{"id":473078,"date":"2026-10-22T06:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-10-22T06:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/473078\/"},"modified":"2026-10-22T06:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-10-22T06:06:08","slug":"east-austin-heritage-center-opens-with-free-admission-east-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/473078\/","title":{"rendered":"East Austin heritage center opens with free admission | East Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>East Austin residents and students have a new free place to explore local Black history and learn digital storytelling. Nonprofit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.e4youth.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">E4 Youth<\/a> opened the WOW Heritage Center at Pathways at Rosewood Courts on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eventbrite.com\/e\/the-wow-heritage-center-grand-opening-tickets-2000999844400\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Oct. 18<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The details<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/whatoncewas.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">WOW, or What Once Was, Heritage Center<\/a> is E4 Youth\u2019s first permanent home after 18 years of programming, founder and CEO Carl Settles said in an email. <\/p>\n<p>The heritage center is in the welcome facility at Pathways at Rosewood Courts, and E4 Youth developed it in partnership with the <a href=\"https:\/\/austinha.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Austin Housing Authority<\/a>, Settles said. It sits in East Austin\u2019s African American Cultural Heritage District, on land that was once <a href=\"https:\/\/www.e4youth.org\/blog\/eighteen-years-in-and-were-just-getting-started\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Emancipation Park<\/a>, according to the nonprofit.<\/p>\n<p>The center is open Tuesday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. and admission is free, according to Settles. Upcoming public events are listed on its <a href=\"https:\/\/whatoncewas.org\/calendar\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">calendar<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792649168_13_.jpeg\"  \/>An attendee reads aloud during the WOW Heritage Center\u2019s grand opening Oct. 18. (Jonathan Porter\/E4 Youth)What students should know<\/p>\n<p>E4 Youth works with five area high schools through its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.e4youth.org\/our-work\/get-creative\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Get Creative!<\/a> program, Settles said. He said the nonprofit will also host field trips and digital storytelling workshops at the center for nearby schools, including Kealing Middle School and Blackshear Elementary School.<\/p>\n<p>Funding the project<\/p>\n<p>E4 Youth\u2019s funding typically comes from individual donors, foundations, corporate partners, the city of Austin\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austintexas.gov\/arts-culture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment<\/a> division, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.arts.texas.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Texas Commission on the Arts<\/a> and the <a href=\"https:\/\/thc.texas.gov\/historic-sites?gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=24337437578&amp;gbraid=0AAAAABqL-sjqBiBz4vOCUAns3rMnr8jvp&amp;gclid=CjwKCAjwxeHWBhBPEiwAiqtQ-aB1vP2tmPWT86nv28_Lu2HXKoUoAXdkyPFO9tQdgPQOw91zmotYbRoCJi4QAvD_BwE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Texas Historical Commission<\/a>, Settles said.<\/p>\n<p>E4 Youth does not currently receive funding from Austin ISD or Travis County, according to Settles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have a warm relationship with Travis County and look forward to partnering with the county in the future,\u201d Settles said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"East Austin residents and students have a new free place to explore local Black history and learn digital&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":473079,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[160262,132,134,160264,1685,133,28394,88097,160263,160266,115413,2924,4091,160265,115414,160261],"class_list":["post-473078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-african-american-cultural-heritage-district","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-housing-authority","tag-austin-isd","tag-austin-news","tag-black-history","tag-blackshear-elementary-school","tag-carl-settles","tag-digital-storytelling","tag-e4-youth","tag-east-austin","tag-emancipation-park","tag-kealing-middle-school","tag-rosewood-courts","tag-wow-heritage-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473078","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=473078"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/473078\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/473079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=473078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=473078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=473078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}