Cows Come Home

Update: World famous CowParade arrives in Austin

Photo by Jessica Pages
Photo by Jessica Pages

Austin's 2011 World Famous CowParade Austin herd is growing. Thursday morning, 25 more "art cows" will be milling about in our fair city. "Once in Blue Moo" will arrive at The Bob Bullock Texas History Museum, "Happy People" wanders to ABIA, "Cowjunto Music" will stand at Mexi-Carte Museum, "Night Mooves" goes to the Dell Jewish Community Center, "Tacow" will stand at Garrido's — these and 20 others will arrive overnight, joining their 25 friends already hanging out around town.

The herd will stay in place until being put up for auction October 30th at the Driskill. Proceeds of that auction will benefit the SuperHero Kids Fund of the Children’s Blood Disorder and Cancer Center at Dell Children’s Medical Center.

Editors Note — this updates a story we first published in July. Now back to our story...

First we got giant guitars, now Austin gets cows. Lots of them.

Wednesday, the 2011 CowParade revealed the first of 100 new "art cows" to be installed around the city later this month.

It's the first time this internationally recognized public art event arrives in Austin, joining an elite list of 75 cities in 30 countries benefitting from the philanthropically based sculptures.

Over 5,000 cows have been commissioned by global artists already and half a billion people have witnessed them worldwide.

CowParade takes their cows seriously, and who doesn't love cows? "Cows are a worldwide phenomenon that everyone can appreciate. Children recognize them immediately for their shape and size," said CowParade organizer Ron Fox at the unveiling. "Plus, their bodies make great canvases for artistic expression," he said without a hint of satirical humor.

A public unveiling of Austin's CowParade is set at 8:00pm on July 27 on the veranda of the Long Center for the Performing Arts. Afterward, the 100-lb. fiberglass cows will be set loose in public and private locations throughout Austin.

Like the 2006 Austin GuitarTown Project, these cows will be put up for auction at the Driskill Hotel in mid-October. It will likely be a lot less smelly than most cow auctions in Texas.

CowParade usually turns the auction proceeds over to children's charities and children's hospitals. This year, proceeds for the auctioned art bovines will go to a Dell Children's Medical Center fund called "Superhero Kids" benefitting the Children's Blood and Cancer Center of Central Texas.

True to Austin's nature, CowParade is getting a technological boost as well.

Local social media consultants 44Doors are installing QR codes onto each of the cows so smart phone users can learn more about each cow they encounter. And local social commerce consultants Bazaarvoice are enriching the CowParade website with artist, viewer and partner stories.

To learn more about CowParade, visit their website or follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

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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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Cows Come Home

Update: World famous CowParade arrives in Austin

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

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