Big Medium, creator of the Austin studio tour, goes dark after 22 years
By Shunya Carroll
Photography By Shunya Carroll
Reporting Texas
An Austin arts institution, Big Medium started with the East Austin Studio Tour; a discarded sign sits outside its former South Congress building.
The future of the Austin studio tour is uncertain after the event’s founder and organizer, the arts nonprofit Big Medium, announced its closure last week.
“The gaps are massive,” said Shea Little, a founding member of Big Medium. “There are a lot of artists, a lot of creativity, but not a lot of opportunities for those artists to be seen.”
The Austin studio tours, begun in 2003, had helped artists and audiences find each other, drawing thousands to artists’ work studios and galleries over a couple of weekends each year. After years of success, founders Little, Joseph Phillips and Jana Swec merged to create Big Medium, the art nonprofit umbrella encompassing numerous projects that supported contemporary artists in Texas.
But Big Medium announced Feb. 22 it would close down, citing financial struggles.
“This has not been an easy choice, but it comes after many years of financial hardships and tireless efforts to renew and rebuild Big Medium with limited resources.” the organization said in a statement on its website. “Over the past few years, Big Medium has faced an increasingly difficult financial landscape. Major sponsors, including the City of Austin, have redirected their funding priorities, leaving significant gaps in our budget.”
Its flagship program, the Austin Studio Tour, invited the public to over 450 artists’ studios last year.
“You can come see where the art is being made. Where it happens, as it happens,” Little said.
According to their website, the studio tour had generated more than $1 million each year in direct sales for artists. The art nonprofit said the tour “will continue in some form or fashion” but did not respond to emails about its future.
GD Wright of Good Dad Studios is adamant that the studio tour event will not disappear.
“It’s a hallmark for the year for a lot of artists in Austin,” Wright said. “Most studios are only open for just that event. It’s validating their quest as artists and is too important to artists for it to go away.”
The Austin studio tours initially focused on East Austin. Little said it was important to celebrate the art being made there because of Austin’s racial divide and the area’s burgeoning arts scene. Many studios were close enough for Big Medium to create walking and bike routes for the tour.
The tour expanded to reach outside of the East Austin neighborhood, and Big Medium provided other opportunities to artists through the 2024 Texas Biennial, Tito’s annual art prize (sponsored by Tito’s Handmade Vodka), LINE Hotel residency and rotating art exhibitions. Texas Biennial will continue to operate under former Big Medium’s artistic and creative director, Coka Trevino, while It’s unclear if the Tito’s art prize or the LINE Hotel residency program will continue through other avenues.
LINE residency artist Love Muwwakkil said she hopes programs like the residency and Tito’s art prize will continue. The LINE Hotel declined to comment.
Trevino curated exhibitions that showcased Texas artists, while also bringing in artists from places like New York and Mexico for external points of view.
“We made the gap between commercial galleries and museums a lot smaller,” Trevino said. Big Medium, she said, “was for emerging artists who did important and interesting work. Having a show with us gave them more experience to then be able to work with a museum.”
Artist Hailey Gearo said the studio tours helped her find collectors and connect with new audiences.
Artist Bill Tavis began participating as part of a group through MakeATX in 2017 and again this past year with his own studio, and said he was disappointed when he saw the news via Instagram. “I began going to the studio tours in 2013,” Tavis said. “It was a good way to see the different art people were making and see what there was in the city.”