The Contemporary Austin is Austin, Texas's primary community art museum, consisting of two primary locations and an art school. The Contemporary Austin reflects the spectrum of contemporary art through exhibitions, commissions, education, and the collection. Locally, the museum is often referred to as The Contemporary.HistoryIn 1911, the Texas Fine Arts Association was formed. Through the years, TFAA acquired the Laguna Gloria Art Museum, later becoming the Austin Museum of Art and the Jones Center for Contemporary Art, which later changed to Arthouse at the Jones Center. In November 2011, AMOA celebrated 50 years in the community and merged with Arthouse at the Jones Center, rejoining the two primary organizations that constituted the TFAA. The Contemporary Austin is the result of the transformation of a century-old museum and school, AMOA-Arthouse, into a new entity with a distinctive vision and mission to unite the museum’s two major venues, Laguna Gloria and the Jones Center.The Contemporary Austin - Jones CenterDesigned by architects Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis, The Contemporary Austin - Jones Center includes 5,100 square feet of exhibition space, along with a community room and roof-top deck for events and educational programming. In 2015 it was announced that the building would undergo a renovation and expansion that will bring the total exhibition space to more than 7,000 square feet and add a permanent, 21-foot-high canopy to the roof top space.The Contemporary Austin - Laguna GloriaThe museum still maintains its original home on the Clara Driscoll estate, where it was known for 34 years as Laguna Gloria Art Museum. Once owned by Stephen F. Austin, the Laguna Gloria site has been declared a national treasure and is on city, state, and national registers of historic places. Visitors can view the restored 1916 Italianate-style Driscoll Villa that was the home of Texas legend and Laguna Gloria founder Clara Driscoll. The site consists of 14-acres overlooking Lake Austin, and, in addition to the historic Driscoll Villa, includes the Gatehouse Gallery and the Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria, where visitors may view temporary, long-term, and permanent contemporary sculpture and art installations.
