Located on Texas Frontage Road, the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley is a large center dripping with creativity — studios with still-wet paint brushes, artworks of acrylic and wide color palettes and galleries with a museum-like ambiance. Whether you’re a Picasso visionary, an art lover, a Bob Ross devotee or a professional watercolor painter, the Arts Council aims to make the arts accessible to all residents and visitors of the Brazos Valley.

While art may be expensive to own, the Arts Council of Brazos Valley strives for art to be free to enjoy by anyone. The local nonprofit arts organization invites everyone for an evening of meeting new people, sipping wine and enjoying locally crafted artwork and live entertainment. Insite Media will host its March Launch Party at the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley on March 9 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. to celebrate the council’s leadership in organizing local advocacy efforts and building an authentic arts community.

Executive Director of the Arts Council of the Brazos Valley Sheree Boegner has been spearheading the launch party in collaboration with Insite Magazine.

“What I find super awesome about the Insite magazine is that each of their [select issue] magazines does a launch party to launch off that magazine, and we got selected for March,” Boegner said.

During the March Launch Party, there will be several activities for creative individuals.

“We’re going to have food and drinks and some nice door prizes,” Boegner said. “We will also have kids and adult art projects in our classroom during the event, which I think is neat, just in time for us getting geared up for summer camps.” 

While math is objective, with principle knowledge grounded in its foundation, art is not. Modern art often embraces the vogue and the lure of abstraction, while being “vague” in math is not part of its vocabulary. As such, Boegner said the arts, math and science blend together in more ways than most realize.

“I think some people use art to do something else better,” Boegner said. “So if you’re struggling with math, go take a piano lesson. It is amazing how much piano helped me with math.” 

For Boegner, colors don’t simply flow out of a tube — they carry more-than-familiar hues than mummy-like browns or bloody reds.

“Creativity to me is just like any other tool,” Boegner said. “When you work on your leadership skills, work on your creative skills. And what that’s going to do is it’s going to help you look outside the box on different ways to solve problems to make things happen.” 

Boegner is not the only passionate advocate of art. Megan Le, Class of 2020, is the development and operations coordinator for the Brazos Valley Arts Council. With a bachelor’s degree in economics, Le recognizes how math and science can factor into artistic virtuosity.

“What I wanted to do is bring to the Arts Council is a sense of efficiency and organization, where I can really help them with all of their programs and events, really marketing that to the public and getting the word out,” Le said.

With a tightly bound planner festooned with color-coded sticky notes, Le coordinates many of the art council’s events, including the March Launch Party, and works with interns and co-workers.

“One of the main things that really drives me is working closely with those internally, interns, workers and whatnot and when we’re all on the same page working for the same goal,” Le said.

Like Boegner, Le is passionate about art advocacy.

“[I am] driven to make people really aware of the arts,” Le said. “And not just hearing about it and seeing it, but really getting passionate [it].”

Beyond their function and appeal, art carries something much more viscous for Le — memories, creativity, stories and passion.

“To me, [art] is the purest and rawest sense of expression,” Le said. “Being able to paint who you are on a canvas and see what you hear in your own heart out loud — that’s always just been a very beautiful thing to me.” 

Jessie Trejo, class of 2018, works closely with art advocacy alongside Le and Boegner. Born and raised in Bryan, Trejo’s passions are not mainly rooted in the masterworks at the Louvre or the Met but in the community’s brick-and-mortar art.

“In my family, I was always the art kid,” Trejo said. Being in Bryan ISD, when I was in high school, the sports and arts that I was involved in were very heavily regarded in the community — we would compete internationally and nationally [and] we would do a lot of community outreach volunteers; we go to First Fridays.” 

In Downtown Bryan, with its cobbled streets, rusty railroad, bustling cafes and nearby restaurants, Trejo said First Fridays offered an opportunity to see local artists, interact with them and appreciate their work, leading her to understand the strength of the local art community.

“We would do all kinds of things like that because it was important for us to be seen in the community [because] we’re here and we work hours and hours to do all these things,” Trejo said. “It was important for us to be integrated into the community for them to see that we have great art here in Bryan-College Station.”

While art can be expensive to own, the Brazos Valley’s Arts Council makes it free to enjoy. Like First Fridays, the nonprofit art organization’s March Launch Party is a great way to see the artwork of neighbors and friends. In addition to visiting the center, students can explore local art as a part of the launch party without hurting their pockets.

“The Arts Council is a friendly place to be; it’s free to the public,” Boegner said. “You can come and just see what we have in our galleries.” 

Whether the party is a fancy date for college lovebirds, a gathering of artistic intellectuals or just something to do to pass the time, Boegner invites all to come.

“We’ve got some fantastic kids in the community, and people need to know about it,” Boegner said. “And the only way to get that done is if they let us know they’re there.”
For further information on the launch party, visit the RSVP invitation.