Many things can be said about the powerful benefits of art, but the way it’s embraced in Austin is unique. Where business owners around the world often scoff at street artists tagging their buildings, in Austin they pay for the privilege. In Austin, HOPE Outdoor Gallery (HOG), a park dedicated to street art, popped up in 2011, its inaugural piece from the famed Shepard Fairy. The city embraced it until its closure mid-2018. Now, a bigger and better HOG is slated to open June 2021.
Austin Life caught up with Andi Scull, the brand manager, cultural curator and founder of HOPE, which stands for Helping Other People Everywhere, and she likened the Austin street art scene to musicians at open mic night. She explains, “I always called it a visual open mic because this town understands an open mic for musicians, but visual art is similar, it’s not always meant to last forever or be recorded, it helps you practice or gain confidence or do something that you then later can get a big commission for.” She says businesses like Facebook and Google routinely came to the gallery to find an artists to hire for projects and it was a place where events like Austin City Limits would scout for visual artists.
The new park will be across the street from Austin-Bergstrom Airport. It is 17 acres (verse the 1.3 acres at the previous park) and will be made of a mix of materials including several solar panels that will spell out the word HOPE and be visible from above to every passenger who flies over Austin.
The arial art isn’t the only standout part of the new structure. “The park is the first of its kind in the world. It’s made out of Austin,” Scull says, explaining, “We made 40,000 earth bricks from the earth of our land, so the walls of the new art park are literally made from Austin.” The walls of the old park are being demolished and going into the parking lot!
The new park will have the show up and paint walls as well as curated mural experiences, classes, camps, events and more. “You don’t usually get to test out your business model,” says Scull. “The new park is going to have amenities that we always knew a park needs, like parking and restrooms and water fountains, but this one is also going to have a coffee shop, grab & go food and an art store. It’s going to have a lot of revenue streams to allow it not only to be sustainable but allow it to be free to the public.”
She explains that keeping entry free was of critical importance. “A reason why this was so iconic and important to Austinites is because it was about public art and accessible to everyone, whereas museums and galleries could be intimidating. We want admission to be free, so we’ll have revenue streams to allow it to sustain itself.”
It will also continue to give back and now fully fund the HOPE non-profit. Scull says, “The mission is to connect creatives with causes through projects and events. It’s basically a non-profit production company that allows creatives to donate their time and talent to projects and issues they believe in. The park will be the home where the non-profit can continue to do programming, expand and grow.”
An absence of a physical space hasn’t kept HOPE from contributing during a year Austin needed it most. At the start of the pandemic Scull helped spearhead Hope for Health, commissioning 40 artists to paint inspiring quotes on boarded up businesses in downtown Austin with the theme “These Walls Bring Us Together.” Two are pictured and you can find all of the murals from the project at hopecampaign.org.
Below, Scull is surrounded by the HOPE team and several of its artists. From left to right from the top: Kelly Perkal “ZUZU,” Liz Whitington, Nathan Nordstrom “SLOKE,” C.K. Chin, Blake Bemel “MEZ”, Jaon Eatherly, Antonio Diaz, Lauren Siegel, Andi Scull, Mariska Nicholson, Sammy Gilford, Gina Whittington, Chris Scull. Efren Rebugio. Miles Starkey, Matt Trujillo