So inexorably intertwined are the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts and Howard Taylor, its first and only director, that it’s difficult to imagine one without the other. But Taylor, who lived in Philadelphia prior to moving to Texas, was on the verge of taking a job elsewhere when he heard about a museum opening in West Texas that needed a director. “I was enchanted with the idea of a brand-new museum in a place where people would let you express your ideas,” he said. “They liked my ideas, and we went to work together.”

Longtime San Angelo artists have called Taylor a visionary for his efforts in revitalizing Historic City Center, a swath that encompasses the Downtown business district and the side of the Concho River near SAMFA, where San Angelo (then known as Santa Angela) was established in the 1860s. In 2011, Taylor accepted the Texas Historical Commission’s John L. Nau III Award for Excellence in Museums for SAMFA’s preservation efforts. The museum is also the only one to have received the American Institute of Architects National Service Award for its involvement in the Regional/Urban Design Assistance Team Progam (R/UDAT), which Taylor and three others helped spearhead in the 1990s. R/UDAT, an organization comprised of volunteers who are experts in historic preservation and urban design, is credited with breathing life back into San Angelo’s Downtown, starting with construction of Celebration Bridge.

"I was enchanted with the idea of a brand-new museum in a place where people would let you express your ideas."

- Howard Taylor

Decades later, Taylor is working diligently to bring a similar revival to the area surrounding SAMFA. “It’s pretty run down,” he admitted. “You have these great assets, but then around them, empty buildings, blight. It’s out of balance. (Our current buildings) are all about engaging people and making them feel welcome.”

The building that houses Gallery Verde, at 417 S. Oakes St., was constructed in the 1920s but had fallen into disrepair until SAMFA acquired it in 2002 and, with the Upper Colorado River Authority, restored it. For several years, the building served as the UCRA’s education center. Now, as Gallery Verde, a nod to its past function in ecological education, the space showcases the work of contemporary artists.

Coop Gallery, at 427 S. Oakes St., is named in honor of Roger Allen, a longtime museum supporter and founding director of the Old Chicken Farm Art Center. The gallery is community-centered and provides a place for local groups and organizations to showcase their work.

Both spaces “give us the opportunity to do things we can’t do at the art museum,” Taylor said, adding that everything the museum showcases must be educational and encyclopedic, and that all timeframes, cultures and mediums are represented. Along with those early decisions, the museum started the National Ceramic Competition, which has since turned into a juggernaut of an event held every two years. (The Ceramic Invitational exhibit is held odd-numbered years.)

For the 2018 competition, 1,258 people attended the opening. “That’s unbelievable,” Taylor marveled. “You don’t get that kind of crowd in New York City.”

Thanks, in part, to the competition and invitational putting San Angelo on the map as a ceramics hub, “we’ve now built one of the most important ceramic collections of its kind in America, and that has become a magnet for collections from all over,” Taylor said. Ceramic gifts have come from California, New Mexico, throughout Texas and overseas. The majority of ceramics in the museum’s permanent collection, however, are purchased from the National Ceramic Competition.

The museum’s permanent collection is comprised of more than 650 pieces, including American crafts created since 1945; American paintings and sculpture from all eras; Mexican and Mexican-American art from all eras, particularly Spanish-Colonial arts; and American glass spanning the Colonial Era to post-World War II.

Taylor said about 85,000 people visit the museum each year, with most of its events held for free. Family Day, in which children and their families can engage in hands-on art activities and learn about different cultures, is held the second Saturday of each month and typically draws about 1,000 people. Art Thursday provides art activities for children every Thursday and brings in about 100 people each session. Other museum events include the Chamber Music Series, which features musicians from Texas and throughout the nation; big band music concerts from the local West Texas Jazz Orchestra; the SAMFA Collectors Society lecture series; EnPleinAir Texas, an annual national art competition; and the biennial Richard and Pam Salmon Sculpture Competition.

In addition to heading up the San Angelo Cultural District, the largest in America, SAMFA is the statewide headquarters for the Center for the Advancement and Study of Early Texas Art (CASETA), which “promotes the preservation, study and appreciation of Texas visual arts and its history,” according to SAMFA’s website. In addition, the museum partners with Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo to offer DoD STARBASE, a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) program for fifth-graders held at the base.

As if that weren’t enough, SAMFA is also working on converting the old county library bookmobile into a mobile museum that will travel to rural schools within an 18-county region. The mobile museum will be equipped with art supplies, work tables, technology and will – of course – display art. Taylor hopes to launch the mobile museum this fall. He’s also planning for a summer opening of the Farm and Ranch Museum of the Concho Valley. Located at 305 S. Oakes St., the living museum will pay homage to San Angelo’s roots with a blacksmith’s shop, restored farm machinery, and live demonstrations from farmers and ranchers.

On Sept. 21, the museum will debut its exhibit, “Inside Out: An Exploration of Women’s Status and Roles in Western Society as Reflected in Fashion From Foundation to Silhouette.” Museum-goers can expect to see a timeline of under things and glean a better understanding of how they relate to women’s societal roles, as well as each generation’s definition of body image and its perception of the female form, from the 1800s to present day. “This’ll probably be the biggest exhibit we’ve ever done,” Taylor said.

But Taylor, no doubt, is accustomed to thinking big, as demonstrated by the walls of his office – one covered with awards and certificates, another adorned with framed photos of accomplished faces, from Tibetan monks, to Laura and George Bush, to senators and congressmen. In one photo, Ugandan choir boys are pictured in Taylor’s office, clustered around a painting of his face; the photo was taken while he was out of town.

Asked his reason for all he does for his adopted hometown, Taylor continues to look at the big picture, thinking in terms of we, the museum – not me, Howard Taylor. “It’s very simple,” he said, without hesitation. “To make a better world where people learn to care and respect each other. …they share…that they feel comfortable and right coming to the museum. And that they learn from each other.”

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