Adrift

From the plaque:

Philippe KlinefelterAdrift, 2010granite, cypress
This work relates to potential energy, water, and shelter.

Part of the people's gallery, located at Austin City Hall.

From Arguendo & Dixi's Daily Austin Photo

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The Story of Texas

A shot of the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum. You can see a couple of the cows from the Cow Parade Austin on the front lawn. If you'd like to see the cows from this years parade, be sure to check our Austin Art Installations blog.




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Una Cancion de Fe y Familia

"Una Cancion de Fe y Familia" by Connie Arismendi is part of the Trail of Tejano Legends.

From the plaque:

Linked by their grandparents Don Luis and Don Tranquilino Perex, the Perex and Ramos families share a musical tradition spanning serveral generations. Ruben Rangel Perez, Ernest Rangel Perez, Ruben Ramos, and Alfonso Ramos each led their own acclaimed Tejano orquestras.After their military service, saxaphonist and band leader Ruben Perez formed a popular orquestra featuring local musicians. Ernest Perez performed in his brother's orquestra, led his own orquestra, and perfromed with other music groups.Alfonso Ramos was a saxophone player and lead singer known for his smooth voice and performance of boleros and ballads. Ruben Ramos played drums and sang with his brother's orquestra. Ruben established his own orquestra in the mid-1970's and has had an extremely successful career.Alfonso and Ruben Ramos were inducted into the Tejano Music Hall of Fame. Ruben is a multi-Grammy winner as a member of Los Super Seven, and as Ruben Ramos and The Mexican Revolution.

From Arguendo & Dixi's Daily Austin Photo

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Open Room Austin

From the City of Austin website:

AIPP commissioned artist team, Rosario Marquardt and Roberto Behar (of Miami, FL and collectively known as R&R Studios) to design and construct Open Room Austin, a permanent public art installation for the mound at Sand Beach Park, as part of the Pfluger Bridge Extension CIP Project.
Open Room Austin was conceived as a social sculpture, a place of encounters and stage for everyday life and stories to unfold. The artists' design is an al fresco room surrounded by trees, featuring a long table with a delicate lace tablecloth, benches, and four tree-like chandeliers. It invites visitors to have a conversation, a moment of repose, or to wait for a friend in a space reminiscent of home. Appearing at once real and fantastic, familiar and unprecendented, a slice of domesticity in a public park - the installation is intended to dissolve boundaries between fiction and reality and limits between art and life, suggesting a sense of personal ownership to everyone involved with the event.

From Arguendo & Dixi's Daily Austin Photo

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Desegregation of Texas Public Schools

This Texas Historical Marker is located in front of the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center. You can read about it's history here.

The State of Texas instituted a public school system for African-American students during reconstruction. This segregation of students was further established through the 1896 United States Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson, which established the legality of the doctrine, “separate but equal.” Desegregation of schools began after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954 that segregated schools were unconstitutional. By 1957, more than 100 Texas school districts had made progress toward desegregation. Throughout the proceeding decades, school districts integrated; in some cases, the Supreme Court provided desegregation plans. While many schools desegregated without incident, others experienced a difficult transition.

The method of desegregation varied from district to district. Some integrated one grade per year; others gave students “freedom of choice,” allowing them to select which high school they would attend. In the end, the movement led to the closing of most African-American schools across the state, including L.C. Anderson High School, a noted institution in Austin. Many of the former school buildings were demolished or left idle, while some were used for various community or educational programs, like Head Start. The closure of these schools affected many residents, since the institutions were often centers of pride for African-American communities. Many of the students from the schools became leaders in their communities, and on state and national levels.

Integration was a slow and often difficult process in Texas, as well as throughout the rest of the United States. Today, desegregation is remembered in Texas as a pivotal event in the civil rights movement, and as the end of the era for African-American schools.

From Arguendo & Dixi's Daily Austin Photo

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Go Forth

Go Forth, by Eddie Dixon, was created in cast bronze in 2005. According to the artist, Go Forth loosely represents a woman (Eternity) ushering forth her two children - a girl (Today) and a boy (Tomorrow).

From Arguendo & Dixi's Daily Austin Photo

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Sesquicentennial Mural

The Sesquicentennial Mural is located on the southern exterior wall of the George Washington Carver Branch Library at 1161 Angelina Street in Austin. This mural expresses a voyage through the discovery of Black identity. It depicts a community upon a vessel that embraces the African Diaspora from Pre-Columbian to present times. The artist's name is John Fisher.

From Arguendo & Dixi's Daily Austin Photo

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