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In 1985 the people of Austin approved a bond election to have funds allocated to the building of a downtown art museum. One might ask, "Where is that museum and what has happened to that money?!"

With approximately $11.4 million of the 1985 bond money still available, the City Council decided earlier this year to resume the effort to build a downtown museum. The City issued an RFP, (Request For Partnership) to various arts organizations throughout Austin. The City Council voted unanimously in June of this year to begin a public/private partnership with the Austin Museum of Art to create the permanent Robert Venturi-designed downtown museum. The agreement between the City and AMOA does have its stipulations though. The building of the permanent downtown museum will very likely run over the available bond money. In order to determine how much the permanent museum will cost, the City has rehired Robert Venturi to conduct a revised cost analysis. Based on Venturi's calculations, AMOA will have the challenge of raising the gap between the available funds and the figure that the museum will actually cost.

If you have been strolling downtown along Congress Avenue lately you might have noticed that AMOA has already begun to establish a downtown presence by constructing a temporary facility at 9th Street and Congress Avenue. Under the guidance of AMOA's Chief Executive Officer, Sid Mallory, the search for a building to house the temporary museum began during the summer of 1996. One might ask: What about the existing AMOA location at Laguna Gloria? The Austin Museum of Art at Laguna Gloria is still in operation and will continue to be so, but it is not large enough to accommodate the large exhibitions needed to raise the money for the permanent downtown museum. Thus the Austin Museum of Art decided to establish two locations: one at Laguna Gloria and the other in the heart of downtown Austin. In order to reach this objective, AMOA executed a five year lease with Omni Commercial and Phase I of the museum's plan to establish a downtown presence was well under way.

The Phase I location at 823 Congress Avenue is considered an interim step that is necessary to reach the larger objective of building the permanent Venturi-designed museum during Phase II. With this new location at 823 Congress Avenue, AMOA is able to quadruple its current exhibition space thus making available an entirely new arena of programs for their grand opening and future exhibitions. Among AMOA's upcoming programs are Image and Identity Video Series with commentary by Dr. Mia Carter of the University of Texas, Thursday Noon Jazz and Poetry Hour, and a Barbara Jordan Tribute. Opening exhibitions include I Dream A World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America; De mujer a mujer: A Celebration of Latinas by Latina Artists; and Selma Burke Sculptures: Selected Works From National and Local Collections. AMOA has an exciting exhibition schedule through September of 1997.

AMOA hopes that with its new downtown location at 823 Congress it will become more accessible to the public, and in turn spark fresh interest and local sponsorship from busi- nesses and individuals throughout the Austin area. AMOA's interim downtown location is also important to its future growth as it will prove to the citizens of Austin that it can indeed successfully operate a downtown museum.