Arts Commission gives early OK for city aid to expand Umlauf museum

The Arts Commission wants City Council to give an initial endorsement to an ambitious plan to improve and expand the Umlauf Sculpture Garden and Museum, which is managed in partnership with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

At Monday’s meeting, the commission received a presentation on the plan for the 8-acre site, which sits on hilly terrain just east of Zilker Metropolitan Park and has a number of accessibility and infrastructure issues that have, to date, constrained its use. Centered on the former home of famed sculptor Charles Umlauf, whose estate donated the homestead and more than 200 pieces of art to the city, the site currently has about 35,000 visitors per year.

The plan, which was completed over the past year by the Page architecture firm, breaks the site into four areas with work broken into three phases, beginning with improvements of existing facilities to address accessibility and visitor experience.

There are no cost estimates for the plan, which would be funded through a multiyear capital campaign as well as public funds, possibly including a portion of a bond package expected to go before voters in 2026.

The request for City Council approval from the Arts Commission was the first in a series of boards and commissions that will get a similar presentation in the coming months. City Council is expected to consider the plan in the fall.

The four areas include a welcome zone known as the Gateway that would dramatically expand classroom, office and meeting areas; a natural zone with trails on the southern portion of the property; the existing sculpture garden and museum; and the Treehouse structure that would provide multilevel access across the various portions of the acreage that have proven difficult to navigate.

Katie Robinson Edwards, executive director of the facility, said the property hasn’t been able to be used to its maximum potential because of the many accessibility issues, which include a lack of readily available parking.

“The original gift of the historic home and studio is not yet open to the public due to inaccessibility code compliance and a required restoration of building systems and finishes,” she said. “There are about 2 acres of green space on the south side of the property that is simply not accessible to the public. It’s too overgrown in there, and the Umlauf site as a whole is about 8 acres – but less than half of that is currently open to the public.”

Richard Weiss, president of Umlauf’s board of directors, said the organization’s leaders will spend the summer determining initial estimates for the Gateway and Treehouse buildings and other preservation and expansion work. He said the early OK from Council could make the facility eligible for city infrastructure spending to address drainage and sustainability issues.

“One of our goals is to try to find as many funding sources as we can. The big one for us is going to be a capital campaign, and once we have more focus on what we’re asking for, we’re going to start that process – and there are a number of grants and city funding that we can look at,” he said. “The goal is to get to Council in the fall and get their endorsement. … Then we can look at some larger things like potentially essentially being a part of the 2026 bond and also being able to access a number of programs that the city currently has that we could tap in to for very specific targeted initiatives.”

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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