Georgetown Arts & Culture

At the January 2021 Board meeting, the City of Georgetown Arts & Culture Board approved $11,072 in grants to local arts and culture organizations for the 2021 Round I grant cycle. The grants will help fund local arts and cultural programming that includes visual art, music, performing art, and arts education in Georgetown.

The events and programs funded include:

East View High School Percussion Studio for EVHS Percussion Professional Recording Sessions – $1,500

Georgeotwn High School Jazz Band for Georgetown Virtual Jazz Festival – $1,500

Texas Bach Festival for Texas Bach Festival 2021 Season “Bach 4 More” – $2,250

Full Circle for FULL CIRCLE TALKS: By & For Creatives – $247

Georgetown Art Works for The Black Women’s Epoch at Georgetown Art Center – $2,050

The Georgetown Palace Theatre for Adaptive Theatre for All: Summer Programs – $2,025

Cardboard Cinema Productions for A Midsummer Night’s Dream – $1,500

Funds are for events and programs taking place in Georgetown between April 2021 and September 2021.

The next Georgetown Arts and Culture grant cycle will accept proposals June 1 – June 30 for events and programs occuring from October 2021 through March 2022.

The current exhibition at City Hall is on exhibit from January – March 2020. The exhibit features recent work by Southwestern University student graduate Julia Canfield. Artwork can be viewed Monday – Friday, 8am-5pm.

In Polymer Empire, Julia Canfield explores the ironic beauty and luminosity of single-use shopping bags by engaging with ideas of nature versus humanity; how humans contaminate nature, and vice versa. Canfield studies the forms, textures, and transparencies of plastic bags, highlighting their strange allure through abstraction. In order to express the implications of globalised consumerism, many of the paintings’ compositions are inspired by maps of areas which either produce or suffer from high levels of plastic pollution. Through this work, viewers may confront the complex emotions which can arise from the paradox of humanity’s guilty fascination with consumerism.

Julia Canfield is a recent graduate of Southwestern University with a BA in Studio Arts with a focus in oil painting. She is interested in the use of beauty and subtlety in art as a means to encourage deeper reflection and mindfulness, and to explore the design of our world. Canfield currently resides in Portland, Oregon, but maintains roots in the Austin area. Follow her on Instagram at @julia_can_art, or visit juliarae.wordpress.com for more information.

The Gallery Wall at City Hall will exhibit two local artists per year, an exhibition of Georgetown Independent School District Advanced Placement student artwork, and an exhibition of Southwestern University student artwork. The exhibitions are by invitation and are designed to align with current Georgetown Arts and Culture Programming. To be considered for an invitation by the Georgetown Arts and Culture Board, local artists may submit their resume and portfolio to arts@georgetown.org.

The City of Georgetown Arts and Culture Board has awarded John Mark Luke the First Prize award in this year’s 202-2021 Annual Georgetown Sculpture Tour, a juried year-long outdoor exhibition in the historic Downtown Georgetown Cultural District. Luke won for his piece “Interaction of Thought V”, a piece created using Laminated Wood, Clear Fiberglass/Resin, Steel Rebar, and a Semi-Truck Brake Drum.  The sculpture is located on Main Street near the corner of 8^th Street

Second Prize went to Marla Ripperda for her “Uncommon Egret” crafted from MagicSculpt (2 part epoxy clay) over expanded metal lath. This piece is located on 8^th Street near the corner of Main Street.

Sculpture Tour artists and their awards are:

First Prize: “Interaction of Thought V” by John Mark Luke

Second Prize: “Uncommon Egret” by Marla Ripperda

Honorable Mention:

“Butterfly” by Mary Angers

“Golden Hugs” by Marianne Caroselli

“Zenith” by Scy Caroselli

“And He Was Sad” (Eeyore) by Bob Coffee

“Ventura” by Humberto DeGarrio

“Paths We Choose” by Anthony St. James

“Great Bird” by Peter Mangan

“Letting Go” by Peter Mangan

“Twist” by Peter Mangan

“Moment of Reflection” by Dan Pogue

“Luminous Beings Are We” by Kirk Seese

“Pluma Sculptura”, aka The Feather by Kirk Seese

“Tree Branches” by Kirk Seese

“Nine” by Scott Shubin

“Sunburst” by Scott Shubin

“The Optimist” by Linda Wilde

The City of Georgetown Arts & Culture Board selected 18 of these 2020-2021 Sculpture Tour pieces from a total of 33 pieces submitted for consideration by 22 artists. All Sculptures in the current tour will remain on exhibit through October 2021.

