Austin Green Art

For years now, all kinds of folks have been jockeying to get a piece of Block 21, that cherce hunk of Downtown real estate just north of City Hall, but now the art gang at Austin Green Art can lay claim to being the first to get their hands on it … for a week, anyway. The city gave them the green light, as it were, to "rock the block" April 15-22 as part of Austin Green Art's plan to make Earth Day a major city celebration. So last Thursday, April 13, mastermind Randy Jewart convened a Green Art brain trust, including Chris Fennell, creator of Cedar Moth, to determine how they could transform 40,000 square feet of urban vacant lot into an art park. Then they moved bamboo, hay, sticks, branches, cedar, and 20 of their Green Gates onto the site and let volunteers create a massive temporary artwork reminiscent of the Wooldridge Park hay installation of two years ago. On Saturday, April 22, the block will be Earth Day command central, with food, music, community art-making, environmental-technology demos, a light show, and a concert featuring David Garza, Roky Erickson, and Alejandro Escovedo at 5pm. (On Saturday and Sunday, at 2pm, you can also catch Austin Green Art's Earth Day-inspired performance festival, Extravagreenza, over at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden, 600 Robert E. Lee.) For more information, visit www.austingreenart.org.