Outstanding in their field

Austin's Wildflower Center blooms with mesmerizing 16-acre light art installation

28,000 glowing “flowers” will bloom at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center this fall.

Photo by Bruce Munro

UPDATE: Field of Light tickets are now on sale as of July 19.

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Of the many great things that come with living in Austin, wildflowers are perhaps the grandest, and without any cost beyond preservation. All of Texas appreciates these blooms, and the city’s Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at the University of Texas serves at the state’s official botanical garden and arboretum.

This fall, an expansive art installation will unfurl itself across the Wildflower Center’s landscape. The work is so fit for Austin, it’s almost surprising it’s already an international art piece.

On September 9, 28,000 glowing “flowers” will bloom across 16 acres as the Field of Light, produced in collaboration with C3 Presents, comes to life. Like all flowers, they get their energy from the sun, but instead of growing, the little fiber-optic bulbs emit colored light while swaying in the breeze. Photos of previous installations show rolling hills covered in these flowers, which look like real dandelions at a glance during the day and become an ethereal display of faux-bioluminescence once the sun goes down.

Closer up, the stems’ origins become clearer: Tubes drape across the ground connecting each to a power source, borrowing the birds eye effect of seeing city centers from an airplane. Color groupings resemble real wildflowers, which tend to grow in patches. Although the effect is mostly about the wider views, it’s a technological marvel that is exciting up-close, and meant to inspire emotion and a feeling of “shared existence, and of being part of life’s essential pattern,” according to project materials.

“Austin is such a unique destination that embodies many of the core values of this installation,” says the artist, Bruce Munro, on the site-specific website. “My hope is that the Field of Light installation will inspire visitors to contemplate a kinder and more connected world. The Wildflower Center is the ideal venue for this exhibition simply because it brings people, art, and nature together.“

Munro, a London-born artist with 30 years of experience, was inspired to build Field of Light in 1992 while visiting Uluru, or Ayers Rock, in Australia. He notes in his personal timeline that it would “bloom at night like dormant desert seeds responding to rain.” By 2003, Munro was experimenting in his yard, executing a commission in a department store window display, and finally developing the first iteration of the full project at Victoria & Albert Museum’s Pirelli Garden in London.

Since then, Munro has shown the installation elsewhere in England, Scotland, Mexico, its original Australian inspiration at Uluru, and more. It even made a stop in Houston at Discovery Green in 2014 and 2015. This particular iteration contained 4,500 stems and took 200 hours to install, reported CultureMap Houston. It’s particularly well-known in Paso Robles, California, which offers the largest and most recent work in the series until now, at 15 acres and 58,800 flowers. This is where C3 Presents initially learned of the artwork, and recognized its innate potential Austin-ness.

Tickets for the Austin installation — open from September 9 through December 2022 — go on sale in July, with a portion of proceeds going to the Wildflower Center. For more information, visit fieldoflightaustin.com.

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New

Historic Austin museum will close for more than a year for restoration

Photo courtesy of the City of Austin

The Elisabet Ney Museum will close at the end of 2024 and reopen in mid-2026.

Every building needs some maintenance here or there, and the historic Elisabet Ney Museum needs some extra-special care. Formerly the art studio and residence of its namesake, it's been standing since 1892. It'll spend 2025 in relative solitude, as it undergoes renovation for a year and a half with no visitors allowed.

The museum will close to the public December 30, 2024, and open again in the summer of 2026 if all goes according to plan, a news release from the City of Austin shares. It'll be a quiet period compared to the 21,000 people visiting from around the world each year.

According to a museum overview on the city's website, Elisabet Ney, a European portrait sculptor, bought the property and called her new studio Formosa. She worked on sculptures depicting important Texans like Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston, and collected works of European contemporaries.

The building at 304 East 44th St. includes 3,700 square feet of museum space, which was converted by Ney's friends after her death in 1907. It retains its unique look that juxtaposes a Neo-Classical main studio from 1892 with a later addition from 1902 including a tower for her husband, Edmund, to write in. It is also on 2.5 acres of land, which has largely been restored to its natural state with native species.

A press release lists these tasks (verbatim) within the scope of the new work, referred to as the Capital Improvement Project (CIP):

Restoration of original exterior wood doors and windows
Upgrades and replacement of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system
Replacement of the exhibit and general lighting systems
Repairs to the roof, masonry, plumbing, and interior finishes.

There will also be work to do outside of the building. Workers will replace the pedestrian bridge across Waller Creek, stabilize a 20,000-square-foot portion of the bank, and make the grounds more accessible by adding new pathways.

Funding comes from several sources, according to a release: "the 2012 Bond, Proposition 14, the Parkland Dedication Fund, the Historic Preservation Fund, Partners in Preservation through the National Trust, and contributions from the Friends of the Elisabet Ney Museum."

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