There’s art all around you. Have a look.
Austin’s art museum didn’t always look like an art museum—at least not from the outside. But in May 2023, the Blanton unveiled its revitalized grounds, a transformative architectural and landscape renovation project envisioned by director Simone Wicha to unify the area around the Blanton’s two buildings and Austin by Ellsworth Kelly. UT alumni Craig Dykers, Elaine Molinar, and John Newman from acclaimed international design firm Snøhetta led the project.
Museumgoers are immersed in the artistic spirit of the Blanton the moment they step onto the grounds—from the colorful murals and elegant shade “petals” stretching into the big Texas sky, to the bright yellow entrances to the gallery building and Check-In building.
Learn more about the architecture and large-scale art below.
The new grounds are sophisticated and artful, but not aloof or intimidating, as many museum spaces can be. The sense of informality connects to Austin’s overall vibe.”
The New York Times
![The Blanton grounds with a view of the Michener Gallery Building and Carmen Herrera’s mural, Verde, que te quiero verde [Green, How I Want You Green].](https://blantonmuseum.org.staging3.juiceboxint.com/app/uploads/2024/11/Blanton-Grounds-Slideshow-1-921x700.jpg)
The Blanton grounds with a view of the Michener Gallery Building and Carmen Herrera’s mural, Verde, que te quiero verde [Green, How I Want You Green]. Photo by Casey Dunn.
The Blanton’s grounds with a view of the petals and native landscaping. Photo by Casey Dunn.
The Blanton’s Moody Patio and Check-In. Photo by Casey Dunn.
![Visitors on the Blanton grounds with the petals and native landscaping, with views of Austin by Ellsworth Kelly to the north, the Smith Building (Check-In) to the west, and the Michener Gallery Building to the east with Verde, que te quiero verde [Green, How I Want You Green] by Carmen Herrera.](https://blantonmuseum.org.staging3.juiceboxint.com/app/uploads/2024/11/Blanton-Grounds-Slideshow-5-935x700.jpg)
Visitors on the Blanton grounds with the petals and native landscaping, with views of Austin by Ellsworth Kelly to the north, the Smith Building (Check-In) to the west, and the Michener Gallery Building to the east with Verde, que te quiero verde [Green, How I Want You Green] by Carmen Herrera. Photo by Casey Dunn.
Immersive Art Installations
Verde que te quiero verde (Green How I Want You Green) by Carmen Herrera
As you walk toward the entrance of the Michener Gallery Building, you’re greeted by a green-and-white mural by renowned Cuban-American abstract painter Carmen Herrera. The title, Verde que te quiero verde, translates to Green How I Want You Green, and comes from the poem Romance sonámbulo by Federico García Lorca. The visual forms in the Blanton’s site-specific mural –– and Herrera’s first public mural commission –– reference her 1956 painting titled Green and White.
Born in Havana in 1915, Herrera sold her first painting in 2004, when she was 89 years old. “There’s a saying that you wait for the bus and it will come,” she said recently. “I waited almost a hundred years!” This first sale began a shift in her career. She was soon recognized as one of the greatest undiscovered secrets in the history of Cuban art, and increasingly gained the spotlight after her retrospective exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art in 2016-17.
“It is an honor that my first major public mural commission will be with the Blanton Museum of Art, an institution that I have admired and respected for decades. As a museum that has long been at the forefront of collecting work by artists of Latin American descent, as well as the place where Ellsworth Kelly realized his last great work of art, entering the collection at this moment marks a high point in my long career.”
Carmen Herrera, 1915–2023
Herrera studied architecture at the University of Havana in the late 1930s, then lived and worked in Paris from 1948 to 1954 before settling in New York. While in Paris, she was part of a group of abstract painters who exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. This was the important post-war Parisian movement that followed earlier geometric abstract art styles, including De Stijl, Constructivism, and Concrete Art from the 1910s. Herrera exhibited there from 1949 to 1952, and recalls about an encounter at the Salon: “One of the founders of the group said to me, ‘Madame, but you know you have so many things in that painting,’ and I felt very good about the compliment. But then I realized that he was trying to tell me that I was putting too much in the painting.”
Herrera’s early experiences led her to simplify and refine her art, incorporating the straight lines and sharp angles of her architectural background. This change marked a turning point in her work. Her White and Green series, created between 1959 and 1971, emerged from this process. In this series, Herrera started using large areas of single colors divided by angular shapes, a style she became known for. She also began painting the frames, treating the entire canvas as a three-dimensional object, which hinted at her later sculptural works called Estructuras (Structures) from the mid-1960s. Green and White, the 1956 painting that inspired the Blanton’s mural, was one of her early experiments with a simplified geometric style, featuring dynamic white angles on an entirely green canvas. Repeated across the museum’s signature arch-lined exterior, it energizes the space and honors Herrera’s lasting impact on geometric abstraction in Havana, New York, and beyond.
