Culture Flash!

Tapestry Dance Company will have a 2004-2005 season after all. There was some question about that last month, when the company learned that its cultural contract with the city for 2005 was down $11,000 from the previous year. (And it could've been down $26,000 if City Council hadn't adopted an alternative funding formula offsetting that cut by $15,000.) This being the third year running that Tapestry has taken a hefty hit in city funding (owing to drops in bed-tax revenue), the company was cumulatively about $40,000 short of where it needed to be budgetwise, which meant it couldn't pay the company dancers to rehearse its season opener, In the Pocket. An emergency call for support went out, with Executive/Artistic Director Acia Gray establishing a Sept. 30 deadline for raising $30,000. If the goal wasn't met, the season would be cancelled. Well, in just over two weeks Tapestry received $30,000 of the $40,000 it needed. So In the Pocket will go on as scheduled Oct. 29-30 at the Paramount Theatre. Now, the company still needs that remaining $10K. You can show your support by sending a donation to: Tapestry Dance Company, 507-B Pressler, Austin, TX 78703. For more information, call 695-6560.

Austin infiltrates Marfa this weekend as Plan B Gallery and D Berman Gallery take a cattle trailer's worth of local artwork to the West Texas outpost of contemporary art. The road trip coincides with Open House, the annual free festival of art, music, meals, and lectures for the locals and all the international art lovers who trek out to Marfa. It's become quite the scene since minimalist artist and Chinati Foundation founder Donald Judd launched the fest in 1987; now, more than 1,000 tourists from all over the world make it to Open House. From Friday, Oct. 8 through Sunday, Oct. 10, Plan B and D Berman are taking over the AMVETS Building, 303 S. Highland St., in Marfa, to showcase art by more than 20 Austinites, including Brian Bowers, Denise Prince Martin, Sodalitas, Michael Ray Charles, Faith Gay, Lance Letscher, and Sydney Yeager. For more information, call 441-6422 (Plan B) or 477-8877, or visit www.dbermangallery.com or www.planbstudio.com.

If you haven't swung by Congress Avenue lately, you might want to make a special trip and welcome the new resident: Angelina Eberly. The statue of this 19th-century defender of the city – the second contribution of the civic group Capital Area Statues, the folks behind the Philosophers' Rock statue at Barton Springs – was unveiled Sept. 26. Artist Patrick Oliphant – yes, the legendary political cartoonist – really captured the vigorous, determined spirit of the capital's citizens; he's made a fine contribution to the city. And this week sees his second contribution to Central Texas: a statue of the masterful Texas writer John Graves, which will be unveiled Friday, Oct. 8 in the Albert B. Alkek Library of Texas State University in San Marcos. For more information, call 512/245-2313 or visit www.swwc.txstate.edu.

Remember all that art that was hidden around Austin and later London? That's right: "Cracks in the Pavement: Gifts in the Urban Landscape." Well, the locally generated project was featured in "Connect the Dots," a recent exhibition at Columbia University in New York City that explored the emerging practice of artists curating projects and the "models of connectivity" that have been created. For more information, visit www.cracksinthepavement.com.