Weekly Luncheon & Program

When
07 Jan 2010
12:00 PM - 12:59 PM
Location
Wells Fargo Bank, 400 W. 15th Street, 3rd floor Auditorium

Registration

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Weekly Luncheon & Program

ART IN PUBLIC PLACES
introduced by Lion Mac Ragsdale

Have you ever wondered just how the Barbara Jordan Memorial at Austin-Bergstrom International came to be, or how that statue of Stevie Ray Vaughn at Town Lake actually got there? From the flying steel sculpture at Lou Neff Point to the Grotto Wall at Sparky Park, the City of Austin Art in Public Places program has made it possible for talented artists of local and national renown to enhance public spaces, and our quality of life, with public art throughout the city. Our program this Thursday will give us the history, background and behind the scenes work that gives us one more reason to live in one of the greatest places on earth.

Our speaker will be Megan Crigger, the City's Public Art Administrator for the last 6 years.
Megan joined Austin’s Art in Public Places program in 1997, when she began as the Dougherty Arts Center Gallery Coordinator and then as a Public Art Project Manager. As the city’s Public Art Administrator she has been busy increasing the diversity of public art opportunities throughout the city. She has managed over 40 public art projects including Austin City Hall & Public Plaza and the East Austin Police Substation and Forensics Lab, both of which received national acclaim by Art in American in 2004, and St. John’s Multipurpose Center, which was highlighted in Americans for the Arts Public Art Network Year in Review in 2002.

She oversaw the development of a public art master plan for the Second Street Retail District, and is currently implementing the plan, expected to be completed in the next 2 years through collaborations with private developers for privately-funded public art.

During her tenure, the first temporary public art program was launched for the City of Austin as part of the Texas Biennial for park systems throughout Central Austin to focus on new and emerging talents within the state of Texas. Under her direction, an online Artist Registry & Application System for AIPP projects was developed, and has been recognized on a national level.

Megan manages City staff for coordination of the city’s co-sponsored event, First Night Austin, a family-friendly celebration of the arts that revives the ancient tradition of marking the passage of time with art, ritual, and festivity on New Year’s Eve. For the third year in a row, the Art in Public Places program has joined efforts with First Night Austin to facilitate the selection of artists for the city’s one-night celebratory event.

She has a vested interest in the sustainability of outdoor art collections and the challenges/cultural meanings of contemporary media and temporary art. She co-managed an arts and cultural vitality study for Downtown Austin, and in 2007, the AIPP program received a $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in the amount of $20,000 for a Long-Term Preservation Plan, resulting in the assessment and recommendation for longevity of public art collection and the establishment of a Public Art Fund for the ongoing care and conservation of artworks.

Megan completed her Masters Thesis on public art and public education and is currently pursuing artist and public collaborations for neighborhood artworks. In the 18 years she has lived in Austin, she has remained intensely involved in volunteer arts programs such as Save Outdoor Sculpture, Austin Museum Partnership, Laguna Gloria Annual Family Exhibition, and Austin Fine Arts Festival as co-Chair of the Family Art Education area. Prior to her career in public art, she managed local art galleries and cared for the Umlauf Family private sculpture collection. She is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a B.A. in Psychology, B.F.A. in Art History and an M.A. in Museum Education.

@ The Austin Downtown Founder Lions Club