Butler Sound Gallery
At the completion of its grounds revitalization project in 2023, the Blanton became the first major museum to create a long-term space dedicated to sound art, thanks to a $5 million gift from Ernest and Sarah Butler. The park-like area just north of the Michener Gallery Building provides an inviting outdoor space that furthers the museum’s goal of bringing art beyond its building walls and into public areas.
While enjoying this natural space, visitors can experience the outdoor gallery’s first site-specific installation, Landscape Soundings by sound art pioneer Bill Fontana. The work features recordings of Central Texas’ wildlife and distinct geological structures taken over the course of four seasons, ultimately transporting the ecological zones of the Texas Hill Country to the heart of Austin.
Since the early 70s, Fontana has used sound as a sculptural medium to interact with and transform our perceptions of visual and architectural spaces. The artist notes that his works “use the human and/or natural environment as a living source of musical information. I am assuming that at any given moment there will be something meaningful to hear and that music, in the sense of coherent sound patterns, is a process that is going on constantly. My methodology has been to create networks of simultaneous listening points that relay real time acoustic data to a common listening zone (sculpture site). Since 1976 I have called these works sound sculptures.”
He has realized sound sculptures and radio projects for museums and broadcast organizations around the world; his work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum of American Art; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Tate Modern and Tate Britain, London; and the 48th Venice Biennale.
The Butler Sound Gallery gift includes an endowment for future site-specific sound art installations for the gallery, ensuring that visitors will experience a dynamic program for many years to come.
Plexus No. 44 by Gabriel Dawe
The thread-based artwork in the Check-In lobby of the Blanton’s Smith Building welcomes visitors with an immersive experience of light and color. As you look up at the artwork, part of Dawe’s Plexus series, move around and notice how its threads and colors interact, creating the illusion of ever-shifting motion.
Similar works by the artist have been installed at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art, the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery.
Dawe explains that the color gradient of his Plexus installations “alludes to a symbolic quest to materialize light, to give it density, so that I can offer the viewer an approximation of things otherwise inaccessible to us—a glimmer of hope that brings us closer to the transcendent.”
HI by Kay Rosen
The colorful billboard-sized mural that greets visitors emerging from the Brazos Garage playfully invites them to consider the unexpected possibilities that can exist in common speech. Rosen, who hails from Corpus Christi, Texas, has been exploring how to turn language into art since 1968.
She moved from studying languages in school to creating art with words, using different forms like paintings, drawings, murals, prints, collages, and videos. She plays with the size, color, materials, design, and typography of words to create new meanings from everyday language.
Rosen has been the recipient of awards that include a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2017 and three National Endowment for the Arts Visual Arts Grants. Her work is included in many institutional and private collections. Rosen taught at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago for 24 years and currently lives in New York City and Gary, Indiana.
Architectural & Landscape Features
At the heart of this project is a large gathering space spanning the area between the museum’s two main buildings and the plaza of Austin by Ellsworth Kelly. The Moody Patio is named in honor of the Moody Foundation’s $20 million gift to the museum that was announced in early 2019. It encompasses two adjacent stages for performances and includes new landscaping, a lawn, and a variety of seating areas. The new stages amplify the Blanton’s popular and innovative music programming, along with other performances and programming such as our Blanton All Day series.
Visitors coming from the Texas Capitol Complex or walking along Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. enter the Blanton grounds via the wide and welcoming steps of the new Larry and Mary Ann Faulkner Gateway. With the Texas State Capitol to the south and Austin by Ellsworth Kelly to the north, this entry point provides a distinctive bridge between the city and The University of Texas at Austin.
Three stories tall, 12 eye-catching “petals” shade the Moody Patio and the Museum Drop-Off. Look up to see hundreds of perforations in each structure. Look down (on sunny days) to see the dappled shadows they cast. Cool fact: rain falling into the petal funnels is routed to an underground collection system.
The Lone Star State is home to a wide variety of trees, bushes, flowers, and grasses that are both beautiful and hardy, and the landscaping for the new grounds initiative draws on the unique character and resilience of native Texas flora. Throughout the museum walkways and gardens, more than 25,000 new plants have been added, 95% of which are native to the state. You can learn about a few of the landscaping highlights below.
Heritage and Shade Trees
Whether you’re arriving from the Brazos Garage or strolling down MLK Jr. Blvd., you’ll get to enjoy a variety of trees providing both visual interest and shade from the bright Texas sun. The new pathway from the garage to the museum entrances take you through a grove of long-standing heritage trees (trees with trunk diameters exceeding 24 inches), including several stately southern live oaks. Coming up the stairs of the Faulkner Gateway, smaller ornamental trees and plantings greet you. Similar landscaping will enhance and shade the outdoor café seating, as well.
Native Plants
Wherever you wander throughout the new Blanton grounds, you’ll enjoy plantings and small gardens filled with native species. Among them: dwarf palmetto, Texas gold columbine, and Cherokee sedge.
