Block Party Time! Last Saturday The Blanton Museum of Art threw a big party and opened up their doors—and their lawn—to the public. The Blanton was celebrating the remodeling / reopening of their upstairs galleries, plus the opening of a new temporary exhibit on the first floor.

The block party ran from 11 AM to 11 PM. The museum was fairly crowded when I visited around mid-day, and a friend later told me that the place was completely packed in the late afternoon. Food and drinks were available for purchase, and live music was scheduled throughout the day. The Austin Community Steelband and the Lamar Middle School Jazz Factory performed while I was there.

Since admission was waived for the day, the indoor museum galleries were crowded as well. There was even a small crowd gathered around one of their newer acquisitions, which has also become one of my favorites: Poetic Justice by artist Tania Bruguera. The wall label describes this piece as a “mixed media construction with used tea bags stitched to canvas and digital video.”

Another popular spot was inside the Mission/Missions (How to Build Cathedrals) exhibit by Cildo Meireles. I’m not sure that children were allowed to play with the 6,000 pennies in this piece. But no one was stopping them, and they were certainly having fun.

Some of the family-friendly activities were related to the new first-floor exhibit, Nina Katchadourian: Curiouser. The artist spoke about her work later in the day, but I could not stay to listen. Her exhibit will be open through June 11, 2017.

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