An interactive online map of the Sculpture Tour can be viewed at https://arts.georgetown.org/art/sculpture-tour/. A map of the Sculpture Tour will also be available after the 1^st of the year at the Visitor Center, the Georgetown Art Center, the Georgetown Public Library, and local arts businesses.

An open Call for Entries for the annual City Sculpture Tour is posted from June 1st to August 1st every year.

K9 Heroes Mural, “Best Friends”, by Jay Rivera and J Muzacz, 2020

Photography by David Valdez

Muralists J. Muzacz and Jay Rivera teamed up to create the public art mural  located at Wag Heaven, 206 West 6th Street #115, that is part of the Healing Arts for Veterans Program.

The Arts and Culture Program collaborated with the local pet supply business, Wag Heaven, to create a service-dog themed public art mural to honor our K-9 service heroes while commemorating the Rotary Club of Georgetown’s Field of Honor®, as well as War Dog Hero, Nemo A534 whose memorial is located at Lackland Airforce Base. The mural was installed during the week of Veterans Day and included a community painting event on Veterans Day, November 11th.

Funding for the K9 Heroes Mural at Wag Heaven is provided by Wag Heaven, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the City of Georgetown Arts and Culture Program.

Jay “Areo” Rivera is a Puerto Rican graffiti writer and artist. Born in 1978, he grew up in the Bronx, New York. During the 90’s in the Bronx, graffiti was in heavy rotation and an essential part of hip-hop culture in New York City. Along with tagging, Areo worked on his skills and began painting murals by the age of 16. At 19 he entered the military as an Infantryman and served three tours in Iraq throughout his 18-year career before medically retiring in 2015. Upon his retirement Areo quickly got back into art and began painting canvases. In 2018 he launched Laced and Found, which provides murals, custom artwork, clothing and has future plans of opening an art collective gallery. Since its launch in February of 2018 Laced and Found has painted over 230 projects including murals and custom work. All of the work done by Jay “Areo” Rivera is done with spray paint; no brushes, markers or any other tools are used for his murals, keeping true to the style and culture of a graffiti artist. Please click here to visit Jay Rivera’s website.

J Muzacz is no stranger to Georgetown’s public art scene!  His most recent work includes the mosaic tile mural in the Georgetown Municipal Court Lobby entitled “El Arbol” (The Tree). Houston-born J Muzacz was recently honored by the Texas Commission on the Arts by inclusion in the 2020-2022 Texas Touring Roster. Muzacz has 15 years of experience painting large-scale murals for both public and private clients. He is also an educator and author/illustrator with two books to his credit, both bilingual in English and Japanese, from his time teaching overseas in Japan. He has lived and worked in Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand, having painted numerous notable murals abroad, one of which found its way into a Samsung commercial, as well as the cover of Hong Kong Airlines magazine. Connecting his passions for art and travel, J is eager to tour and engage with schools and communities all over the state of Texas, making and facilitating mural and mosaic art that uplifts, educates, and inspires people of all ages for years to come. Recently J has been commissioned across the country for commercial murals in Florida, California, Colorado, and Pennsylvania. He has also been invited to festivals as a featured artist in Austin, Houston, and Flint, Michigan, just to name a few. Please click here.

The Georgetown Arts and Culture Board is now inviting grant proposals for art, music, theatre, dance, and cultural heritage events and programs – as well as organizational development – taking place in Georgetown between April 2021 and September 2021.

Due to the continued obstacles to holding events as a result of the pandemic, the Georgetown Arts and Culture grants for 2021 Round I will also include funding options for organizational development such as strategic planning, board training, and professional development that will help fulfill the mission of the organization.

