State Of the Art: An Archival Assessment Towards a Visual Arts History of Austin

This project presents an in-depth examination into the history and evolution of establishing a major art museum in Austin from the formation of the Texas Fine Arts Association in 1911, Laguna Gloria Art Museum (1961), Austin Museum of Art (1992), Arthouse (2002), AMOA-Arthouse (2011), and finally to the current iteration, The Contemporary Austin (2013). Through conducting archival research, I set out to gain a greater understanding of what kinds of archives were held in various repositories: Dolph Briscoe Center of American History, the Austin History Center, and the museum’s own archives storage. Before undertaking a longer-term digitization project, the museum first needed to understand what records existed and where they were. With a more in-depth understanding of the existing, unseen archives, the museum can begin taking steps towards a robust archival program of their past and ongoing projects.