Houstonia’s The Must List tells you about something going on in Houston that you absolutely cannot miss.

Sawyer Yards in the historic First Ward area covers 55 acres and plays host to over 600 artists and arts organizations, as well as breweries and restaurants like Holler Brewing, Awesome Bites, and Local Pho. A Texas-size campus warrants a Texas-size event to introduce locals to some of the talented creatives who call Houston home. That’s where Second Saturdays comes in. Held monthly on exactly the date indicated in the easy-to-remember name, the free event runs from noon until 5pm, with October’s on deck for the 12th.

Second Saturdays invite visitors to browse an open house–style environment that spans six total warehouses, where over 100 participating artists share their studio spaces, their works, and their philosophies.

“You can find a range of artworks, from painting to sculptures, jewelry and textiles. Visitors can expect to stroll through diverse exhibits that we always have on our walls,” says Laura Tracy, director of marketing at Sawyer Yards. “They can meet talented artists in their studios and really engage with their work, learn their processes, and hopefully find a special piece to take home.”

The Second Saturdays initiative launched a decade ago to encourage Houstonians to gain a first-hand understanding of the artistic process and get to know the local creative scene through face-to-face interaction. In total, it draws in over 15,000 people annually and demystifies what it means to create.

“I think art a lot of times seems aspirational, and it’s really not,” Tracy says. It’s a much more accessible vocation than many realize, and Sawyer Yards hopes to make the significant tasks of finding a home and an audience straightforward for artists.

Approval to set up a studio in one of the dedicated buildings requires an application via Deal Co and Silver Street Capital, the leasing agents in charge of renting Sawyer Yards holdings to artists. However, the decision to bring talent on board reflects an agnosticism toward any specific medium or experience level, allowing visitors a plethora of options to explore. And with six different buildings to choose from, it’s easy to see something new on every Second Saturday visit.

“There’s really no cookie-cutter definition [for a Sawyer Yards artist]. We have all ages, all mediums. We have artists who are just getting started. We have artists who are very tenured,” Tracy says. “I think that’s what makes us really unique. There’s really something for everybody here.”

For the artists themselves, Second Saturdays introduce them to new friends and new patrons, and gives them a chance to promote their work to locals and tourists alike.

“I personally work on my art leading up until Second Saturday, so I always have new pieces. It’s my opportunity to present that to guests,” says painter and arts educator Holly Nowak, who has been taking part in the event since 2018. “I have repeat collectors that come in. I’ll paint something really random, and I know that 100 people are going to walk past it and have no connection to it, but there’s going to be that one person that walks in and cries or stands there and stares at it, or tells me a long story about how, why, and what this means to them.”

She splits her time between her Winter Street Studio and her dedicated art space at home; the latter can leave her feeling disconnected and isolated from valuable feedback about what people find most compelling in her work.

Fellow painter Leslie Gaworecki, whose studio is based out of the Silos at Sawyer Yards, estimates that she’s attended every Second Saturday held over the past eight years. She attributes her participation in the event with helping her grow as an artist. Having to describe her work to visitors fine-tuned her personal visions and goals.

“When I first started, I was a brand-new painter, and I looked at Second Saturday as my first and only way to really show my paintings to the public,” Gaworecki says. “Now, Second Saturday is mostly about the people. I always tell visitors to Houston, or my friends and family who don’t quite understand Houston, that the city’s so diverse and interesting. I open my studio door on a Second Saturday, and everyone in the world walks through my doors.”

It’s a sentiment shared by Toto the Elephant, a painter who moved to Houston from Los Angeles in 2019 and made a home at Sabine Street Studios in 2020. As with Gaworecki, he’s taken part in all the Second Saturdays that he can.

“Not originally being from Houston, I didn’t have a following or many people that I was able to hang out with or talk to,” he says. “This allowed me to meet a lot of new people, not only in the art community, but in the Houston area in general, which has been great.”