Blanton Art Museum and Austin Central Library
[Austin, TX, Apr 28, 2026]
I had a little bit of free time during the day, so I decided to hop on over to the Blanton Art Museum. It was just a block over from the conference center and across the street from the Bullock Texas State History Museum, which I visited yesterday. I was surprised to learn that my admission was free. It turns out, the Blanton offers free admission every Tuesday!
My first stop was the Rapoport Atrium. Unveiled in 2009, the large, site-specific installation by Teresita Fernandez employs horizontal bands of acrylic that slowly fade from a deep, ink-like blue at the bottom to a crisp white at the top. The installation is designed to look and feel like a giant indoor pool.
The sculpture hanging directly overhead is Siphonophora, a monumental 2016 work by Thomas Glassford. The sculpture stretches over 40 feet tall and weighs nearly 2,000 pounds. It takes its name from the siphonophore, a deep-sea creature that appears to be a single organism but is actually a complex, floating colony of interdependent, specialized zooids. Glassford designed the suspended sculpture to serve as a metaphor for ecological survival, highlighting how individual parts of the natural world function together interdependently.
Next, I checked out the exhibit American Modernism from the Charles Butt Collection: From Edward Hopper to Alma Thomas. It presented 80 rarely seen paintings and drawings from the collection of businessman, philanthropist and Texas native Charles Butt.
I was delighted to see a couple of Georgia O’Keefes as part of the collection. The second one details the soft and sensual landscape that was part of an iconic series of works featuring the red and yellow cliffs behind O’Keefe’s home in Abiquiu, New Mexico.
The exhibit Run The Code: Data Driven Art felt very appropriate for my work and for the conference we were attending!
And here are some of my favorites as well as the paintings in highlighted in the museum’s brochure.
Once I was done with the galleries, I headed over to the stone structure flanking the patio. Completed in 2018, the 2700-sq-ft Austin by Ellsworth Kelly features luminous colored glass windows, a totemic wood sculpture and fourteen black and white marble panels. The colored glass windows let in the sunlight at very specific times of day. Sadly, I was there at the wrong time of day and the weather in Austin had been muggy and cloudy my whole time here, anyway.
In the early evening, we did a campus tour lead by our hosts at UT Austin. We zipped through the campus at quite a brisk pace, and I don’t have the flyer with info on each building any more, so I asked ChatGPT to give me some info on each of the sights I took a picture of. Here’s what stood out to me together with Chat’s descriptions.
The fountain was funded by George W. Littlefield, a university regent, banker and former Confederate officer. That history makes the site more complicated than its picturesque appearance suggests: the original memorial scheme was intended to include several Confederate figures, and UT has since reconsidered how those commemorations should be interpreted on campus.
Behind the fountain is Benedict Hall, one of the limestone-and-red-tile buildings framing the South Mall.
At approximately 50 feet tall, 52 feet wide and 41 feet deep, it resembles a metallic tree, an explosion or a frozen collision, depending on where you stand. The apparent disorder is carefully engineered: the sculpture is anchored deep into the ground and was designed in collaboration with structural engineer and UT alumnus Jamie Garza.
The plant was converted from coal to natural gas during the 1930s. UT subsequently developed its own district energy system, producing electricity along with steam and chilled water for heating, cooling, hot water and specialized research facilities across campus.
The “Watt” and “Edison” inscriptions on the building acknowledge two pivotal figures in the development of electricity: James Watt and Thomas Edison.
The stadium was originally known as Texas Memorial Stadium and was renamed in 1997 to honor legendary Longhorn football coach and athletic director Darrell K Royal.
From this angle, the exposed concrete seating structure and parking levels reveal the enormous functional machinery behind the spectacle of college football.
Its massive brick façade, three great arched windows and Romanesque-inspired decorative brickwork make it resemble a civic auditorium as much as a gym. Before UT’s larger modern arenas were built, Gregory Gym hosted major basketball games, university gatherings and other large events. Today, the substantially expanded complex remains a central recreational facility for students.
Amazingly, we still had energy left even after all this walking in the heat. Besides, we were determined to check out the Austin Central Library. Several conference attendees planned on utilizing its game room, but a few of us wanted to just check out the building itself.
Opened in 2017, Austin’s Central Library is a masterclass in modern, sustainable urban architecture. The building serves as the “living room for the city”, heavily prioritizing natural light, community spaces and environmental responsibility. The game room was one such community space. One could borrow a board game and play with friends at one of the many tables, or work on a puzzle!
The building’s core is a massive, six-story sun-drenched atrium. Floating staircases crisscross the atrium and create dynamic pathways that make moving through the building a visual experience.
The generous rooftop deck was the perfect place to lounge and read outside with views of the Colorado river and Lady Bird lake.
Now officially tired and hungry, we walked to Congress Ave until we found Velvet Taco, a low-key taco place. It was the perfect way to end this very busy day in Austin!
