Partners Tamara Gastelum and Gabriel Marquez are bringing 45 artists together for an art sale and party ‒ and Borderland residents are invited.
“The inspiration for the show was just to kind of get as many artists as I could to participate and just kind of create a new piece that didn’t really have a focus or a theme,” Marquez said. “It was anything and everything, so that was why we titled the show ‘Anything and Everything.’ Just so that it’s open theme. You could do whatever you want.”
“The Anything & Everything Show” will be from 6 p.m. to midnight Friday at Moonlight Adobe Hall, 10180 Socorro Road in Socorro.
There will be live music by Julio Ortiz, a DJ set by Cabina Ele Pe, food from the Casa del Humo truck and craft beer.
“For this show we included 45 artists from El Paso and in Juárez, too,” Marquez said. Art prices will range from around $100 to $3,000.
“We supplied all the boards to the artists and they just came up with all these different creations,” Marquez said.
The art will be taken down at the end of the night. The works currently are online for preview at https://www.mysticdesertstudio.com/theanythingandeverythingshow
Gastelum is looking forward to the event.
“I’m really excited,” she said. “It’s been a lot of work, curating it. … Just getting all of the art on time and uploading it to our website to put it for sale.”
Helping artists is one of the things that Gastelum enjoys most about running the hall.
“My favorite part of the art shows is seeing artists relive their creativity, that have fallen off or they get too busy.”
For those who no longer are pursuing art full time, “it inspires them to get back into the art scene after they’ve been around artists at the shows and their art gets bought.”
Overall, though, “My favorite part would be just giving everybody a space to make memories in just a very charming place.”
Her least favorite part?
“The cleanup. The aftermath,” she said, crediting her crew for helping during events.
Revitalize Socorro, offer entertainment options
The art show party is part of Moonlight Adobe Hall’s efforts to revitalize the area and become an even more integral part of the entertainment, art and venue scenes in the Socorro area.
The hall has been around “since August of 2021,” Gastelum said, adding, “I think 2023 is going to be a really busy year. We’ve already got more bookings and we’re starting to do music events, so with our beer and wine license I feel that is going to give us more opportunity to cater to the community.
“We’ll definitely be having more public events, which is really fun,” she said.
Gastelum said the Texas Department of Transportation has a plan to connect the venue to the historic adobe complex across the street, where the popular Three Missions Brewery is located, with a crosswalk.
Marquez said: “At the Moonlight Adobe Hall, we host bands. We try to at least once a month on a Friday night and we also have markets on the last Sunday of the month. Usually every month, indoor and outdoor market. We sell art and gifts.”
Gastelum’s business background has helped Moonlight Adobe Hall keep moving forward.
“What helps is I have my other business, El Paso SLI Sign Language Interpreters,” she said.
Gastelum is the CEO and founder of the American Sign Language interpreting agency.
“That helped me grow, Gabriel grow and Moonlight grow.”
The agency works with the El Paso County Commissioners Court, hospitals, political campaigns, school districts, and medical and social services in El Paso and Las Cruces, she said.
“That’s my day job,” Gastelum said.
“I’ve had it since 2009, and when I moved to Seattle, I was just operating it remotely, and then the demand got larger. That’s why I came back.”
The company experience “helped establish business etiquette, how to run a business,” she said.
Running two businesses can be draining, Gastelum said, but she and Marquez have found a way to stay energized.
“We take vacations, and when we take vacations, we zone out,” she said. “We transfer our phones and we don’t work.”
Gastelum hopes she and Marquez can continue to help Borderland artists.
“I would like artists to know they can grow here in El Paso and not have to leave,” she said, “because Gabriel had to kind of leave, too, to grow himself.”
Since returning, the couple has become a vital force in the area’s art and entertainment scene.
“I think I would like to see more public events, regularly, with the arts and music scene, because there’s no other music venue or art venue promoting … near where we are,” she said.
Gastelum said she plans to collaborate even more with the community.
That effort can be seen in choices as basic as the beers the hall carries.
While it has regional craft beers, it also has Sapporo Japanese beer.
“We have those because the restaurant Charlatan, being Mexican-Japanese, we try to do Sapporos to support that,” she said.
The much-praised El Charlatan Taqueria y Ramen-Ya restaurant is in the same adobe complex as the hall.
“Anybody can buy beer and go into (Cafe) Cocol or Charlatan with our alcohol,” Gastelum said.
“We’re trying to do a variety.”
The main challenge the hall has seen so far has been increasing its visibility, she said.
Marquez said people can keep up with the activities at the hall by visiting https://www.instagram.com/moonlightadobehall/, https://www.mysticdesertstudio.com and https://www.moonlightadobehall.com
If you go
What: The free “The Anything & Everything Show”
Where: Moonlight Adobe Hall, 10180 Socorro Road in Socorro
When: 6 p.m. to midnight Friday
Who: Artists in the show are Adam Ballesteros, Adrian Arragones, Aron Venegas, Aryk Gardea, Babak Tavakoli, Brian Holt, Caleb Jimenez, Carolina Kako Villarreal, Chris Melero, Christin Apodaca, Citlali Delgado, Derek Caufield, Efren Lechuga, Efrén Solórzano, Eleno Rosas, Erica Murrill, Francella Baca, Francisco Delgado, Gabriel Marquez, Hal Marcus, Jacob Trevizo, Jason Lucero, Kaelyn Monarrez, Luis R. Lozano, Manny Urueta, Marco Sanchez, Melanie Montes, Moi Garcia, Nico Antuna, Nikki Diaz, Pablo Hernandez, Paul Telles, Ramiro Ordoñez, Raul Monarrez, Roman Martinez, Serena Ornelas, Serjik Leon, Mario Alonso Perez, Susan Wester Perez, Theron Nicholson, Vanessa Zavala Clark, Venessa Smith, Victor “Mask” Casas, Victor Muheddine and Visual Bluff.