Get documents about "Downtown Arts Master Plan
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OF AUS
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Downtown Report
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Downtown Arts Master Plan*
*AKA Civic Arts / Public Art Downtown Master Plan
Summary The City of Austin’s Cultural Arts Division of the Economic Growth and Redevelopment Services Office
(EGRSO) is facilitating a DOWNTOWN ARTS MASTER PLAN to provide a framework, guidelines and an
action plan for cultural vitality and public art that will contribute to creating a culturally dynamic downtown.
In so doing, civic arts and public art will enhance and enrich Austin’s downtown public spaces and attract
residents, businesses, and visitors to this area.
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Civic Arts / Public Art Downtown Master Plan Map of Project Area
The Downtown Arts Master Plan is collaboration between the Civic Arts and Art in Public Places. Citi Arts,
a Public Art Master Planning, Administration and Urban Planning firm from Charlotte, North Carolina,
is the consultant for the Downtown Arts Master Plan. The principal, Jennifer Murphy, has seventeen years
experience in the public art field including public art and urban design plans for airport facilities, rail transit
projects, cities, counties, regions, downtowns, streetscapes and large public spaces and buildings.
To help guide the development of the Plan the City has assembled a “Downtown Arts Master Plan Advisory
Group” made up of pertinent City staff, representatives from City of Austin Council-appointed Boards
and Commission, Downtown stakeholders, and individuals representing artists and design professionals, and
various other constituents.
As part of the process Citi Arts conducted site visits, made presentations to the Advisory Group and solicited
information to define the Austin nature and character, conducted a series of interviews, presented an artists’
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Downtown Arts Master Plan
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Summary roundtable where Citi Arts conducted another art/artists in the environment presentation and solicited their
continued suggestions, and facilitated a Design Charrette.
MAY 14, 2005 CHARRETTE: Citi Arts facilitated a charrette with participants from a variety of disciplines
and communities interested in the revitalization of Downtown Austin. The charrette included breakout
sessions focusing on specific downtown districts – their existing conditions, and ways of experiencing
downtown in order to provide recommendations for effective planning for the arts. The ideas from the
Charrette – recommendations for themes, cultural corridors, public art locations, and cultural vitality
strategies – informed the final recommendations of the Downtown Arts Master Plan.
Status The Draft Downtown Arts Master Plan is currently in staff review and will be brought forward for Advisory
Group, Commission & Board Review, and final Community review this summer 2006. A website with
frequently asked questions is being prepared with the eventual Downtown Arts Master Plan draft also put
on a website for public review.
Issues The EGRSO is the City of Austin department charged with “managing the City’s economic development
policies and programs and, promoting and facilitating sustainable growth in the Desired Development
Zone, in partnership with the community, project developers and the City of Austin organization in order
to enhance livability and economic viability in a manner that preserves the character of Austin and its
environment.” In the last few years there has been much discussion in the community and media concerning
the “loss of the Austin nature and character” during the redevelopment efforts occurring Downtown. In
response to this community concern and because a community’s distinctive nature and character is an
important identifying quality that can add a competitive advantage when people are looking to live in, work
in, and visit a particular city, the City initiated the “Austin Sense of Place and Cultural Identity” program in
2001. Its purpose has been “to enrich and enliven public spaces in the downtown area in order to attract
residents, businesses and visitors.” With the advent of the new Cultural Arts Division in EGRSO in March
2003 the Austin Sense of Place and Cultural Identity Program is recast as Civic Arts.
In May 2002 the City and Texas Commission on the Arts facilitated a community-wide civic dialogue of
artists, arts organizations, arts administrators, architects, developers, representatives from the tourist industry,
education, and funding sources to investigate ways to sustain and enrich Austin’s sense of place and cultural
identity, identify how the arts and artists can contribute to Austin’s distinct cultural expression in the
meanings, uses, and forms of the city, and to identify ways to support creative partnerships and collaborations.
The initial decision by the City to facilitate the development of the Plan came out of this joint effort.
Civic Dialogue proceedings: http://www.arts.state.tx.us/republic/ “Civic Dialogue: Civic Art & Design in
Downtown Austin” has been reported, since April 2002, in past issues of the Downtown Report.
The Art in Public Places (AIPP) Program joined EGRSO with the creation of a new Cultural Arts Division
in March 2003. For over a decade, the City of Austin AIPP Program has made it possible for talented
artists of local and national renown to enhance public spaces throughout the city with works of art ranging
from outdoor sculptures and murals to functional works integrated into architecture. Artists have successfully
incorporated traditions, objects, and physical marks of community members to create cultural landmarks that
have become cornerstones of community identity.
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Downtown Arts Master Plan
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Issues The City of Austin was the first municipality in Texas to make a commitment to include works of art in
continued construction projects when it established the AIPP program in 1985. In October 2002, the Austin City
Council revised the AIPP Ordinance, increasing public art allocations to 2% of the construction costs,
removing the $200,000 cap and including street and streetscape improvement projects to the already long
list of possible locations for public art that include the airport, convention center, libraries, parks, police
stations, and recreation centers.
The AIPP staff and Panel of local visual arts and design professionals work closely with project architects
and city department and community representatives to ensure that the AIPP Collection includes high quality
works of art that represent the broad range of media, styles, and cultural sensibilities that contribute to
Austin’s distinctive ambiance. Overview of the AIPP Program: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/aipp/
Description The Plan shall encompass the Downtown area bounded by Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. on the north, Lamar
Blvd. on the west, Riverside Drive/Barton Springs Road on the south, and, to the east, capturing both sides
of IH-35. In addition to this core area there are secondary district “fingers” on the west, south, and east to
capture areas that share a direct relationship to the Downtown. Some of these are major commercial corridors
into the Downtown that are part of separate planning activities. It is not the intentions of the City to have the
Plan override these activities but rather to bring these plans all together in one place. Separate activities could
be included as appendixes or, when appropriate, included in the planning process.
Basic Data Contacts: Janet Seibert, Project Manager, janet.seibert@ci.austin.tx.us), Civic Arts
Coordinator, City of Austin Cultural Arts Division / Economic Growth
and Redevelopment Services Office, (512) 974-7860
Megan Weiler, megan.weiler@ci.austin.tx.us), Art in Public Places
Administrator, City of Austin Cultural Arts Division / Economic
Growth and Redevelopment Services Office, (512) 974-9312
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