AUSTIN, TX.- The second week of April, Art Alliance Austin (formerly The Austin Fine Arts Alliance) will launch Art Week Austin 08, culminating in Art City Austin, a re-imagined outdoor art experience at a new location set against the water of Lady Bird Lake at the heart of downtown.
The vision of Art Alliance Austin is to bring together hundreds of artists and thousands of people who will converge to create a temporary art utopia where curious and delightful discoveries await around each corner. Now in its 58th year, Art City Austin is a juried show that continues to build on its legacy of community collaboration and participation. Events leading up to Art City Austin truly reflect the unique culture of Austin, the creative people who call it home, and the spirit of open collaboration that makes the city so remarkable.
Executive Director, Meredith Powell, comments, “We believe that discovering, participating in, and collecting art in Austin neither has to be something strictly for the art-world elite nor stuff of quaint craft bazaars. We support great art that results from collaboration and inclusion, not isolation and privilege.”
Known as The Austin Fine Arts Festival since 2000 (and Fiesta before that), Art City Austin is the city’s major outdoor visual art event. In recent years, the festival had been held on the streets surrounding Republic Square Park at 5th and Guadalupe Streets. Starting in 2008, Art City Austin will move to the north banks of Lady Bird Lake on the steps of Austin City Hall (award-winning design by Antoine Predock), down the revitalized Cesár Chavez Street, across the South First Street bridge—overlooking the new Long Center for the Performing Arts, and along the edge of the 2nd Street District.
Catherine DeStasio of the 2ND Street District says, “Art City Austin has been an integral part of Austin for so long, we are thrilled to collaborate and to have the event in the 2ND Street District neighborhood. This marquee event is a perfect complement to the unique Austin experience residents and visitors come to the heart of downtown to enjoy.”
Art City Austin will feature works of art for purchase in a variety of media by 200+ independent and emerging artists from around the nation including Lisa Kristine, Kevin Box, Dylan Strzynski, Amanda Blake, Daryl Howard, and Will Corr as well as Austin-area rising stars such as Jann Alexander, Rebecca Bennett, Shawn Camp, Lisa Crowder, Greg Davis, Jay Long, Bill Stidham, Rebecca Villarreal, and Hank Waddell. As in recent years, a ticket will get patrons complimentary admission to Austin Museum of Art–Downtown and The Blanton with Art City Austin passes: AMOA will have on display 20 To Watch: New Art in Austin, an exhibition featuring 20 of Austin’s newest art talents. Exhibitions at The Blanton will include European Prints and Drawings and Workspace: In Katrina’s Wake in addition to other exhibitions from the museum’s permanent collections.