Rally Austin eyes affordability programs for creatives in 2026 bond package

Rally Austin, the nonprofit tasked with helping to preserve and expand Austin’s cultural spaces, is eyeing three programs in the city’s upcoming 2026 bond election, including expanding the city’s cultural trust. During a recent meeting of the Austin Music Commission, organization leaders delivered information from its annual report that included a look at plans to seek bond funding to support local music venues, arts spaces and other creative infrastructure projects.

The three programs would potentially be part of a much larger package of programs and capital projects across all city departments that voters will have a chance to approve funding for, including a substantial portfolio of climate-related needs. In addition to more cultural trust funding for creative spaces, Rally Austin is also developing a proposal for a commercial trust program that would specifically benefit legacy businesses. Another major component would target affordability for creative workers by funding rental assistance programs and initiatives to provide more accessible studio, rehearsal and live-work spaces.

Anne Gatling Haynes, the group’s chief transaction officer, said the expansion into specifically serving legacy businesses and creative workspace needs throughout the city would let Rally Austin address its affordability mission in new ways.

“What we’ve learned is we are supporting legacy businesses, making sure that we can have some funding available for supporting legacy businesses as well,” she said, also noting that the organization is not currently structured to offer immediate aid for venues or arts spaces that find themselves displaced due to sudden market changes. “We want to expand the cultural trust. As we’ve been working, we know that there’s much unmet need and there’s many more facilities that need support, especially in the next eight years.”

Haynes said the inclusion of creative studios and work spaces is supported by the early results of a recently concluded affordability survey that showed those kinds of properties are also in short supply.

“It’s the working spaces, it’s the studios, it’s the rehearsal spaces, it’s the storage, it’s the things that are becoming less and less able to be located for a lot of our cultural arts spaces,” she said. “We really want to focus on affordable workspace and workforce initiatives … something that would delve a little bit more into the types of infrastructure that really helps support the day-to-day working and potentially living spaces that our artists are finding harder and harder to find.”

Haynes said the affordability survey received a strong response from the local creative community, providing extensive data on the challenges faced by venue operators and artists. The organization is currently analyzing the results, which will be released in phases over the next few months, with the findings helping to shape future guidelines for Cultural Trust spaces, particularly regarding rental affordability and sustainable leasing practices.

Initial insights reveal that more than half of the responding venues are nonprofits, with nearly half in operation for over 20 years. Many of these spaces focus on performing arts and music, but the majority rent rather than own their locations, making them vulnerable to rising costs.

Among individual and organizational renters, Haynes said most rely on creative work for income with a significant portion of their earnings going toward space rental cost, which was overwhelmingly cited as the primary barrier to securing long-term workspace.

Looking at the group’s involvement in the redevelopment of Blocks 16 and 18, Haynes said creative workspace – potentially involving students from Huston-Tillotson University – will be in the mix along with a substantial amount of affordable housing and affordably priced commercial space.

Rally Austin plans to release a more detailed report from the survey by the end of March, with plans to discuss the results with survey participants before hosting a public panel discussion.

Photo by R.L. Cheng, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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