The Best (New) Little Art Town In Texas

Corsicana, Texas is slowly building buzz in the art world. The small town of 25,000 located about 50 miles southeast of Dallas has been steadily drawing creatives in recent years, thanks to large, historic and affordable spaces ideal for artist studios and galleries. There are more museums in this one-time oil town one would expect, a very well respected artist and writer’s residency, and as of January, another gallery that’s adding to the burgeoning art scene.

Hable Gallery is the brainchild of sisters Susan and Katharine Hable, Corsicana natives who flew the proverbial coop as college students. Their gallery, located in a 1925 building that once housed Dyer’s Department Store, shows Susan’s works — collages, paintings, ceramics, sculpture and her latest creative foray, jewelry – as well as paintings by Carol John and Jeannie Weissglass, and photographs and prints by Rinne Allen. But the Hables see the space as more than just a gallery — they are hoping to create a place that fosters community by hosting workshops, pop-up dinners and whatever else might work in a given moment. “When I was growing up, my parents didn’t know what to do with me. There were two artists in town and I worked in one of their studios and took some classes,” recalled Susan of her early artistic proclivities. “We’ve had a lot of people come in that said they’d never been to an art gallery before. We want to be accessible, to introduce and expose people to the arts, do things for the community and add to the culture of the town.”

The time was right. “We’re both in our 50s, and we’ve had a lot of experience separately and together,” noted Susan. In 1999, while living in New York City, the sisters formed Hable Construction, a design company which today has collections of furniture, lighting, fabric, wallpaper, rugs and decorative accessories for the likes of Hickory Chair, Visual Comfort, and Soicher Marin. Theirs was (and remains) a classic right brain – left brain partnership with Susan as creative director and Katharine handling sales and operations. For decades both sisters lived in the Big Apple. They got married, had children, and at one point had a retail shop in the West Village.

When they spotted the Dyer building two years ago, they had both left New York and were living in Athens, Georgia. Susan had been creating and selling art for over a decade (Fun fact: the Atlanta gallery that represents her was featured in the movie “The Idea of You,” with Anne Hathaway as the gallery owner). Katharine was running Hable Construction and toying with the idea of moving back to Texas. Both had loved retail. The stars aligned.

The new gallery afforded the perfect opportunity and venue to introduce Susan’s latest creative foray: jewelry. She had studied jewelry design in Italy while a college student, and after graduating worked for Brenda Schoenfeld in Dallas and, later, for Kara Varian Baker in San Francisco.

Creating her own jewelry collection was always in the back of her mind, and, after several years of development, those stars also aligned. The sculptural pieces — earrings, necklaces and rings — are predominantly stone-forward, with hand carved ebony, lapis lazuli, Egyptian amber, emerald, malachite, peridot and coral, most set in 18k gold. Susan also designed 18k gold pieces to layer in with the stones, from a “Marigold” chain necklace to artisanal hoop earrings.

These gems are displayed in antique cases; many are set on vintage silk velvet boxes sourced from the avid flea-marketer’s travels. The response so far has been enthusiastic. So much so that Susan, an admitted “hands on person,” has been teaching herself to carve ebony. Another Jaipur trip is on the books to create pieces to meet the demand. “Jewelry and art go hand in hand,” she observed. “We had a nice opening and so far we’ve been well received. I feel like we’ve done the right thing.”

Hable Gallery, 120 West Collin Street, Corsicana, TX; HableGallery.com