SITES Certification
The design’s focus on sustainability has been developed with an eye toward SITES certification.
To improve visitor experience and flow, we’ve relocated the museum’s check-in entrance to the Edgar A. Smith Building. After check in, you can choose to visit the Mari and James A. Michener Gallery Building and enjoy the art from the moment you enter, or head over to Austin by Ellsworth Kelly. What’s more, entrances to the two main museum buildings have been redesigned for easy identification; they are marked by protruding vaults that echo the loggia arches and the curves of the shade canopy. The vault addition to the Michener Gallery Building is U-shaped, featuring a unique interior viewing deck on the museum’s second floor; you can sit inside the vault and watch what’s happening out on the Moody Patio just below.
Our new Museum Drop-Off area on Brazos St., just behind the Michener Gallery Building and across from the Brazos Garage, helps make the museum more accessible. From students visiting the Blanton in school buses to museum visitors with special mobility needs, this new feature simplifies their visit.
Because Austin is the perfect city for al fresco dining, our redesigned café will feature outdoor seating accentuated by shade trees and native plantings. A new menu of local favorites means a meal here will be on the “don’t-miss” list for your visit. Learn more about our exciting collaboration with Justine’s Brasserie in the press release.
Lead funding for the new grounds initiative is generously provided by The Moody Foundation. Major funding is also provided by Sarah and Ernest Butler, the Still Water Foundation, and the Estate of Ann Bower. Further support is thanks to the Kahng Foundation, Sally and Tom Dunning, Jack and Katie Blaha, the Lowe Foundation, Gwen White Kunz and Walter White, and other donors.
Project Team
- Simone Wicha, Blanton Museum of Art, Director
- Kimberly Theel, Blanton Museum of Art, Deputy Director, Operations
- Dalia Azim, Blanton Museum of Art, Former Manager of Special Projects
- Carter E. Foster, Blanton Museum of Art, Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs
- Craig Dykers, FAIA, LEED, AP, Int FRIBA, FRSA, RAAR, PhD, Snøhetta, Founding Partner
- John Newman, Snøhetta, Director, Senior Architect, Lead Architect
- Matt McMahon, Snøhetta, Director, Architect, Lead Landscape Architect
- Elaine Molinar, NCARB, AIA, LEED AP, Snøhetta, Partner/Managing Director
- Paul Drummond, PLA, Snøhetta, Landscape Architect
- Claire Laurence, Snøhetta, Design Architect
- Yuan Zhuang, Snøhetta, Landscape Designer
- Pia Falk Lind, Snøhetta, Donor Signage Consultant
- Henrik Haugan, Snøhetta, Donor Signage Consultant
- Nadine Fumiko Schaub, Snøhetta, Donor Signage Consultant
- Larry Irsik, AIA, Leed AP, Architexas, Executive Architect
- Stan Graves, FAIA, Architexas, Senior Principal
- John Allender, AIA, Leed AP, Architexas, Lead Architect
- Jungmin Kim, Architexas, Intern Architect
- Nathan Clark, Architexas, Intern Architect
Catherine O’Connor, Co’Design, Landscape Architect
UT Project Management and Construction Services (PMCS)
- Sergey Belov, UT PMCS, Project Manager
- Linda G. Tsai, RA, UT PMCS, Team Lead, Arts & Entertainment
Construction
- David Frame, III, White Construction, Vice President/Operations
- Kelly Niles, White Construction, Sr. Project Manager
- Paul Kaskie, White Construction, Project Superintendent
Civil Engineers
- Julia Mrnak, PE, Garza EMC, Civil Engineer
- Anna Merryman, Garza EMC, Civil, Graduate Engineer
Structural Engineers
- Karina Tribble, PE, Leed AP, AEC-WAY, Senior Associate
- Ruthie Norval, PE, AEC-WAY, Project Engineer
Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) Engineers
- Shawn Allen, PE, Jose Guerra, MEP Engineer
Julia Wagner, PE, Jose Guerra, MEP Engineer
Lighting Design
- Hervé Descottes, L’Observatoire International, Principal
Jenny Ivansson, L’Observatoire International, Senior Associate/Project Lead
Carlos Garcia, L’Observatoire International, Associate/Project Manager
Natalia Priwin, L’Observatoire International, Associate/Concept Design
AV, Data, and Security
- Sean Doyle, Datacom Design, AV/IT/Security
Regina Herry, Datacom Design, Audio /Visual
Recent Press Highlights
FORBES, BLANTON MUSEUM OF ART UPS GAME TO EQUAL ASCENSION OF ITS HOME CITY: AUSTIN, TEXAS
THE NEW YORK TIMES, AUSTIN’S ARTFUL BLANTON MUSEUM SAYS: COME ON IN
SURFACE, SNØHETTA WRAPS UP SOARING REFRESH OF AN AUSTIN INSTITUTION