October 1, 2024
McAllen Steamrolling the Arts with Technology
Story by Josue Ramirez and Avi
Edited by Abigail Vela
On Wednesday, August 28, the McAllen Chamber of Commerce sent an email to tenants of the McAllen Incubator stating that the Incubator’s gallery space will be off-limits to tenants for the next six months. Equipment, desks, and other materials would be moved into the space.
This comes after Zoho moved into the McAllen Creative Incubator in 2023, pushing out several artists and previous tenants from their studios from the third floor and some of the second floor. Now, one of the City of Mcallen’s only “accessible” creative spaces and galleries has been decommissioned for half a year, from September 2 until February 28, 2025.
This leaves creatives to wonder, who did the McAllen Chamber of Commerce lease out the gallery to?
McAllen Creative Incubator Gallery to be Closed for Six Months
Trucha has previously reported on the changes at the McAllen Creative Incubator and shared concerns from the tenants and the community at large. It has been almost a year since Zoho, the tech company, rented a large portion of the Creative Incubator as their call center.
In an email to Trucha, Elizabeth Suarez, the President and CEO of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce, confirmed the gallery space’s closure. Suarez mentioned that no tenant was scheduled to use the gallery for the next six months and agreed to temporary leasing.
Before COVID, tenants had a steady schedule of workshops, such as affordable oil painting classes, digital storytelling workshops, calligraphy lessons, accordion lessons and more. More tenants used to occupy the spaces throughout the Incubator. Since the arrival of Zoho, however, the number of creatives occupying the spaces has significantly reduced. A good number of tenants are no longer at the Incubator, and the Chamber has yet to update the Incubator artist page.
According to Suarez, “in FY 22-23 the creative incubator operated at a loss, in FY 23-24 we will have reduced the loss slightly, but we continue to face ongoing increases in maintenance costs.”
The McAllen Chamber of Commerce CEO’s email stated that the leasing “is being done as an effort to generate additional revenue that can offset increasing costs in maintenance repairs.” She did not, however, respond as to who the gallery space was being leased to.
On its company website, Zoho posted a recently closed job listing, for 20 recent graduates to apply for a six-month training program at their Incubator office. The listing states, “The start date is September 23, 2024.”
McAllen Creatives Deserve Better
Ruben Garza, band member of Kid Atomic, remembers the Incubator when it was in an “old school by Roselawn Cemetery.” “I went to so many cool shows there. It was one of my favorite places,” Garza mentions.
When asked about the Incubator now, he said, “It doesn’t feel like it centers smaller artists, it feels more commercial, like they’re trying to get businesses… there should be more galleries and infrastructure for artists, that’s what they’re selling it as.”
After moving to the Rio Grande Valley, Shokka, artist and the owner of Tree Haus Creative Studios, frequented Nopalito, a Main Street wine shop and lounge that often hosts music and creative events. He did not realize that the Mcallen Creative Incubator was across the street, “I’ve never seen anyone go in or out of it,” he mentioned.
In the Incubator’s defense, the Main Street door is locked for safety, but the optics of desolate, empty space can be hard to shake off. This is especially true when what one finds inside are dirty floors, piles of clutter, empty studios and now no gallery.
Despite this reality, the Incubator is being promoted as something else.
A paid promotion for the McAllen Cultural District published in August on Glasstire, a statewide arts and culture publication, invites viewers to “unleash your creative spirit at the McAllen Incubator.” While this might be the case for some, unleashing their creative spirit has proven difficult for past and current tenants who feel they have been displaced by the outsider tech company.
“With no inviting or accessible space to create, collaborate, teach, consult, practice, meet, and perform, real people with real work are impacted,” the anonymous source stated.
McAllen Art Community Demands Change
McAllen artists and the creative community of the Rio Grande Valley deserve more and should not suffer the consequences of the McAllen Chamber of Commerce’s inability to balance a budget.
Rather than questioning why the Incubator gallery had no programming for six months and working with the tenants to address it, the McAllen Chamber of Commerce decided to lease out one of the only public gallery spaces to non-creative ventures. That does not sound like a space that supports artists. The Chamber of Commerce Board and the City of McAllen should step in to demand accountability for the creative community.
To reference our anonymous source, city officials and the public must understand that the further displacement of artists and tenants from the very spaces that were meant for creative ideas and small art businesses to flourish will negatively impact the future of “retaining local talent, preventing brain drain, and attracting new community members to the area.”
As an organization in McAllen that supports local artists and creative ventures, we invite artists to sign this petition and demand more from the McAllen Chamber of Commerce.
