.

Besides the space inside his building, Locke was drawn to the architectural style of the area. Many of the buildings in Slaton's downtown are nearly 100 years old.

It's not a faux historical facade, like what's found in some other trendy art towns.

And there's something else about Slaton that draws artists and other creative types like Locke.

"Slaton seems to be accepting to a variety of things," Locke said. "That's something you don't find in a lot of other small towns."

And it's not just the artistic types that are excited.

Rod Klemke, owner of Klemke's Sausage House in downtown Slaton, is in full support of his town's emerging art scene.

"It helps as far as I'm concerned because it brings people into town," Klemke said.