Austin’s famous street art park, the HOPE Outdoor Gallery, has been a creative hub for graffiti artists and a top cultural destination, both well-loved by locals and internationally recognized, for the past several years at its location on Baylor Street. As you may have read in recent news, the Historic Landmark Commission approved the demolition of the HOPE Outdoor Gallery. But this is not the end for our favorite art park! The gallery will relocate later this year to 58-acre Carson Creek Ranch, on the banks of the Colorado River near the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport.

The vision for the new HOPE Outdoor Gallery includes a series of walls available for artist installations, where from above, it will be shaped to display the word HOPE — a visible sign to planes flying into AIBA. Highlights of the new space include plenty of parking, art classes for kids, a safe & easily accessible space for visitors, and lots of wall space for muralists.

While we definitely look forward to seeing the new incarnation of the Hope Outdoor Gallery, we are feeling pretty sentimental about our beloved downtown graffiti park. Thankfully the process of moving the outdoor gallery will not happen overnight. Demotion had been scheduled for sometime in June 2018, but is now being pushed back until Fall of 2018.

With time to still take a visit, we encourage you to go — whether you’re checking it out for a first time or a last time. The downtown location is unlike anything else. It’s a really unique, vibrant part of the Austin community, and something to experience in its original urban environment. It’s been “keeping Austin weird” for many years, and we love that.

If you have not been before, take note that you never know what you’re going to find. It’s public, open and ever-changing. Some days you’ll see artists creating a beautiful large work of art, and some days you might just see a group tagging away without (seemingly) quite as much artistic vision. Regardless, it’s a colorful mix of styles that’s fun to check out. And if you want to view some of the best past works of art, you can visit the official Facebook page for a great gallery.

Parking is limited and can be a challenge. Try to go on a weekday or early morning and avoid the busy weekend afternoon crowds. You will definitely want to wear good footwear so you can explore up the steep hill and climb around the rather rough surfaces. Be sure to snap some photos so that someday when you talk to the kids about “Austin in the old days” you can show them that you “were there when”.

Want to help preserve a part of the old park? There’s a plan to move a memorial wall from the Baylor St. location to the new site, and you can help support the public art space by buying a brick with your name engraved on it, which will be included at the new location. Visit hopecampaign.org/hope-art-park-fundraiser for details and to learn more about all the new plans for the HOPE Outdoor Gallery.

Have any tips about visiting the HOPE Outdoor Gallery with kids?
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