GROWING ART SCENE: New downtown Tyler gallery showcases faith, scripture in art while creating opportunities for developing artists
The Aaron Hinds Fine Art Gallery, located in the Fair Building at 117 S. Broadway Ave., was founded by artist Aaron Hinds who struggled to find local galleries.
When entering the new art gallery in downtown Tyler, patrons walk into much more than a building where art merely hangs on the interior walls.
Visitors arrive in a place with unique works inspired by scriptures and the life of Jesus that is also creating new opportunities for local artists working to become an integral part of downtown revitalization.
The Aaron Hinds Fine Art Gallery, located in the Fair Building at 117 S. Broadway Ave., was founded by artist Aaron Hinds who struggled to find local galleries after returning to Tyler roughly six years ago.
“There's just no galleries here. There's none especially for the size that I needed,” Hinds said. “So I decided to read a few business books. One of the books said ‘if there's no galleries around, you open your own.’ So that's what I'm gonna do.”
And just like that … Hinds says a sign appeared before him while walking after lunch at Rick’s On The Square.
“I was walking past these doors, and those lights were flickering up there. And they caught my eye,” he said. “I took that as a sign that God was like, 'Here this one. I kind of liked those paintings that you're doing of My Son there.' I tell people I'd started painting scripture a year and a half ago, and now I'm standing in my own art gallery.”
Hinds says he’s always been inspired to paint his faith. For him, immediately after reading something it becomes visual.
But he says he came to realize that the art world does not often accept Jesus.
He recalled about a year and a half ago, he created a “really strange” image of the crucifixion with spiraling crosses, a hooded Mary and a “jumbled up view of the whole thing - death and resurrection.”
Upon seeing the painting, a person from the academic world encouraged him to make 60 more and said he would book Hinds an art show.
“So in about seven months, I created the bulk of the show. And the gallery loved it until they found out it was about Jesus. And then they just yanked it from me,” he said.
Making Opportunities For Other Artists
Wanting to do more than hang his art in coffee shops and offices, Hinds diverged into his own path through making his own space, where his art could stay while becoming a source of growth for fellow artists.
Andrea Stein, the first artist to hang her pieces in Hinds’ gallery, used the opportunity as a springboard and now her pieces are in a large gallery in San Antonio, he said.
“It's become this place where I can elevate Tyler's top artists and the pictures that they used to show other galleries that they're in a major gallery and working,” Hinds said.
Hinds and other community members are in the process of building an art collective to select the top artists in Tyler, fostering their talents and growing the art scene.
Faith and Art
As he painted for the gallery, Hinds said he felt this explosion as each new piece came out crazier and worried what East Texas Christians would think of his interpretations of Jesus.
But he's been overwhelmed by the response from believers and non-believers alike.
"The collection used to fill the entire gallery, it's half gone now. I say like 40% of that is in people's houses, which is fantastic,” Hinds said in late March.
Over time, he’s become an amateur in a variety of topics beyond art that he implements into the paintings and defending his faith.
Hinds said he stopped hanging out in the art world because he didn’t want to shy away from his beliefs. So, he trained himself in quantum mechanics, science and other fields.
“I am absolutely an amateur scientist, amateur botanist, amateur quantum theorist. I'm interested in a lot of things and it's helped me talk about this entity that I believe created this mathematical construct that we're sitting inside,” Hinds said. “I think that helps with talking about the Lord. You can't just give people your testimony. You give them some brass tax. Give them some real science and something that people can hold on to.”
On the backside of the paintings, you’ll find math equations that Hinds crafts to tell key parts of Jesus’ life and God’s creation.
“The entire quantum world points towards an entity that created this. We know this beyond the shadow of a doubt. This is a mathematical construct,” he said.
The most important reason, to Hinds, to share these paintings is to strike up spiritual conversations between believers and non-Christian friends.
“The mission field is all about relationships, just friendships,” Hinds said. “You genuinely being a genuine person, you genuinely liking them and them genuinely liking you and being friends. And then maybe every now and then they'll strike up a conversation if something hard happens in their life.”
Background
Growing up in Tyler, Hinds remembered his earliest memories were drawing and his entire family had an interest in art. He studied architecture and landscape at Texas A&M because his dad said he couldn’t be an artist.
It was a study abroad experience in a converted monastery in a medieval Italian town that affirmed his desires to be an artist. Learning oil painting from an Italian master of the craft, Hinds recalls being the only student who evoked emotion.
“It was usually he'd be walking around from canvas to canvas, going 'ya, ya,' but then when he'd get to my canvas it was like 'no, no, no.' He'd get frustrated and yell,” Hinds said. “He was a very gruff individual, but I loved it because he said anything to me.”
After graduating from A&M, he moved to New York City immediately to see how he could get involved in the art scene. He called the stay 13 years of a great time that included internships, stints in the fashion industry and getting into a rock band.