Nonprofit organizations, schools, and informal arts and culture organizations creating arts and culture programming, organizational development, or an event open to the public are eligible to apply. The City of Georgetown Arts and Culture Board considers all applicants without attention to the following – which includes but is not limited to – race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status. Organizations that received funding in the 2020 Round II cycle are not eligible to apply for 2021 Round I.

The Georgetown Arts and Culture Grants help the Arts and Culture Board fulfill bylaw requirements which include recognizing and encouraging groups and organizations that enrich Georgetown life by bringing cultural and artistic values and artifacts to the City.  Members of the Arts and Culture Board believe a vibrant arts community and cultural offerings are good for the quality of life for residents, will attract visitors, and will assist Georgetown in becoming a nationally recognized arts destination by 2030.  The grant program helps develop and strengthen our local arts community by contributing funding to arts and culture programming that enhances our local community.

Click here to go to the application form:

Grant Proposal Form

For more detailed information, please visit the grant page.

Georgetown Title – in collaboration with the Georgetown Arts and Culture Board – would like to commission an artist to design and install a mural on an exterior wall of their building. Call opens November 1, 2020

Application Deadline: December 31, 2020

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Beginning November 1st, 2020, The City of Georgetown’s Arts and Culture Board will invite artist entries for the Commercial Mural Project at Georgetown Title. The mural design should be an interpretation of the history of the site using abstract representation with an emphasis on color and shape instead of realistic representation. For more details, see the full submission guidelines here: Call for Artist Entries_Georgetown Title Mural; Area maps can be found here: Supplemental Area Maps_Georgetown Title Mural

ABOUT GEORGETOWN TITLE AND THE HISTORY OF THE SITE: The area just to the west of Georgetown’s historic Courthouse Square was once the city’s center of industry and transportation. When the railroad arrived in 1876, it had a huge impact on the transportation of goods and agricultural products, and lumber yards were quickly built around the rail spurs to take advantage of the incoming building supplies. The railroad brought more refined building products in, as well as connected local agricultural products like cotton to larger markets. The railroad also brought in everything from produce to rubber, and the Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps of Georgetown are an early picture of the affluence the rail connection brought to the community. The rail spurs remained downtown for nearly a century until they were removed in the mid 1960’s.

The location of the Georgetown Title Company was previously the site of the Belford Lumber Yard. Owned by Charles Sanford (C. S.) Belford, who was one of the most notable builders in Georgetown’s history, this was his center of operations for his substantial building business. Belford has a National Register Historic District named after him and is known for building remarkable houses in the city’s Old Town Historic District as well as commercial structures in the Downtown. Belford’s toolbox, ledgers and some of his construction plans are housed in Special Collections at Southwestern University.

A group of buildings known as Belford Square where built in the early 1970’s and became home to Georgetown Title.  Georgetown Title employees are experts in closing and insuring all types of land transactions, from farm and ranch to commercial, residential and new construction.

 ELIGIBILITY: This opportunity is open to all professional artists over the age of 18.

BUDGET: This project is part of the Percent for Public Art in Municipal Capital Improvement Projects and provides matching City funds to the Commercial Mural at Georgetown Title. An artist stipend of $4,000 will be paid to the artist selected to install the mural. The cost of materials and equipment necessary to install the mural will be covered up to $2,000. Any material and equipment costs exceeding this amount will require prior approval. The selected artist will be responsible for their own travel costs, housing, and personal liability insurance.

INSTALLATION DATE: Mural will be completed by April 30, 2021.

APPLY: Applications will be submitted through Submittable.com between November 1 and December 31, 2020: https://artsgeorgetown.submittable.com/Submit

SELECTION: From the entries submitted by the deadline, the Arts and Culture Board in collaboration with Georgetown Title will award an artist commission for the mural design and installation.  Artists will be notified of the final selection by the late January, 2021.

APPLICATION FEE: None

Questions: Contact Amanda Still at 512-930-8471 or Amanda.still@georgetown.org

Please click here to view the full submission guidelines, project schedule, and other info: Call for Artist Entries_Georgetown Title Mural

Beginning October 15^th, 2020, The City of Georgetown’s Arts and Culture Board will invite artist entries for the Georgetown Animal Shelter Mural Project. The mural design should relate to the purpose of the shelter by addressing the rescue and adoption of pets.

