New Arts Center will nurture community

The Brownsville performing arts community has come a long way since I first moved to the city back in 2002.

From the groundbreaking of the new UTB-TSC Arts Center to indie-band Vinyl Dharma gaining national recognition on MTV2 this past week, it is clear that the local performing arts scene has established a solid foundation from which they can grow and expand.

Having such a venue like the Arts Center on the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College campus not only helps develop student artists, but allows them to connect with the community.

And although the school has done well to attract artists from abroad (see: Guitar Fest), building a facility like this will help lure performers from outside of the region to Brownsville.

While the university is helping nurture young performers, another Brownsville group has come into its own.

Vinyl Dharma, formally of Brownsville and now based out of Austin, made a name for itself late last year by winning MTV's New Year's Eve contest.

Since then, the band performed at SXSW and earned a spot in the rotation on MTV2's Spanking New Music with their video single "The Sunshine Rave."

Vinyl Dharma's achievement is an inspiration to Brownsville's up-and-coming artists to continue to work hard to get their art recognized.

You can check them out tonight when take the stage at 10 p.m. at Tequila Sunset on South Padre Island.

And on a side note, the Galeria 409 seems to be gaining a sort of notoriety when it was selected to be the first stop of the El Paso-based band Sleepercar's "West Texas" tour.

Sleepercar's frontman Jim Ward said that Galeria 409 seemed to be the best place to start their tour of small Texas towns that they had never been to. Ward is also the lead singer for Sparta and a former member of At-the-Drive-in.

Sleepercar gave quite a performance and I recommend keeping an eye out for their forthcoming debut album "West Texas."

Also this week:

I had the opportunity to catch the performance of "The Vagina Monologues."

The annual presentation commemorated V-Day, the international movement to end violence against women.

And while people may have different opinions of the performance and the "Monologues" themselves, I think they do serve their purpose of raising awareness of putting a stop to violence against women.

Also be sure to check out the 37th International Art Show opening Wednesday at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art and the Guitar Fest, which begins Tuesday at the university.

Jaime E. Galvan is a city editor with The Brownsville Herald and is the editor of The Scoop. He can be reached at (956) 982-6624 or jgalvan@brownsvilleherald.com.

On the Net:

Vinyl Dharma: www.myspace.com/vinyldharma