Music Commission considers space, funding options for Texas Music Museum

The Music Commission plans to ask the city to provide emergency storage space and funding for the Texas Music Museum, which is facing overcrowding at its East Austin location and the possible loss of gratis storage space in an Austin Police Department warehouse.

At Monday’s meeting, commissioners heard a presentation from museum leaders and discussed possible options for assisting the museum, which has outlined a three-phase expansion proposal to eventually occupy 13,000 square feet – a dramatic increase from its current 2,000-square-foot space on East 11th Street.

In May, museum representatives told the commission about the dire straits it is facing, with thousands of audio, video and photographic artifacts from over 100 years of Texas musicians currently in storage and at risk of deterioration. For many years, the museum has been a labor of love for Clay Shorkey, president and caretaker of the facility, who covers some of its expenses with his Social Security benefits.

The first phase of the museum’s plan seeks 13,000 square feet of display, meeting and administrative space, plus another 1,000 square feet of storage. Its funding request for staffing, operations and other expenses totals just over $333,000.

“We only have space for three main exhibits, and we have a small conference room that we do presentations and performances that only fit about 60 people max,” said Sylvia Morales, information strategist and policy coordinator for the museum.

“Our ask right now for phase one is gonna be at around $330,000 to keep us afloat, to keep us going where we’re initially at right now. We would love in phase two to go into … discussions of where to go next.”

Commissioners who participated in a working group related to the museum’s future suggested space in the redevelopment of Blocks 16 and 18 or in the reconstructed Austin Convention Center as possible long-term options. For the short term, the commissioners plan to work with staff to draft a realistic recommendation for City Council to allocate money from the city budget toward the museum and assist in finding a stopgap space, possibly using an existing city property or facility.

“It’s gonna be really difficult if you ask for all of this money upfront … so how about we break it up into smaller chunks and see if we can get some help that way?” Commissioner Scott Strickland said of the museum’s long-term, multimillion-dollar plans.

“It would be a lot easier for us to approve a plan that’s immediate and help Council recommend something that is more immediate versus looking at something that’s five, seven years out.”

Shorkey said he and other museum stakeholders have reached out to the Texas Music Office and other would-be supporters of music-related efforts in recent years, with no substantial support having yet materialized. In 2017, the state Legislature considered providing space for a state music museum in the Capitol Complex project downtown, but that effort lost support due to objections from other music museums around the state.

Chair Nagavalli Medicharla asked members of the working group and museum representatives to identify the most critical space and budget needs that could be presented to Council in a way that communicates the severity of the deadline to find a new location and financial support.

“One thing to look at is the absolute must-haves and what is on the critical path, and then next would be the nice-to-haves,” she said. “The museum has a larger vision that could see city support but probably also needs much broader support from outside of the city as well.”

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