Austin Museum of Art - Arthouse

A new museum born of creative destruction
Noteworthy for: Two art powerhouses team up and plunge headlong into an exciting, unscripted future.

In November 2011, two galleries - the Austin Museum of Art and Arthouse - merged to form this new entity. Both organizations were slammed by the recession, but the sale of AMOA's downtown property funded a healthy endowment for the new museum. AMOA moved its collection to Arthouse's bright and airy historic building, and a collaboration was born.
AMOA's collection includes works from the last 100 years, while Arthouse has always focused strictly on contemporary pieces. While the work collected by AMOA is generally mainstream and Texas-focused, Arthouse has built its reputation on avant-garde and conceptual art. In fact, some of Arthouse's recent exhibits couldn't be contained within the building: 'Failed States', by Jill Magid, included an armored car parked a few blocks away.

The combination of these two institutions may get messy, but it's bound to be interesting.