Featured Grant Story: Charles Adams Studio Project

People walking around the Charles Adams Studio Project buildings during a sunset

The mission of the Charles Adams Studio Project (CASP) is to serve as a cornerstone in the Lubbock Arts District by developing and sustaining a working artist’s community. This mission has been furthered by CASP acquiring and renovating real property within the Lubbock Cultural District for the development and operation of facilities for artists and arts related activities. These activities support the work of regional artists and make the visual arts accessible to the community at large.

In 2018 CASP received funding from the Community Foundation of West Texas to improve upon their current space. With the funds acquired, CASP was able to install two sets of 220 outdoor electrical outlets and one quad 110 outdoor electrical outlets on the west side of the 5&J Gallery for use by musicians, food trucks, and artists during First Friday and other arts events at CASP. Also included in the project were the materials to build two twenty-foot, cedar and steel bench and table seats as additional outdoor seating in front of the 5&J Gallery and Print Studio. CASP Director, Chad Plunket, and CASP Metals Fellows and Artists-in-Residence covered the labor of building the outdoor seating.

Because of this project CASP is able to engage more people and their families with the arts through increasing their capacity to host outdoor attractions such as live music and food trucks that draw the public to their facilities where they are exposed to provided ample opportunities to engage with the arts and artists. CASP is rapidly developing as a stimulating, family-friendly space for people to learn about and enjoy art, and this project helped them continue that trend and spark an interest in art within more people in Lubbock and the surrounding areas.

CASP hosts frequent outdoor live music during the First Friday Art Trail, with as many as seventeen food trucks lined up along the street around the CASP Metals Studio, 5&J Gallery, and Print Studio. The combination of food, music, friends, and good times attracts thousands of Lubbock citizens on the first Friday of every month. Each First Friday Art Trail is different from the last, with no two months having the same combination of artists and activities twice. In addition to the CASP artists and activities, LHUCA also participates in the First Friday Art Trails, with different art events that they host for event guests.

CASP is also looking toward the future with the addition of the Buddy Holly Hall of Performing Arts & Sciences. Additionally, South Plains College, the Lubbock Food Truck Alliance, and CASP are currently working together to bring more traffic downtown and to foster more public engagement with the arts.