{"id":445136,"date":"2026-09-23T13:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/445136\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T13:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T13:20:15","slug":"art-show-will-turn-austin-lakefront-into-an-outdoor-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/445136\/","title":{"rendered":"Art show will turn Austin lakefront into an outdoor gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, Austin\u2019s Seaholm Intake Facility<\/a> was used to pump water for the downtown power plant. But this weekend, the gray mid-century concrete structure will transform into a canvas of color. <\/p>\n

Local artists\u2019 videos and visual work will be projected onto the facility for the art show WaterWork<\/a>, produced by cultural nonprofit Design Austin. Founding board member Emily Eisenhart came up with the idea while on a Lady Bird Lake architectural boat tour three years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was admiring the freshly cleaned facility, and in the glorious springtime sun, it was a beacon that was waiting for art,\u201d Eisenhart said. \u201cI knew that because it’s a historic piece of infrastructure, we couldn’t do anything permanent, so I floated this idea of a temporary art show with projection mapping of artwork and videos on top of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Design Austin partnered with the Trail Conservancy, which maintains the 10-mile Ann and Roy Butler Trail around the lake. Conservancy CEO Julie Fisher said the show spreads awareness of what the building stands for and the kind of art opportunities the city offers.<\/p>\n

Eisenhart said there was an open call for artists to submit 2-minute videos for this year\u2019s theme of transformation. Out of the applicants from Texas and beyond, 22 artists were chosen for the show, including Austin-based Afro-Latino artist Chris \u201cTobar\u201d Rodriguez, internationally exhibited visual artist Beili Liu, and a four-artist collective called Essentials Creative.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year we have quite a few pieces with animators,\u201d Eisenhart said. \u201cThey are really focusing on the infrastructure and architectural elements of the building and highlighting the windows and edges of the space.\u201d<\/p>\n

The audience is encouraged to watch from the lake on paddleboards and kayaks. There are also viewing spots on the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge and at Auditorium Shores. Fisher said the show is special because it is the perfect intersection of Austin\u2019s arts scene and green spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are people who are watching on the water and on the land,\u201d Fisher said. \u201cTo see all of the boats from the water and the art reflecting on the water, it really tells that story of transformation.”<\/p>\n

WaterWork is a free show starting at 8:30 p.m. both Friday and Saturday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For decades, Austin\u2019s Seaholm Intake Facility was used to pump water for the downtown power plant. But this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":445137,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[6595,28650,132,134,133,152905,153634,3742,152908,153635,27,75525,153636],"class_list":["post-445136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-art","tag-artwork","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-design-austin","tag-emily-eisenhart","tag-lady-bird-lake","tag-seaholm-intake-facility","tag-seaholm-waterfront","tag-texas","tag-trail-conservancy","tag-waterwork"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445136","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=445136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/445137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}