Hope Outdoor Gallery

October 5, 2018











Hope Outdoor Gallery

One of my favorite annual trips that I take almost every year is to the wonderful city of Austin, Texas where I attend the amazing Austin City Limits Music Festival which is one of my most favorite of the many such festivals that we attend. Although it is huge in scope, it feels very intimate, especially with the VIP passes that we always get. But perhaps the best part about the festival is its location in what is still one of the coolest cities in the United States, Austin.









Each year, I try to take extra time to explore this amazing and fun city and to experience as much as I can of the place in addition to the activities that take place around the festival itself. This year, I ended up traveling on my own to Austin as Kathy is still at our house out in Colorado and my usual traveling companions Chris and Livi had a family commitment which precluded their attendance this year. Thankfully there are quite a few transplanted Key Westers living in Austin and there is plenty to keep me busy.











My very first stop upon arriving was my annual visit to one of the coolest spots in Austin, the Hope Outdoor Gallery at the corner of 11^th and Baylor Streets in downtown Austin. This incredible spot is an actual paint park where graffiti artwork is not only allowed, but encouraged. Managed by a non-profit as a paint park and was officially launched in March 2011 with the help of contemporary artist Shepard Fairey.











It is the only paint park of its kind in the USA and was developed to provide muralists, street artists, arts education classes and community groups the opportunity to display large scale art pieces driven by inspirational, positive & educational messaging. The art is constantly changing and evolving as artists just paint right over previous installations and seem to be constantly working.









Both amateur and professional graffiti artists participate and it is open to anyone with a vision and a can of spray paint. The Hope Events group that manages the property asks that people pre-register before creating graffiti, but it does not seem that a lot of people are doing that, as it seems more like a free for all, but whatever happens it all turns out pretty cool.











In the mid-1980s, a failed building attempt left the Baylor Street hillside studded with copious slabs of blank cement. Soon, graffiti artists from all over the city began spraying and tagging there, nicknaming it “The Foundation.” This drew the attention of HOPE, a nonprofit production group that connects creative people with various social causes. With the permission of the property-owners, HOPE removed decades of weeds and debris, and rechristened the space. In 2011, they opened to the public for spraying and mural-painting.









On any given day, hundreds of people now clamber around the slabs, gazing at other people’s work or making their own. The gallery has hosted concerts, music video shoots, and countless selfies. For years, the property owners paid taxes on the land in order to support this free art space.









The sad news is that the clock is ticking on this cool spot and all good things must come to an end. Last year, the hill that the gallery sits on was sold to a developer, who plans to build condos on the site. HOPE is opening a new space about 10 miles to the southeast, and the original slabs will be demolished by spring of 2019, taking innumerable layers of paint with them.









Hopefully the new site will provide just as cool opportunities, but for the time being I am glad that I was able to make one last visit to this current site.







http://hopecampaign.org/hopeprojects/hope-outdoor-gallery/