SAN ANTONIO, TX.- From city streets to Texas Hill Country roads, San Antonio features a kaleidoscope of landscapes. Street Scene: Cities on Stage explores the artful qualities of built environments via stage designs from the Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts and artworks from the McNay's Permanent Collection. The new exhibition is on view in the Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts and Brown Galleries through February 6, 2022.

Street Scene: Cities on Stage shows how theatre designers create realistic stage settings that challenge and stretch our understanding of urban environments forged from steel, glass, bricks, and mortar. The artworks on view also offer interpretations of small-town life. Some designs are imaginative, colorful, exciting, and surreal, while others depict more realistic visions of sleepy farm towns.

“Traveling from the heart of downtown San Antonio to the rolling Texas Hill Country, street scenes in our communities transform from urban skyscrapers and bustling neighborhoods to dusty country lanes,” said R. Scott Blackshire, Ph.D., Curator, The Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts. “The backdrops of our daily lives become works of art not only when brought to life in theatrical productions, but also by simply recognizing the structures, materials, and architectural design that surround us at any given moment.”

Street Scene: Cities on Stage explores the range of street scenes around the world that artists have imagined for performances. Visitors can experience stage versions of quaint villages in Russia, the British seaside, and concrete canyons of New York City—in just one visit.

Street Scene: Cities on Stage is organized for the McNay Art Museum by R. Scott Blackshire, Ph.D., Curator, The Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts; and Kim Neptune, The Tobin Theatre Arts Fund Assistant Curator.

This exhibition is a program of The Tobin Theatre Arts Fund.