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Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2009 > April > 30 > Entry
Mexic-Arte wants to stay put, remodel
After asking Austin voters for $5 million in bond money for a new facility at a new location, Mexic-Arte Museum leaders now say they want to remain at their Congress Avenue site and improve the building they had decided to demolish.
In 2006, Mexic-Arte received $5 million as part of a voter-approved $567.4 million bond package. The money was earmarked to help build a $25 million museum on the city-owned Mexican American Cultural Center campus.
But now, museum leaders say a combination of the economic downturn plus a desire to stay at its highly visible downtown location at Fifth Street and Congress Avenue has led them to decide to stay put and consider a more modest plan to remodel their three-story building.
The museum seeks an agreement that would have the city lease the museum long-term and then re-lease it back to the museum. The city struck a similar agreement with the State Theatre, now managed by the Austin Theatre Alliance, which received $1.9 million in city bond money to help remodel the venue at 719 Congress Ave. (The State ceased operations in 2006 after a water main break flooded the stage and basement.)
If the council approves Mexic-Arte’s plan to stay put, the museum would be the second major arts venue to refurbish its Congress Avenue home. The contemporary arts organization Arthouse is about to begin work on a $6.6 million major renovation of its building at 700 Congress Avenue. The Arthouse project is being paid for entirely with private money. Arthouse bought its building, once a theater and then later a department store, with donations in 1997.
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