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\n Art installation coming to Austin airport’s new atrium infill
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For many Austinites, the removals are more than a change to the streetscape.<\/p>\n
“People are proud to be at UT and everything about it,” UT student Nathan Hafkin said. “And it’s sad. It’s not the same.”<\/p>\n
Another UT student, Natalie Lopez, said she was surprised when she noticed that the iconic burnt orange “TEXAS” mural had disappeared.<\/p>\n
“I was driving to work. It was like five in the morning, and I’m like all of a sudden going down Guadalupe, I’m like, ‘What’s going on? Am I on the right street?'” Lopez said. “Because usually the Texas sign is right there.”<\/p>\n
The removals stem from a directive issued last October, after Gov. Greg Abbott instructed TxDOT to ensure cities and counties complied with roadway safety guidelines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The City of Austin later requested an exemption for 15 locations, but TxDOT denied that request in May and ordered the city to submit a removal timeline and action plan.<\/p>\n
As of Thursday, city officials said crews had completed sealcoat treatment on Guadalupe Street and East 11th Street, leaving loose gravel where the murals once were.<\/p>\n
Among the six pieces of street art slated for removal were the burnt orange “TEXAS” mural on Guadalupe Street and the “Black Artists Matter” mural on East 11th Street.<\/p>\n
For UT Student Leslie Addams, the artwork reflected part of what made Austin unique.<\/p>\n
“I think it really represents the opinion of how Austin’s changing so quickly, and just like some of the uniqueness being stripped away,” Addams said. “I think it added a lot of culture, you know, it added a lot for the people coming, and the tourists, and just the students and excitement.”<\/p>\n
While the city says it will comply with the state’s directive to avoid jeopardizing millions of dollars in state and federal funding, officials said they are also exploring other ways to celebrate Austin’s diversity.<\/p>\n
One example is a new mural installed last month between Colorado and Lavaca streets, replacing the rainbow crosswalks, which are also expected to be removed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Transportation crews covered murals on East 11th and Guadalupe streets Thursday following a TxDOT order to remove decorative…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":359512,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133],"class_list":["post-359511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359511","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=359511"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359511\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/359512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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