Anyone who has visited Austin's Govalle neighborhood, especially among Springdale Road, can likely sense the artistic life bubbling around each corner. Now it's official: On June 5, 2025, Austin City Council voted to designate the new Govalle Cultural District.
According to city documentation, the district is bounded by 916, 979 and 900 Springdale Road, 3600 Lyons Road, and 3601 Govalle Avenue — in terms regular Austinites can envision, that's roughly the block where Boggy Creek meets Springdale, largely anchored by Canopy Austin and Springdale Station. The City Council vote means the district will now be a state-recognized entity.
By the Museum of Human Achievement's count in a July 8 press release, there are 250 artists, 70 creative businesses, and more cultural spaces enveloped by the district, including:
- The Museum of Human Achievement
- Canopy
- 979 Springdale
- Austin School of Film
- Motion Media Arts Center
- ICOSA Collective & Gallery
- Bike Texas
- Govalle Elementary School
The terminology may raise some locals' hackles regarding gentrification, but compare it to Austin's other cultural districts: Red River and Six Square. While the Red River Cultural District does entertain and draw hoards of people to music venues at night (and provides a more interesting alternative to the college student-ridden Sixth Street), this was the reason the area was significant in the first place; Six Square, on the other hand, is a large six-square-mile swath of land that mostly offers education on the Black communities who built Austin's east side.
In the newly created Govalle Cultural District, the focus is the intersection of the arts and the surrounding working-class community. According to the Museum of Human Achievement, a nonprofit that supports under-resourced local multi-disciplinary artists, the designation will help it and other neighborhood organizations keep creative spaces affordable, add arts programs in local public schools, and make the area more walkable.
The neighborhood's history and cultural identity will be documented through art, and free initiatives that the arts community already loves, such as First Saturdays and the East Austin Studio Tour, will continue to be hosted — a potential relief for some who mourned the studio tour's organizer Big Medium when it crumbled in February 2025 after nearly two decades in service due to a lack of funding.
"As one of Austin’s oldest working-class neighborhoods, Govalle stands as a powerful example of what’s possible when long-standing communities lead," says the release. "It’s a place where culture is not only preserved—it drives connection, creativity, and meaningful change."
“We believe artists and cultural workers are essential to the vitality of our economy and community, and we support their long-term ability to live and work in Govalle," said Museum of Human Achievement executive director Zac Traeger in the release.
"The recognition of the Govalle Cultural District and the rich cultural heritage of the neighborhood will help celebrate and preserve a long-standing hub for co-creation and community in East Austin," Traeger continued. "To insist on the importance of all our neighbors having access to artful lives and creativity is of the utmost importance in the context of local and national change. We believe that placing artists, educators and history at the table in all conversations is vital to recognizing the past and sustaining healthy and vibrant communities."
