Moooove over San Antonio! The cows are coming home after more than two decades, and area artists are invited to apply for the opportunity to join the herd and decorate one of the cows as part of CowParade San Antonio 2025 benefitting CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation.
CowParade is the largest and most successful public art event in the world, with over 100 major cities worldwide participating in the creation of over 5,000 cow sculptures since 1999.
The campaign will feature 75 life-sized resin and fiberglass cow sculptures painted and transformed by local artists and displayed throughout the city. CowParade was previously in San Antonio in 2003 and the campaign returns next year to the Alamo City to produce, exhibit and auction the cows. Proceeds will go to CHRISTUS Children’s Foundation.
The campaign is an opportunity for artists to showcase their creativity and skill on a massive scale to an international audience. Any artist, from the acclaimed to the amateur, is welcome to apply. Artists must download an application from anyartist.org, complete it, and email it to Laura Schleif at laura.schleif@christushealth.org by Sept. 6.
Winning artists will be notified and will receive their cows in mid-September. They will then have eight weeks to beef up their cows and transform them into works of art. Chosen artists will each receive a $1,000 stipend for their time and talent upon CHRISTUS’ approval of the completed cow. CowParade is looking for two types of designs:
1. A design you would like to create if you could only paint one cow
2. Designs celebrating the history and culture of San Antonio
Previous cow designs have been legend-dairy, ranging from referential, like the “Yellow Submoorine” cow (Stockholm 2005); to fantastical, like the “Mystical MerMoo” cow (New England, 2023); to historical, such as our very own “Dairy Crockett” cow from CowParade San Antonio 2003.
Local contemporary artist Allison Gregory has been chosen to lead this year’s artists and will design one cow for auction. A few smaller cow sculptures (also known as Mini-Moos) will be completed by the patients at CHRISTUS Children’s and will be available for purchase.
As part of CHRISTUS Health, CHRISTUS Children’s is a faith-based, not-for-profit hospital serving the south Texas community since 1869. We are San Antonio’s first and only freestanding hospital solely dedicated to the care of children and expectant women. Our 180 pediatric specialists are affiliated with Baylor College of Medicine. Sponsored by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of Houston, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word of San Antonio and the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth, our mission is to extend the healing ministry of Jesus Christ to every individual we serve. For more information, visit www.christushealth.org.
