Arts + Culture
The Ann and Roy Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail is an important and unique place in the heart of downtown Austin. Due to its natural aesthetic, proximity to the lake in an urban setting, and what it offers the community, it has become a highly personal and beloved space to its users.
In 2022, The Trail Conservancy (TTC) partnered with the Austin Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) and the City of Austin Art in Public Places (AIPP) program to create an Arts + Culture Plan for the Butler Trail that would contribute to the space and elevate the user experience, while not overwhelming, distracting, or complicating the environment.Â
TEMPO is a temporary art exhibition on the Butler Hike-and-Bike Trail that is intended to cultivate curiosity, spark imagination, and encourage exploration of the city of Austin. TEMPO on the Trail is a partnership between The Trail Conservancy and The City of Austin’s Art in Public Places (AIPP).
Community Outcomes
Acknowledge historical and ongoing inequities that have shaped access to and ideas about public space, open space, and sustainability in Austin.
Promote healing relationships – for communities, individuals, and the land.
Create new meanings for users and expand Austin’s collective memory about the Trail.
Expand people’s connection to the Trail; broaden and deepen the constituency that uses the Trail and sustains it.
Artistic Outcomes
Cultivate a process that allows creation and placement of site-specific art that challenges artists and offers Trail users fresh experiences – environmental, historical, cultural.
Create a sense of place through the cultivation of environmental awareness and the expression of environmental consciousness.
Embrace the connection of the Trail to the world around it – community, city, watershed, ecosystem.
WaterWork
WaterWork, an immersive art experience by The Trail Conservancy and Design Austin, is a first-of-its-kind projection that celebrates the dynamic between the urban environment and the natural landscape and the many talents of Austin’s creative community.
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Fortlandia Wisteria
Like the branchy tunnel at ground level between azalea bushes and a fence line or the circular void around a gnarled trunk found within a freestanding wisteria bush, Wisteria proposes a surprise destination and whimsical hideout.
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The Current Underneath
Installed inside the Seaholm Water Intake Facility, this work activated one of the building's underground concrete chambers by designing slowly evolving laser-light elements that could be viewed from above and emitted outward from the chamber above the viewer’s heads.
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Fortlandia Phoenix Trail
Phoenix Trail is a dynamic fort installation that celebrates regeneration and nature’s resiliency. Inspired by the prescribed burns in the Hill Country Trails area of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, Phoenix Trail is about rising from the ashes and starting anew.
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Common Waters
Common Waters highlights the beauty and importance of Lady Bird Lake, the heart and common connector behind the Austin community. Artists Rejina Thomas, Ruben Esquivel, and Taylor Davis designed, fabricated, and installed a 10’ x 15’ floating wetland on Lady Bird Lake.Â
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Fortlandia Star Dome
Star Dome is a large 5-pointed Lone Star, laid over a hemispheric dome. In maps, a star denotes a capital, and Star Dome becomes a visual representation of where the viewer is placed: Austin, TX, the capital of the state.
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Fortlandia Territories
Territories aims to tap into play as the discovery of place, material, and potential creations by establishing a series of strategic shelters or territories, which can be continually defined and redefined by the interaction of its occupants.
View ArtThe Trail Conservancy convened a Community Brain Trust to advise the Art + Culture Plan. This group, created just for the planning process, worked alongside standing TTC committees that guide arts and culture activities, ecological planning, and project planning. Reflecting various interests of Austinites, the Brain Trust was a committed mix of neighbors, Trail users, equity advocates, cultural anchors, and business and community leaders from districts along the Trail and beyond. The purpose of the Brain Trust was to help shape the engagement strategy in a way that resonates with the Trail’s communities, and to educate the team on the cultural, social, and environmental context of the Trail from a diversity of perspectives.
The Trail Conservancy, in partnership with the Austin Parks and Recreation, will announce community engagement events where new information and updates will be presented to the community.
The Trail Conservancy, in partnership with Austin Parks and Recreation, is always looking for community involvement in projects on the Trail. If you’re interested in being a part of this Program, please contact Caitlin Young at caitlin@thetrailconservancy.org.
