News Release
For Immediate Release August 21, 2007 McNay Showcases Alameda Ayer: Photographs by Trish Simonite (San Antonio) - Alameda Ayer (Alameda Yesterday): Photographs by Trish Simonite, presents over two dozen black and white photographs by Trish Simonite showing the interior lobby of San Antonio's famed Alameda Theater, one of the last grand movie palaces built in America. At the time of its opening in 1949, the Alameda was the largest movie palace in the USA ever dedicated to Spanish language films and performing arts. The exhibition is on view September 12, 2007 through January 6, 2008.
Simonite, a native of Norfolk, England, moved to San Antonio in 1968, and became fascinated with the theater's deco-inspired architecture. Created in 1980 when the theatre was still actively screening films, this photographic series has not been seen in a focused exhibition until now. Simonite's images juxtapose elegant architectural and decorative details with lobby signage, eye-catching movie posters, and stacks of food concessions. The use of black and white lends a nostalgic quality to these photographs, and helps recall for the viewer the era when the Alameda was a center for Latino culture. Simonite frames her subjects in intuitive and witty ways, emphasizing how the lobby’s timeless, sophisticated design is littered with the needs of moviegoers—hot dog buns, Milk Duds, plastic marquees for movie times, and the like.
Alameda Ayer opens during FOTOSEPTIEMBRE, San Antonio’s month-long celebration of photography.
McNay Showcases Alameda Ayer: Photographs by Trish Simonite page 2 of 2
This exhibition and related programs are funded by the Endowment Fund for Exhibitions.
Digital Images
Images are available upon request. Please contact Margaret Anne Lara, Public & Media Relations Manager, at 210.805.1754 or Margaret.Lara@McNayArt.org.
Education Programs Thursday, November 15, 6:30 pm
Gallery Talk: Conversation with Trish Simonite
René Paul Barilleaux, Chief Curator and Curator of Art After 1945
About the McNay
Built by educator Marion Koogler McNay in the 1920s, the Spanish Colonial Revival-style home opened as the first museum of modern art in 1954. Mrs. McNay believed that the experience of great art should be available to everyone. Today more than 100,000 visitors a year become captivated by magnificent works of art by 20th-century masters including Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh, Edward Hopper, Georgia O’Keeffe, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
A vital partner in arts education, the McNay annually serves as many as 45,000 adults, teachers, students, and families with a variety of arts education programs and educational resources, including a fine arts reference library and interpretive information about art in the museum’s collection and exhibitions.
Museum hours are Tuesday through Friday, 10:00 am - 4:00 pm; Thursday, 10:00 am - 9:00 pm; Saturday, 10:00 am - 5:00 pm; and Sunday, noon - 5:00 pm. The McNay is closed on Mondays, New Year’s Day, July 4, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
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