Submission Deadline: Nov 30th, 2020

ELIGIBILITY: This opportunity is open to all professional artists over the age of 18.

BUDGET: An artist stipend of $4,000 will be paid to the artist selected to install the mural. The City of Georgetown will also fund the cost of materials and equipment necessary to install the mural. The selected artist will be responsible for their own travel costs, housing, and personal liability insurance.

INSTALLATION DATE: Mural will be completed by March 31st, 2021.

APPLY: Full submission guidelines can be found here: Call for Artist Entries_Georgetown Animal Shelter. Applications will be submitted through Submittable.com; no application fee required

The submission form will open on October 15, 2020. Click on the following link to submit: https://artsgeorgetown.submittable.com/Submit

SELECTION: From the entries submitted by the deadline, the City of Georgetown Arts and Culture Board will select up to (3) submissions for consideration and final selection by the Georgetown Animal Shelter staff. Artists will be notified of the final selection by mid-January.

Questions: Contact Amanda Still at 512-930-8471 or Amanda.still@georgetown.org

Please click here to view the full submission guidelines, project schedule, and other info: Call for Artist Entries_Georgetown Animal Shelter

The Georgetown Arts and Culture Program has teamed up with Resilient Me Community Based Resiliency Programs, Austin Classical Guitar, country music artist Wynn Williams, Wag Heaven, and artists Jay Rivera and J. Muzacz to provide arts components to the Rotary Club of Georgetown’s 2020 Field of Honor® that include healing and outreach to veterans, military service-members, and first responders through music, visual art, and community engagement in a public art project. There is currently insufficient capacity and funding within the health care community to serve the physical and mental health issues of veterans, service-members, and first responders. We needed to create an arts program to raise awareness of the issues confronted by this underserved population and present options for artistic programming that help address these issues.

The first arts component of the Healing Arts for Veterans Program, “Storytelling Through Music”, is a program that was originally created by Austin Classical Guitar as part of the ACG Veterans Songwriting Program.  The local nonprofit Resilient Me: Community Based Resiliency Programs for Veterans has facilitated the collaboration between Austin Classical Guitar and Georgetown’s Healing Arts for Veterans Program to provide this music component. The music program includes adapting stories by veterans into lyrics and set to music by professional musicians from Austin Classical Guitar and country music artist Wynn Williams. The storytelling is designed to help veterans process trauma from their service in the military. The music will be performed on November 7th by country music artist Wynn Williams. The music performance was planned for the Field of Honor® location; however, the public performance at the field was cancelled due to COVID. Instead there will be a small outdoor performance at Cimarron Hills Country Club with very limited seating and reservations required in order to adhere to social distancing guidelines. A small Field of Honor® display will be set up, and guests will have the opportunity to purchase flags. For more information on the event and to register for the event, please click here to visit our Facebook event page

Veterans participating in the music program include William Childress, Bobby Withrow, and John Hill.  To learn the story of William Childress and to view the video featuring his song, click here. To view the process video featuring Bobby Withrow and John Hill, click here. This video has two excerpts from the last zoom songwriting sessions with Wynn and Travis where John and Bobby heard their complete songs for the very first time. The first song is called A Prayer for the Living, and was written by John Hill with Travis Marcum and Wynn Williams. John was an Army medic in Afghanistan, and wanted to write a song for fellow service members struggling with the pain they hold onto after the experience of war. The second song is called When Blue Stars Turn Gold, written by Bobby Withrow with Wynn Williams and Travis Marcum. Bobby served in the Navy and now runs the Texas Fallen Project where he supports families all over the state who have lost loved ones in battle. A Gold Star Family is one that has lost a member in service. Bobby wanted to write a song that helps people understand the need to honor our fallen soldiers and to support their loved ones who are fighting their own battle every day.

“Removing the Mask” was planned as the second component of the project and included artwork created by veterans through the Resilient Me art therapy program featuring mask making. Artwork created at this workshop was planned for exhibition at the Field of Honor®; however, due to COVID, the workshops could not be facilitated. So the mask making workshop was cancelled, and the music program was expanded.

