Buddy Holly Archives

Connie Gibbons filled sketch pads as a child. “I’d sketch the house next door, or sometimes I’d sketch characters from the comic strips. But I really didn’t decide that I wanted to do art as a career until after I went back to college. Until then, I was leaning toward creative writing. After I took art courses, I found that my need to communicate was more suited to photography and the visual arts.”

That said, even having earned undergraduate and master’s degrees in photography and painting, Gibbons long ago stored her cameras, canvas and paints, choosing instead to share art with the community as a gallery director.

The irony: For years, she labored as director of the Lubbock Fine Arts Center, a rather nondescript building at 26th Street and Avenue P. Few outside the art community realized it was even there. Now she is the director of the Buddy Holly Center, a beautiful facility at 19th Street and Avenue G.

And few outside the art community realize that the Holly Center also houses a large fine arts gallery.

“That’s one of the bigger tasks we have before us,” said Gibbons, “to educate the public about specifically what we offer. We still get a lot of phone calls, and I talk to a lot of people out in public who don’t know there’s an arts gallery here.”

Gibbons, a Phoenix, Ariz., native, did her undergraduate studies at Drury College in Springfield, Mo. Texas Tech’s graduate art program attracted her and she moved to Lubbock in 1984, completing her master’s work in 1987.

“My intent, my goal for myself,” she recalled, “was to spend a couple of years working in the studio, developing my art.

Eventually, I planned to move to a teaching position in a university setting and continue to produce (art).” She began working at the Lubbock Fine Arts Center part-time in October 1984.

“I guess I grew into it,” she said.

When she graduated, a full-time position at the center was available. She jumped at it, viewing it as an opportunity to test herself. In 1988, she followed Karen Wiley as the center’s director.

“I had two goals when I took it over,” Gibbons said. “I wanted to build a credible program that would be recognized in the region. And I told myself that, in dealing with artists, I would always treat them the way that I wanted to be treated as an artist. The Fine Arts Center really was in its infancy then. There was a lot I could do.

“So we began recruiting artists from the community as built-in supporters. And one of the first things I started doing aggressively was fund-raising. Up until that time, we would approach artists and tell them we had a space for them. But artists basically underwrote their own costs.”

She concluded, “We started writing grants and raising money so that we could pay professional fees, support our programs nationally, put together exhibits by artists from all over the region, and also take local artists and put them on the road. We wanted people to know about Lubbock.”

But exposure was not at the level she desired.

There was limited appeal, she said, “because of the perception of safety concerns. Some people did not feel safe in that area.” In addition, her programs soon outgrew the building. Gibbons expressed a need for more storage space, more gallery space and more office space.

At the time, the Lubbock Fine Arts Center was part of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department. And when Gibbons suggested adding on to the current building, it was supervisor Kay Stiner who suggested relocation instead.

Thus the search for a new building began in 1990. Possibilities were found. Feasibility studies were commissioned. But the necessary funding never could be found Ð until 1997, when Ronnie Thompson closed the Depot Restaurant at 19th Street and Avenue G and approached the city about purchasing his building as a home for its Buddy Holly memorabilia.

“The City Council had put together a Culture & Arts Commission headed by David Langston,” said Gibbons. “They recommended that the City Council purchase and renovate the building. From the beginning, the discussion was a need for the fine arts here, that this space could house both the Holly program and the city’s visual arts program.”

That meant that Gibbons also would have to expand her own repertoire. As she put it, “I knew who Buddy Holly was but, by the time we opened, I had learned a lot more about Buddy Holly and 1950s music as a whole.

“It’s been a challenge, which of course is a good thing, because the music community works differently than the art community. Artists work alone in their studios; their work is an internal process for them. Musicians often work in a collaborative process and then perform for an audience for feedback. So there are differences in production and presentation.”

Even so, she feels that appreciation for fine art continues to grow in Lubbock.

“It’s getting better,” Gibbons said. “One of the most gratifying things for me is seeing people walk through the Buddy Holly Center and they’re just stunned. They tell me they had no idea there was an art gallery here, or that we had such an incredible space.”

Mind you, none of Gibbons’ works are on the walls, and she’s OK with that. She does not allow jealousy to take root when she works with other artists because, she said, “It’s not productive.

“I’ve watched people in this profession, people who are trained as artists who get into arts management. And many of them are miserable. They beat themselves up because they’re not still in a studio producing their own work. I told myself that I would not live my life regretting not making art. I was going to give this job 200 percent.

“And I told myself that I could accomplish just as much doing this, to my satisfaction anyway. I think I have.”

Indeed, she says she is where she wants to be.

“I look back on my original goals, and I can’t imagine teaching at a university now,” Gibbons said . “What I do now allows me to be creative. I get to work with a lot of artists and musicians. I connect with professionals in the world of museums and art centers. It’s all very rewarding.”

And, she noted, there will always be time to pick up those sketch books again later.

By WILLIAM KERNS
A-J Entertainment Editor