Lavish Art Piece Greets Visitors to New Lower Valley Community Center

The City of El Paso’s newest community center is open and ready to serve the often-neglected Lower Valley.

The Valle Bajo Community Center and Library, at 7380 Alameda Avenue near the intersection of Alameda and Caroline Drive, gives Lower Valley residents a recreational hub they can call their own. A place where students, and families can come together to access much needed resources that have been lacking in that part of town for too long.

In addition to the full-service library, the center includes a kitchen, weightlifting and exercise room, game room, computer lab, and gymnasium. The center's grounds comprise of a soccer field with lights for evening games, playground, trails, Futsal court, and an outdoor movie theater space -- because you know how much we love outdoor summer movie series around here.

But perhaps the most unique thing about this community center is what greets everyone who enters. Something you don’t usually see in a city community or recreation center: a public modern art piece.

Titled “Voids,” the artwork hangs at the entrance of the facility in the atrium that connects the library wing and the cultural center.

Made up of five separate suspended pieces, Voids consists mostly of strands of optical fibers that are illuminated by several light-boxes, according to the CODAworx website. It was created specifically for this location and commissioned by the El Paso Museum and Cultural Affairs Department.

Funded through the Quality-of-Life Bond approved by voters in 2012, the Valle Bajo Community Center and Library is the third new center the city has rolled out this year.

The Chamizal Community Center and Library in South El Paso, and Eastside Regional Recreation Center, which is part of The Beast Urban Park in Far East El Paso.