Recent arts coverage:
- Evolutionary biology. Aesthetic determinism. Live action role playing. The Rude Mechs are making a new play again
- Suburban battlefield: Women fight invisible foe in Amie Siegel’s ‘Black Moon’
- In eerie paintings by Ana Fernandez, a house isn’t just a house
More arts coverage | Follow this blog on Twitter @artsinaustin | Read recent arts reviews
Austin360 blogs > Austin Arts: Seeing Things > Archives > 2010 > April > 16 > Entry
One swallow + two curious curators =
Sometimes, it just takes a pair curious curators — and one symbolic swallow — to give Austin an intriguing art happenings and installations that will sprout across a spot of downtown Austin beginning next week.
Rachel Cook and Claire Ruud teamed up to organize the multi-part project called ‘One Swallow Doesn’t Make a Summer’ that will occupy sites around the Second Street District and Republic Square Park.
The title — and curatorial inspiration — comes from a speech given a decade ago by then Austin Mayor Kirk Watson. At the time, Austin was just beginning an aggressive chain of urban development that has since resulted in former warehouses and parking lots being replaced by sleek New Urbanism-style tree-lined streets and trendy shops and condos. And Austin even got a new architecturally adventurous City Hall.
But, as Watson cautioned years ago, “One swallow doesn’t make a summer, and not even a dozen [development] projects makes a great downtown.”
Of course now, after a burst of economic development brought an initial flood of high-end shops and hip restaurants, the current economic crisis has put a hold on all that growth and put the kibosh on lots of enterprises. Storefronts are now empty, condos remain un-bought and many high-rise projects have been nixed altogether, including a proposed new Austin Museum of Art that would have shared a prominent block to the south of Republic Square Park.
Downtown Austin is back to being pock-marked with open and empty buildings and spaces.
But thanks to Cook and Ruud — who have started their own curatorial initiative called, charmingly, Cook & Ruud — the next month or so will see some fresh creative art energy filling up those empty downtown spaces.
(Ruud is the longtime wrangler at indie arts space Fluent-Collab and the editor of online journal Might Be Good. Cook brings a long list of credits as a writer, curator and artist.)
Cook and Ruud intend for the installations and happenings to jump-start downtown denizens and everyone who visits downtown to re-consider the urban landscape and the arts within our new economic realities. S think about taking a lunchtime walking tour of the installations or hitting other events and happening.
It’s all a part of Art Alliance Austin’s Art Week Austin which starts next week. Click here for a schedule.
‘One Swallow Doesn’t Make a Summer’
April 20 - May 28
Installation locations: 210 Guadalupe, 416 W. Cesar Chavez St., 117 Lavaca St., 233 W. Second St. and Republic Square Parkmap
Curator’s walking tours at 12:30 p.m. Wednesdays and at 12:30 and 3 p.m. Saturdays through May. 26.
Preview Party
6:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday. All installation locations will be open.
‘The Album is Dead’
7 to 10 p.m. Tuesday
Republic Square Park
Artisit collective Circulatory System will bring its bus-as-exhibition-space and park it at Republic Square Park to present a new project by Austin’s Monofonus Press that features the videos of 12 artists from Austin and New York. Also on the performance art line-up: Michael Merck’s “Typewriter Chorus,” What’s Tappening and Doug Ferguson (of Over The Hill) with live projections by Austin Video Bee.
‘The Perfect Recipe: Bake Sale Tea Party’
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April 23
Republic Square Park
Remember that bumper sticker that reads ‘Wouldn’t it be great if our schools had all the money they need, and the Army had to hold a bake sale to buy a bomber?’ Well — perhaps appropriately given the funding crisis the arts face in the Great Recession — Paul Druecke’s project is a bake sale to raise money to endow three fellowship awards. The goal is to raise $1,000 that will then be invested back into the community through three fellowships that recognize individuals for their significant cultural contribution to Austin. Sweet.
‘Dust Storm (Night)’
8:30 p.m. Saturdays through May 22
416 W. Cesar Chavez St.
Jeff Williams transforms an empty 13,000-square-foot first floor space in the Silicon Labs building into a temporary self-contained dust storm. Viewers can watch the 30-minute event from the sidewalk outside. It’s a little piece of wild nature stuck inside an empty retail space.
Caption: Jeff Williams, ‘Dust Storm (Night),’ 2010. Dirt floor, objects found on-site, work lights, fans, blowers. Courtesy the artist.
‘One Swallow Doesn’t Make a Summer’ is organized by Cook & Ruud and Art Alliance Austin with the support of the 2ND Street District, AMLI, Downtown Austin Alliance, Downtown Austin Neighborhood Association, Fluent~Collaborative and Mike Chesser.
Comments
When commenting, we ask that you keep things civil and abide by our Visitor Agreement. To report comment abuse, click here.