A BLNKA story..

Colors here, orchestrate the most vibrant sunsets across the Panhandle of Texas. Distinct seasons, flat terrain, and tumbleweeds cultivate the fully immersive West Texas experience. People paint, sculpt, sing, write, and compose the city's identity, their craft and passion; masterfully formulating the single spark that ignites a wild spread of ideas and growth across the community. Lubbock, Texas is known as the Hub City--connecting major cities from around the South Plains through networks of education, health care, economics, and shipping.

A once prosperous and vibrant downtown has become a largely abandoned and neglected area. We hope to inspire more entrepreneurs, scholars, developers, investors, and friends alike to continue to make a difference together, sparking ideas for the future of our Downtown Lubbock community.

-BLNKA /BLAHN-KUH/

All photography provided by BLNKAartists and BLNKA contributors.

{left} Erica Abesamis | Jonathan Bergen | Dave Clayton | Gina Astuto

Lubbock is beautiful.

This town has a notion of being boring, dry, and dull. When in reality the experience here, is quite unique and holistic. There's a constant flow of emerging individuals with creativity and talents fueling the growth of the "arts" across the Panhandle of Texas. People from the surrounding towns, cities and states naturally gravitate towards this "hub" in West Texas for commerce, agriculture, and education; generating diversity and progression.

Our friends, colleagues and professors have inspired us to empower one-another and celebrate each other's work. Paintings, sculptures, photography, diagrams, renderings, and drawings are all collections of powerful and meaningful visuals and stories that evoke an experience unique to each individual. The space becomes activated, emotions are triggered and people connect through the power of the arts.

November 06, 2015

a storage building transformed into a gallery for a night of art and music.

On the evening of November 06, 2015 Our friends, families, artists, musicians, and supporters celebrated a night of talented individuals from around LBK.

We had the great fortune of collaborating with Ulabs, which is a community workspace designed to grow ideas and visions. Go check them out at ulabstx.org! Together, we renovated the entire West wing of the Ulabs building, transforming an old storage space into a gallery. After gutting out most of the building, patching and painting walls, installing lighting systems and refurbishing or building enough furniture and displays to set the stage for a gallery, the incredible response from Lubbock artists filled up the gallery over night. The art carefully installed, live music began as the doors opened to a community and brought an exhibition to life.

April 1st, 2016

A NIGHT OF LIVE MUSIC, ARTS AND DOWNTOWN EXPLORATION IN TWO INTERSECTING ALLEY WAYS.

Spring 2016

We set our eyes on two intersecting alleys located downtown between Avenues J & K and began researching and documenting the site, throughout the semester. After receiving the city's approval for an event we began seeking out artists, musicians, food trucks, and sponsors to help bring these alleys to life. We thank Sigma Omicron Chi at Texas Tech University, as they were big contributors in the clearing of the alleys. After all the help from friends and supporters, we were finally ready for an event that we called Project Alley. On the morning of the event, April 1st, a rogue storm brought inches of rain, strong winds funneling through the alleyways, and even snow fall. Our team and artists where out there removing standing water to get the alleyways back in their former red glory. Miraculously, the final rain clouds would begin to part just in time for the event.

November 4th, 2016

A DOWNTOWN commercial bulding -MATTISON BLDG. III

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Fall 2016

THE MATTISON BLDG

The Mattison Building can be found in Lubbock, Texas on Crickets Avenue, a street renamed after Buddy Holly's band "The Crickets". Just two blocks off Broadway, on 14th Street, the Mattison sits in the middle of the First Friday Art Trail and Depot District , which today, are the two most active and progressive areas in Downtown Lubbock.

Built in 1960 as cotton offices and later converted into a pathology facility, the Mattison was at the heart of the agricultural and medical booms which would help cultivate Lubbock into the cultural epicenter that it is today. On November 4th, 2016 The Mattison building was reactivated through a collaboration with talented individuals, generous sponsors, fire marshals, and building inspectors, whose work helped repurpose a single example of Downtown Lubbock’s many desolate buildings and empty spaces. After two months of meeting with city officials, resolving a list of safety concerns, and constant cleaning efforts, thanks to our friends, we slowly began stitching together a reimagined use for the upstairs office suites, which had lain vacant for decades. Piece by piece, the top of the Mattison transformed into an exhibition showcasing a series of live/work studios, filled with installations, art and creativity. Meanwhile, the bottom of the Mattison became galleries for paintings, sculptures, and projected visuals. The Mattison's large parking lot hosted food trucks, live music, mobile galleries, & aerialist performances.

December 1st, 2017

east lubbock abandoned complex

Fall 2017,

Our forth exhibition was hosted on a vacant property at 500 E Broadway, formerly known as the Cliffhouse Restaurant and Parkview Lodge. With views across Mackenzie State Park from the first paved road through town, this preeminent destination for tourists and travelers of the 1950s is, today, a deteriorating lot in isolation, most commonly known for its reputation as a graffiti park. Cliffhouse Project Director, Chimsee Hagy is leading the revitalization efforts which are turning the abandoned complex into organic gardens, open studios, artist residencies and public venues to enhance the local arts community for East Lubbock.