Austin arts and cultural groups urge inclusion in 2026 bond, outline project costs

Representatives from several of Austin's arts and cultural organizations told the Bond Election Advisory Task Force on Dec. 15 that the 2026 bond should include funding for cultural facilities, accessibility projects and historic preservation.

Danielle McCaskill, director of the Austin Celtic Festival and a board member of the Austin Celtic Association, asked the task force to recommend a Celtic Cultural Center for the bond, saying the city lacks a permanent public facility dedicated to Celtic culture and that a center would serve tourism and intergenerational programming. "This would not just benefit Austin, but our tourist industry," McCaskill said, noting U.S. Census estimates that more than 1 million Texans identify as having Irish or Scottish ancestry.

Jim Ritz, executive director of the Austin Theatre Alliance, described a capital campaign to preserve downtown theaters and said the Paramount Theater needs its first full restoration since 1979. Ritz said the restoration plan calls for about $55 million in construction costs plus another $10 million in related expenses and that his campaign has raised $27.6 million to date. He also said the Alliance holds a 99-year lease at $1 per year for office space that houses staff.

Katie Robinson Edwards, executive director and curator of the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum, and Amanda Valbrach, director of operations, asked the task force to support the Umlauf's request for bond funding. They said the museum completed a vision plan and sought roughly one-third of a $30.65 million total project (about $10.5 million) to enable the nonprofit to leverage the remainder; they asked staff to prioritize ADA upgrades, stormwater improvements and pathway repairs, and called out a $3.5 million subset of accessibility and stormwater work as an immediate need. "These are projects that are ready to be implemented," Robinson Edwards said.

Speakers for Mexic-Arte Museum recounted the organization's long history in Austin and asked the task force to recommend Phase 2 of the museum building project. Sylvia, identified as the museum's executive director and founder in testimony, said prior bond awards included $5 million in 2006 and $15 million in 2018, and she said inflation and COVID left a remaining funding need; she said the Phase 2 budget figure prepared with city financial services is about $19 million to complete the building. "The people of Austin want Mexic-Arte Museum," she said, urging the task force to include the project in its bond recommendation.

The public testimony package mixed large capital asks with specific near-term needs: accessibility and stormwater work at the Umlauf, restoration and seat/amenity upgrades for historic theaters, and construction funding for Mexic-Arte's Phase 2. Several presenters said they have fundraising partners and prior donations (for example a $1 million private gift referenced for Mexic-Arte and the Alliance's capital campaign figures) and that city participation in the bond would be needed to complete projects on downtown parcels such as Congress Avenue and Barton Boulevard.

The task force did not take a formal vote on individual cultural projects at the meeting. Instead, members heard the testimony to inform later project prioritization and scoring under criteria they were finalizing later in the same session.