Component three includes a public art mural located in the Texas Cultural District encompassing downtown Georgetown. The Arts and Culture Program is collaborating with the local pet supply business, Wag Heaven, to create a service-dog themed public art mural to honor our K-9 service heroes while commemorating the Rotary Club of Georgetown’s Field of Honor®, as well as War Dog Hero, Nemo A534. The mural will begin installation during the week of Veterans Day and will include a community painting event on Veterans Day, November 11th. The artists awarded for their artwork, “Best Friends”, are artist Jay Rivera who served 18 years in the military and artist J. Muzacz who has completed another Georgetown mural, “El Arbol, (The Tree)” located at the Georgetown Municipal Court. The public art mural component of this project is also sponsored in part by Wag Heaven.

This collaborative program was proposed in applications to both the National Endowment for the Arts: Arts Engagement in American Communities Grant Program and the Texas Commission on the Arts: Arts Respond – Health and Human Services Grant Program funded through Creative Forces. Georgetown’s Healing Arts for Veterans Program was awarded $10,000 from the NEA and $4,000 from the TCA. The Arts and Culture Board is very excited to receive this funding and bring this type of healing arts programs for veterans to Georgetown.  With the established success and prestige of the Rotary Club of Georgetown’s annual project: the Field of Honor® – Honoring Service Above Self, this program will expand the reach of both the Georgetown Arts and Culture Program and the Field of Honor® to continue building community through the arts!

For more information on the Rotary Club of Georgetown’s Field of Honor®, please click here.

Wolf Ranch Town Center would like to commission an artist to design and install a mural on an exterior wall of the Starbucks located at Wolf Ranch.

Application Deadline: September 30^th, 2020

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: Beginning September 1^st, 2020, the City of Georgetown’s Arts and Culture Board will invite artist entries for the Wolf Ranch Town Center Mural Project. Georgetown, Texas is known for being the Red Poppy Capital of Texas. The mural design should feature red poppies and imagery designed to remind patrons of the role Wolf Ranch plays in the community and the partnerships between Wolf Ranch and the Downtown Georgetown Cultural District – which is the location of the Annual Georgetown Red Poppy Festival and is located only 5 miles from Wolf Ranch Town Center.

ELIGIBILITY: This opportunity is open to all professional artists over the age of 18.

BUDGET: An artist stipend of $5,000 will be paid to the artist selected to install the mural. Wolf Ranch Town Center will fund the cost of materials up to $1,000. The selected artist will be responsible for their own travel costs, housing, and personal liability insurance. Artist owned scaffolding to complete the installation is preferred.

INSTALLATION DATE: Mural will be completed by November 25^th, 2020.

APPLY: Applications will be submitted through Submittable.com; no application fee required: https://artsgeorgetown.submittable.com/Submit

SELECTION: The artist will be selected by Wolf Ranch Town Center in collaboration with the Georgetown Arts and Culture Board. Artists will be notified by October 21^st, 2020.

Please click here to view the full submission guidelines, project schedule, and other info: Call for Artist Entries_RFP_Wolf Ranch Mural

Questions: Contact Amanda Still at 512-930-8471 or Amanda.still@georgetown.org

At the August 2020 Board meeting, the City of Georgetown Arts & Culture Board approved $9,340 in grants to local arts and culture organizations for the 2020 Round II grant cycle. The grants will help fund local arts and cultural events that include visual art, music, film, and historic exhibition programming in Georgetown.

The events and programs funded in this grant cycle include:

The Williamson Museum for the Heritage and Horizons Exhibition – $2,000

Southwestern University for the Georgetown Green Film Series – $2,340

The Williamson County Symphony Orchestra for the March 2021 Orchestra Concert – $2,500

The Estrada Garcia Gallery and Artist Cooperative for Special COVID Relief Funding – $2,500

Funds are for events and programs taking place in Georgetown between October 2020 and March 2021, as well as special COVID relief funding for expenses incurred from March through September 2020.

The next Georgetown Arts and Culture grant cycle will open on December 1 – December 31 for events and programs occuring from April through September 2021.