Over a decade later, he was ready to return as he was missing his family members’ lives and wanted to spend time with his parents.
Expansion
Bringing back a tea room; events for worship, weddings and more; photography shoots; adding a stage for live music - plans for further development of Hinds’ gallery are definitely in the works.
Hinds said about 15 years ago, there was a beloved restaurant called the Tea Room, serving tea and finger sandwiches. He hopes to reintroduce the concept on the second floor, turning it into a “viable lounge and brunch spot.”
For the downstairs portion, he plans to create a stage for live music to have one of the best spots for bands in town. He also wants to set aside some space for photo shoot suites, a project that he’s collaborating with local photographer Callynth Finney.
Hinds Fine Art Gallery and Event Space will become a place that people want to get married in and see as a high-end event venue, he said.
Toward the end of March, the gallery hosted a large night of worship and prayer with roughly 200 people in attendance. That is something, Hinds said, he wants to foster - “free events that praise the Lord.”
“I feel like this place is sanctified now. I just want people that are used to just saying, ‘what are we going to do this weekend,’ to make sure to check the Hinds Fine Art Gallery and Event Space,” he said.
Hinds said he also hopes to contribute toward keeping the best and brightest talent in East Texas through the budding art collective efforts.
“So they don't have to move away and go to Dallas or New York and stay right here. Produce here, grow Tyler and grow their career. Instead of moving to bigger markets that can use here to jump start their work,” he said.
He’s seeking to make art therapy for the youth at the Smith County Juvenile Attention Center the charity arm of the gallery.
Becoming Part of Something More
When Hinds was interested in getting into the Fair building, he needed to contact the NORF Companies, the New Orleans-based real estate group that purchased the Carlton, Wilcox, Lindsey and Fair buildings for renovations.
Hinds said it took a few months to get in touch with the company, but since then he’s become an advocate for NORF and looks forward to seeing what the group can do for downtown Tyler.
“Everybody's very jaded. I say that they're going to start the Carlton at the end of the year. Everyone's like, 'yeah, right.' I think NORF is different. I don't think they're corporate squatters. I think they're legitimately an outfit that goes and plants micro-economies in small downtowns like they say. They do have a track record. There's a couple of downtowns that they've redone.”
NORF held a groundbreaking ceremony on March 30 for the Wilcox building, which is set to house 31 market-rate apartments that will be named The Wilcox. According to the Tyler Morning Telegraph, The Wilcox will have mid-century modern design and have a green space along the former bank’s drive-thru.
The Lindsey will be converted into mixed-use/multi-family rental units. The Carlton Hotel, which operated consistently from 1954 through 1971, will be revitalized into about 100 one and two-bedroom apartments. The parking garage with the rooftop pool will be restored, according to the Tyler Paper.
The Carlton has been vacant since 2013 after Smith County stopped using the building that officials purchased in 1977, the newspaper reported.
Hinds said he gets excited when he sees civil engineers surveying the roads and a chain-link fence as that means growth is about to happen. He said it feels great to be a part of downtown Tyler revitalization.
“I couldn't have imagined in my wildest dreams that I'd be part of downtown Tyler revitalization. But my entire life seems to have been building up to this moment,” Hinds said. “I'm a carpenter. I'm also a designer, and also, I'm an artist.”
He added that he would love to see downtown Tyler grow into a cultural center, such as by adding more events and expanding artistic outlets like the city’s film festival.
“I'm trying to show them that this is a viable space for Tyler. And it'll be a huge draw for people that are eventually going to be buying these condos and moving in down here,” Hinds said. “We'll have a full roster full of things to do. I'm suggesting South by East Texas Music Festival, expanding the film festival. I want to have a Oktoberfest here. And I want to have a Christmas fest.”
As a part of expanding Tyler’s art scene, Hinds wants to see the city of Tyler become more than a day trip city and earn a Cultural District designation from the Texas Commission on the Arts, leading to more tourism dollars.
Hinds said the city previously applied, but the effort was denied at the time due to a lack of an art or weekend scene.
City of Tyler Main Street Program Director Amber Varona said the Tyler Main Street program is in the process of seeking to make downtown Tyler a cultural district.
According to TCA, Winnsboro and Longview both have cultural districts among other cities across the state.
The TCA website states these districts are special zones that harness cultural resources to stimulate economic development and the life of the community. Cultural districts can generate businesses, attract tourists, develop culture and foster civic pride.
Varona said downtown Tyler becoming a cultural district would help tell the story of downtown and create opportunities to get grant funding.
She added the plan is to begin the application process by submitting a letter of intent, which explains the reason for wanting the designation, in January.
Hinds said he would also like to see digital artists have the ability to project their art on the walls of downtown buildings, making them more attractive and surpassing other cities.