This year, one of San Miguel de Allende’s main city attractions, Fábrica La Aurora Art and Design Center, has a great reason to celebrate: 2014 marks its 10th anniversary.
For nine decades, the factory was an important source of employment in the textile industry, but when its walls were remodeled, canvases and folk art replaced the industrial-sized looms, which had already afforded the place considerable recognition.
The year was 2004. Don Francisco Garay, with the help and creative drive of Christopher Fallon, Mary Rapp, Merry Calderoni and DeWayne Youts—American artists who arrived to the city to breathe life into their stories through the mastery of painting, sculpture and design—opened the first art studios of what would become a pivotal cultural center for the arts.
Since then, the old factory’s corridors have been lined with contemporary art galleries and interior design shops, where you can find designer furniture and antiques, as well as table linens and other decorative pieces for the home. There are also jewellers’, restaurants, and perhaps the most appealing of all: the art-studio galleries. Adding a colorful touch to the scenery, these spaces attract locals, tourists and art lovers in general.
“Today, the feel of the place is created by the artists who have been gathering here, starting with the first ones to arrive, like Merry Calderoni, Mary Rapp and particularly Christopher Fallon, who was very involved in the center’s overall concept, foundation and renovation. And as more and more artists flock to this space, I believe that La Fábrica adopts each of their personalities and creative styles,” highlights Francisco Garay, son of Don Francisco, original owner and founder of Fábrica La Aurora.
A visit to this stunning building can invite a number of different scenarios. From simply spending a leisure afternoon strolling along its corridors to peek inside open studios, amongst paintings, sculptures, books and antiques, to the possibility of overhearing a group of artists in deep discussion, while enjoying a meal at the café, or even coming across an artist, in a creative frenzy, as he triumphantly throws splashes of paint onto his canvas.
Mary Rapp, a sculptor to set up shop at La Aurora when it was first inaugurated as a center for the arts, says: “The walls of my studio still preserve marks from the machines used when it was a factory, markings that, in and of themselves, I consider art. Some of us here participate in Open Studios, organized every Thursday, when people have the chance to come and watch the artists and their creative process.”
Recognized artists, from Mexico and abroad, who have found their way to this space to develop their creativity and exhibit their works, have become part of a story that began 10 years ago. The ambience that La Aurora lends has enticed new artists to join this creative haven, and a plethora of talented individuals like Peter Leventhal, Juan Escurdia, Ricardo García and Santiago Corral, now dedicate much of their journey to giving form to their works of art in this very space. Writers, like Edward Swift, with their vision and power of interpretation, have taken the liberty to cast a light on the walls of La Fábrica, taking them in as their own as a form of inspiration in the creation of their manuscripts. And finally, let us not forget the kindness and warmth introduced into the setting by the hundreds of families who visit the Fábrica La Aurora Art and Design Center every week.