Inside Arts

• Boston has one. And so does Danbury, Conn.; Williamsburg, Va.; Grand Forks, N.D. and Auckland, New Zealand.

Now Austin is getting its very own First Night, a family-friendly and alcohol-free -- and with the new smoking ordinance, one would presume smoke-free -- New Year's Eve public arts celebration that aims to transform downtown plazas, parks, streets, storefronts and building facades into one grand ongoing arts-o-rama.

The concept of First Night Austin started in Boston in 1976 when some folks thought up the idea of having an alcohol-free citywide celebration of the arts on New Year's Eve -- a creative alternative to the usual drunken revelry. Now, about 1 million people turn out in for the Boston First Night and the tradition has spread to some 200 cities around the world.

First Night Austin is a dream come true for Anne Elizabeth Wynn, who has been chatting up such an event for a while. Wynn is joined by Austin Art in Public Places panelist and Boston First Night co-producer Ann S. Graham and Tina R. Fisher, who has experience with developing festival marketplaces and special events.

Come Dec. 31, First Night Austin will include an afternoon family festival, a procession down Congress Avenue and Second Street to City Hall, a full evening of arts programming and a big midnight finale. It will even spread over the First Street bridge to Auditorium Shores.

But to make all that happen, the First Night Austin folks need artists. Proposals are being accepted for all types of visual and performing arts projects. All artists will be paid for their work and will have the option of working independently, in partnership with other artists or in concert with a community group.

For more information see see www.firstnightaustin.org/involved/artist.htm or call 476-5577. All proposals are due July 1. Artists will be notified Aug. 29. -- Jeanne Claire van Ryzin

• Opera techies go union: The National Labor Relations Board has certified the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 205 as the exclusive bargaining agent for Austin Lyric Opera stage employees and shop employees. IATSE Local 205 was established in Austin in 1911 to represent stage employees, projectionists and theater technicians. An issue for the ALO employees is wage parity. Currently the wardrobe employees -- predominantly female workers whose job it is to dress the performers and build and maintain costumes -- make dollars less an hour on average than the mostly male stagehands working in the other areas of scenery, props, lighting and audio. Contributions to the Union health plan is also on the workers' collective bargaining agenda. -- J.C.v.R.

• C. Denby Swanson's play "Death of a Cat," which had its premiere last year with Salvage Vanguard Theatre, has been selected for inclusion in The Lark Play Development Center's Playwrights Week in New York. A laboratory for new voices and new ideas, the Lark Play Development Center provides American and international playwrights with resources to develop their work. "Death of a Cat" has also been nominated for David Mark Cohen New Play Award in this year's Austin Critics' Table Awards, the complete list of which is in this issue. -- J.C.v.R.

• American Style magazine, a bimonthly arts and crafts magazine, has named Austin as No. 8 on its annual Top 25 Arts Destinations readers poll. New York, not surprisingly, ranked number one, but Austin bested both Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston, which came in at 13 and 17, respectively. The mag cited the Blanton Museum of Art, the Austin Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte Museum, Arthouse and Umlauf Sculpture Garden as highlights. They also reminded readers not to miss the ever-lovely Elisabet Ney Museum. -- J.C.v.R.