Inspired Minds Art Center, the locally owned community arts hub in downtown Buda, celebrated its fifth anniversary in January.

The backstory

The center’s co-owners, CEO Sinéad Whiteside and Chief Operating Officer Susan Guerra met 11 years ago. Shortly after, they began homeschooling their kids, and Whiteside said they saw a need for arts education and extracurricular activities among other families with homeschooled children.

“A big part of my homeschooling was getting out and meeting people,” Whiteside said. “I was meeting artists who were looking for community and were looking for a way to make an income from their art and not [have] a second job. We knew that there was a need in the community for arts education, so the idea was to just bring the two together. Because if you can join the artists with the community, the community gets the art education.”

The duo opened Inspired Minds Art Center on January 25, 2020, offering an art gallery, art classes and a theater space. Six weeks later, they had to close due to the pandemic.


They hosted art classes online until they could reopen in May. Five years later, Inspired Minds Art Center offers art classes for all ages, youth and teen creative camps, rotating galleries featuring local artists, a performing arts hub at The Chambers Theatre, as well as art nights and events like the Buda Art Brawl, Buda Arts Festival and Holiday Bazaar.

Why it matters

Whiteside and Guerra said they are committed to making the arts inclusive and accessible. They host classes at places like the Onion Creek Senior Center and Buda’s Brightside, provide neurodivergent training for summer camp counselors, offer financial aid for classes, have made the building ADA accessible and recently brought in ASL interpreters for events.

Since opening, Guerra said people have expressed how safe they feel at Inspired Minds Art Center.


“I think that some of the chaos and the noise from the outside world is maybe blotted out a little bit when they come into a space that's welcoming and accepting and gives them the freedom to express themselves,” Guerra said.

She and Whiteside agree that that feeling would not be possible without support from the artists, instructors, students and guests the center has welcomed throughout its five years.

“This is the creation of the community,” Whiteside said. “They've made it what it is... The only reason it's around today is because of that. Because these people keep coming in and feeling inspired and wanting to be part of it, so it's bigger than us.”