The Off Beat: Music Commission adopts recommendation to support Texas Music Museum: Commission proposes that Council direct $850,000 in aid to Eastside Gallery – Columns

The Music Commission this month passed a recommendation that the City Council provide $850,000 to the Texas Music Museum — the subject of Off Beat's Aug. 2 column — to support expansion of the Eastside Gallery, archive preservation and staff.

At the group's Aug. 5 meeting, Secretary Scott Strickland spoke on behalf of a working group that has been working with the museum for the past few months on a presentation to the city. The museum had originally requested $333,300 to help it tide over and find a larger exhibition space (more help is planned in the future), but Strickland said the team of commissioners came up with the higher amount after consulting with Councilmember Natasha Harper-Madison.

“Natasha Harper-Madison's city office has assured us that this is not a big request at all. That it is very easily doable,” Strickland said. Rather than initiating a budget amendment, Strickland said the city already has funds available to help the museum with its most important priority: ensuring its wealth of archives – including sheet music, vinyl, photographs and interviews conducted by President Clay Shorkey – are properly preserved. Secondary requests include finding a larger building for the museum and increasing the staff budget.

“I know it's a very, very big challenge for the Music Commission to make a recommendation like this,” Strickland said. “But I firmly believe that this is about the future of Austin, and I believe this is specifically about the future of culture in Austin.” The recommendation was passed unanimously.

Commissioners addressed other recurring issues at the August meeting. Citing previous requests by the Red River Cultural District to receive appropriate funding from the city, comparable to that of Austin's Black Cultural District and the Mexican American Heritage Corridor, Vice Chair Anne-Charlotte Patterson put forward a recommendation to create a framework policy for the economic and cultural district.

Patterson said the policy created by the Economic Development Department addresses the Red River Cultural District's concerns by providing “good boundaries” for how much support each local cultural district can get. “I want to show that the Music Commission supports this because it obviously affects our music venues that support our artists,” she said. “So I think any support we can give to the music community is a good thing.” The Economic Development Department will present the policy to the City Council on Aug. 29.