Austin Museum To Create Dedicated Outdoor Space For Sound Art

AUSTIN, TX—The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin announced it will be the first major museum offering a long-term space dedicated to sound art, thanks to a $5 million gift from Ernest and Sarah Butler.

The Butler Sound Gallery on the museum campus will be designed as a park-like setting and will lead the large-scale revitalization of the grounds to be taken on by the international design firm Snøhetta. Completion for the new grounds initiative is slated for late 2022, and also includes a mural commission by Cuban-American artist Carmen Herrera and the Moody Patio, offering multiple performance spaces.

“Our new outdoor Butler Sound Gallery, which is an important part of the new grounds initiative on which we broke ground in March 2021, will change the way people encounter and experience the museum,” Simone Wicha, Director of the Blanton Museum of Art, said in a press release. “For me, it felt especially important to launch this project with an artist whose work will not only surprise us and help us see more clearly through sound, but also will create a time capsule that captures the beauty and wonder of our rapidly changing world. Longtime supporters Sarah and Ernest Butler immediately saw the importance of this project, and their generous $5 million gift was pivotal in creating this latest initiative.”

Bill Fontana and his Landscape Soundings (working title) will be showcased as the inaugural work at The Butler Sound Gallery, and the site-specific commission will use an immersive multi-channel Meyer sound system. The work is designed to transport the ecological zones of the Texas Hill Country to the heart of Austin, and audiences will enjoy an immersive experience, which Fontana describes as sound sculptures.

To learn more about the New Grounds Initiative, including news and updates on the development of The Butler Sound Gallery, click HERE.