Arts & Culture

14 Years and a Reversed Veto Later, Dog Advocates Get Their Animal Cruelty Law

byCristela Jones

A new Texas law requires drinking water for outdoor animals, prohibits the use of chain restraints and eliminates a 24-hour waiting period that kept animal control officers from addressing tethered animal situations immediately.

Austin Theater Groups Look to Post-Pandemic Future

byVeronica Apodaca

Live theater felt the effects of the pandemic deeply.

NFTs are leveling the playing field for Black artists. Here’s why.

byPamela Hall Vance

This new digital marketplace came into the public eye in the past year. It is now opening doors for Black artists in Central Texas who might have struggled to sell their work in traditional galleries and navigate an art world with museum collections that have been reported to be more than 85% white.

Archery Gaining Popularity in Central Texas

byZacharia E. Washington

People’s desire to provide their own meat and to get outside during the COVID-19 pandemic, combined with the influence of movies featuring archery and celebrities promoting the sport, fueled an increase in archery participation.

Dia de los Muertos Provides Opportunity to Celebrate, Educate

byTaryn Courville

The scenery is a burst of color. Lines of patterned flags blow in the wind and paper marigolds decorate altars and hair. Performers walk around covered in face paint, dressed in traditional Mexican dresses or Aztec costumes. The sound of mariachi, drums and shell embellished ankle cuffs fills the area. Attendees of the Dia de […]

Austin Veteran Arts Festival aims to reduce suicide through the arts

byLauren Girgis

Vietnam combat veteran Glenn Towery won a gold medal in 2014’s National Veterans Creative Arts Festival, an annual competition using creative arts as rehabilitative treatment to help veterans recover from and cope with disabilities. “When I came back, I felt so good,” Towery said. “And I thought, ‘Wow, I wish everybody could experience what I […]

Texas From Below: Texas Book Festival Panels Punctuate Climate, Immigration and More

byAustin Cheatham

Despite the disruption brought on by a pandemic now going on two years, this years’s Texas Book Festival allowed writers — virtually and literally – to display Texas’ diversity. During the Texas Institute of Letters panel, authors Christina Soontornvat, David Meischen and Marisol Cortez discussed their novels and the influence of their identities and Texan […]

Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Magical Realism

byCésar Pérez

The morning Gabriel Garcia Marquez received news of him winning the 1982 Nobel Prize in Literature, his son Rodrigo captured the moment in a black and white. Four decades later, the photograph hangs on a wall as part of an exhibition honoring his colorful work at the University of Texas at Austin Gabriel Garcia Marquez […]

Austin Muralists Explore ‘Works of Consequence’

byLauren Goodman

From the “I Love You So Much” script on the side of Jo’s Coffee on Congress Avenue to the “Greetings from Austin” postcard mural on South First Street, Austin’s most recognizable murals have become spots for newcomers and locals to photograph and post on their Instagram feeds. Throughout the past year, local Austin artists have […]

Forget the ‘Backseat’ ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­– Give Susannah Joffe the Steering Wheel

byTy Marsh

  Susannah Joffe is an artist just as down to earth as you expect someone raised in Austin to be. After a bit of digging for a contact number online and sending a long-winded text message asking to interview the Austin-based musician, I was surprised when Joffe herself responded, “Hi! Yes I’m super down.” After […]

K-pop Fans Find Community at UT and Other Local Campuses

byHailin Zhang

Dance crew ATX KDC, founded to promote South Korean pop culture through modern dance styles, serves as a local manifestation of K-pop, the music phenom sweeping across the globe with its formula of catchy and trendy songs, loyal fans and smart use of social media. The New York Times states that roughly 90 percent of […]

ACL Music Fest Marks Return of Major In-Person Events in Austin

byTara Phipps

“A lesson we’ve all learned is that change is constant. I think we all learned that during the pandemic. It felt like it was never going to end, but it did. Here we are.”