Sam Sayre VanDelinde<\/a>r and a couple friends came up with the idea for Collection Rert in his garage apartment on 37th Street in 2004.<\/p>\n\u201cI think he liked watching people try to pronounce it,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt makes your mouth look kind of weird. It makes it do a weird shape.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jones inherited the apartment \u2014 as well as the gallery \u2014 in 2005. She said she was excited to take up the helm and come up with her own events. She held puppet shows, concerts and art shows before moving to Rogers Avenue the next year.<\/p>\n
The artist Silky Shoemaker hosted a few exhibits in the original space before it “dissolved,” as Hopper put it. <\/p>\n
Nine years ago, he and Jones launched the latest iteration of Collection Rert.<\/p>\n
‘Full of mischief’<\/p>\n
\u201cThe spot is very old Austin \u2014 slacker, rundown, overgrown,\u201d Del Wieding said Saturday as he sat outside sketching in his daily art journal. \u201cIt has a sincerity to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Across the yard, tables were covered with artwork for sale \u2014 collages, mixed media, stickers, zines. Many of it was Hopper\u2019s own humorous creations, featuring animals doing human things. Signs told visitors to create their own prices and throw donations into a bucket or pay through Venmo.<\/p>\n
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Lorianne Willett<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
Jones and Hopper are trying to get rid of as much stuff as they can before moving. <\/p>\n
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Lorianne Willett<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
Artwork is for sale at the Collection Rert farewell party Saturday. <\/p>\n
Jones and Hopper wanted to get rid of as much stuff as possible before their move. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that they bring us is not going to disappear,\u201d Wieding said. \u201cIf they can keep their spirits up and keep doing it, I don’t see how they can stop, given who they are. They’re full of mischief.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hopper and others performed skits on a makeshift stage (one notably involving Hot Pockets). He called people up to answer trivia questions like naming the capital of Delaware or spelling H\u00e4agen-Dazs. Winners could choose a piece of art to take home. The only things off-limits, Hopper said, were the two dogs, Amy and Noah.<\/p>\n
The gallery inside the house had been turned into a canvas; Vincent Martinez and his 6-year-old daughter were using nail polish and paint to write messages on the walls.<\/p>\n
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Lorianne Willett<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
Vincent Martinez and his daughter paint on the walls of Collection Rert during a farewell party. <\/p>\n
\u201cI’m just doing a little Amanda and Chad shoutout,\u201d Martinez said while a slideshow of past Collection Rert artwork was projected onto a wall. \u201cThey helped me out, like, gave me a free studio for a long time years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brittany Gant, an artist who makes collages and works with LED lights, got involved in the Collection Rert world about three years ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cImmediately I loved it and I thought I wanted to invest in it. How do I help everybody know what’s going on over here?\u201d she said. \u201cHow do you bring more people over here \u2019cause it’s just like law of attraction: Coolness attracts more coolness. I just wanted to stay and never left.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she hopes more community support comes to Jones and Hopper.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s tons of these tiny little museums hidden throughout [Austin]. What if that was a coalition?\u201d she said. \u201cI’d like to see it build on itself.\u201d<\/p>\n
A new chapter<\/p>\n
Jones and Hopper said they would miss the lizards that scurried along the side of the house. They’ll be moving about five minutes away to the other side of Manor Road, where Jones \u2014 who is a carpenter \u2014 will help rehabilitate an old building. That\u2019s the priority right now, she said.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re not sure what will come of Collection Rert.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s a little soon to start thinking about that because you don’t know what’s going to happen,\u201d Hopper said. \u201cI just think there’s another chapter somewhere waiting.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Lorianne Willett<\/p>\n
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KUT News<\/p>\n
Jones and Hopper say a lot of great art, ideas and friendships have been born at the house.<\/p>\n
Hopper pointed out a pumpkin they had gotten in October that was near the front door, remarking on how good it still looked. As Jones passed by, she reached down and grabbed the stem to pick it up.<\/p>\n
It broke off.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s time,\u201d Hopper said. \u201cEverything must come to an end \u2014 whether it’s a gallery or a pumpkin or an interview.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mannequin legs are propped up in front of a board that spells out \u201cThank you community for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":301210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[109425,109428,132,134,133,109426,109429,109427,2924,4686,109430,109431,62153],"class_list":["post-301209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-amanda-jones","tag-art-space","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-chad-hopper","tag-collages","tag-collection-rert","tag-east-austin","tag-gallery","tag-mixed-media","tag-neo-dada","tag-old-austin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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