EAST mural by Briar Bonifacio
East Austin’s Studio Tour 2010 (East 9)
EAST stands for East Austin Studio Tour. Perfectly timed with the beautiful fall weather in Texas, EAST 9 amped up for its 7th year with over 150 stops to local artist studios and cooperating exhibition spaces. There were 28 art venues collaborating to make this years tour better than ever!
Hannah Roberts, EASTs Program Associate, reflects on this years progress, “EAST 9 has been a huge success. The tour began 7 years ago with only 28 studios, and now we have over 150 stops, including exhibition spaces and creative happenings.” Creative happenings like “Cocktails and Canvas” at the Takoba Lounge, or the “Payphone Revival Project,” which repurposed six abandoned payphone booths throughout the city to create “site-specific art interventions.” Sound interesting? Visit: www.payphonerevival.com.
El Grupo! Payphone
On November 6th EAST held “Cats and Dogs,” a party for “friends of EAST” at Big Medium. Catalogues and El Grupo! Payphonehot dogs abounded””tees were screened, soccer was played, and some artists were making drawings on the spot. Steven Garcia, one of the artists at there for “Cats and Dogs,” gave me a drawing of a bat, which was the highlight of my evening!
Drawing by Steven Garcia
Last Thursdays event, November 18th, was Pecha Kucha Night Austin””a “controlled creative convergence of Austin artist, designer and architects who showcase their work in format: twenty images, twenty seconds per image” (as per EASTs website). This event is a part of a global network of venues in 300 cities that perform Pecha Kucha Night, which originated in Tokyo.
EASTs line-up of events continued through November 21st with more parties, happenings, and open studios than one person can count on all of her fingers and toes! EAST really went all out this year, and the community responded favorably!
“The Austin art community is expanding,” says Roberts, “but, what puts a smile on my face is our growing audience, and when I overhear people saying, “˜Wow! I never knew there were so many artists here, or, “˜Events like this make me love Austin.”
People got out and toured studios together, customizing their journey via EASTs very hip and very well-designed website www.eastaustinstudiotour.com. The community of Austin truly came together for EAST. And, for Roberts, “Thats what its all about; EAST bridges the gap between artists and the greater community.”