Elisabet Ney Museum is Closed for Renovations beginning on December 30, 2024
The Museum is Anticipated to Reopen in the Summer of 2026
The Elisabet Ney Museum is the historic home and studio of Elisabet Ney, a wildly iconoclastic German sculptor who moved to Austin in 1882. The museum enthusiastically celebrates her art, her history and her legacy through exhibitions and events for the whole family.
The museum enjoys numerous historic designations and is a cornerstone of the Hyde Park National Register Historic Neighborhood. Admission is free.
Take our Interpretive Landscape Survey, your voice matters: https://publicinput.com/re-imagining-ney
Menu of Cross-Curricular, TEKs-Aligned Lessons
About Us | Programs/Events/Services | Exhibits | Get Involved
The Elisabet Ney Museum, 304 East 44th St., will close to the public on December 30, 2024, for much needed renovations.
The 3,700-square-foot museum, the 19th century art studio and residence of sculptor Elisabet Ney, receives 21,000 local, national, and international visitors each year and holds federal, state and local historic landmark designations. A Capital Improvement Project as well as Interpretive and Landscape Plans will include extensive interior and exterior renovation of the facility and grounds.
The museum anticipates reopening in the summer of 2026. For additional information about Elisabet Ney Museum improvements, visit the project page.
Capital Improvement Project
The Capital Improvement Project (CIP) includes restoration of original exterior wood doors and windows, upgrades and replacement of the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning system, replacement of the exhibit and general lighting systems, repairs to the roof, masonry, plumbing, and interior finishes.
Exterior work includes replacing the pedestrian bridge across Waller Creek and installation of accessible pathways, to better connect the museum’s grounds. The site work also includes approximately 20,000 square feet of Waller Creek bank stabilization.
Funding for this restoration project is provided through 2012 Bond, Proposition 14, the Parkland Dedication Fund, the Historic Preservation Fund, Partners in Preservation through the National Trust, and contributions from the Friends of the Elisabet Ney Museum.
Interpretive and Landscape Plans
Begun in 2023 and informed by extensive research and a robust public engagement campaign, the museum's new interpretive plan will enhance the format for which the museum shares Elisabet Ney’s life and work through exhibits and programs. Implementation of the interpretive plan will occur once the CIP building renovation project is complete and prior to the reopening.
In addition to this new interpretation in the museum, a landscape rehabilitation plan created by a local landscape architecture team seeks to improve access throughout the historic landscape, create an outdoor classroom space, and construct a new entryway plaza. The City and contractors anticipate beginning this landscape work in 2026.
Funding for the interpretive plan and landscape plan is made possible in part by the Friends of the Elisabet Ney Museum, individual donors, and grants from the Stillwater Foundation, National Trust, City of Austin Economic Development Department, and Austin Parks Foundation.
On Exhibit
The Elisabet Ney Museum houses the World’s largest collection of this remarkable woman’s work, spanning the 1850s through her death at the site in 1907, along with furnishings and ephemera. The Museum also exhibits contemporary artists in the building as well as on the grounds, much of which features a Historic Prairie Landscape Restoration that mimics what Miss Ney found when she purchased the property in 1882. For tours of the building and these collections, see below.
For more information visit our exhibits page.
Highlighted Events and Tours
The Elisabet Ney Museum engages over 25,000 visitors per year in tours, events, festivals, openings and lectures, the most popular being POLKAPOCALYPSE! Tours are suggested during open hours and upon request. For more information, visit our Programs, Events, and Services page.
Education
An early leader of the Texas Women’s Movement and a vigorous Civil Rights, education and arts advocate, Miss Ney was one of a kind. School groups get curriculum-aligned tours of the site ranging from Pre-K to High School, featuring art, history, science, and multi-disciplinary STEAM programming.
- Breaking the Mold: Hands on Art Crates
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Project overview
Breaking the Mold: Mobile Hands-On Art Crates is an educational outreach program designed to bring art, history, and creativity directly into Austin elementary classrooms and reach beyond the walls of the museum. Inspired by the life and work of Neoclassical sculptor Elisabet Ney, this program connects three contemporary female artists (Virginia L Montgomery [VLM], Beili Liu, and Tammie Rubin) with key themes from Ney’s legacy. Each artist-designed interactive art crate—modeled after the traditional crates used to transport Ney’s sculptures—explores the intersections of art, history, science, and math. Paired with a dynamic curriculum, these art crates offer AISD students unique, hands-on learning experiences that foster critical thinking and creativity.
For more information on Breaking the Mold: Mobile Hands-On Art Crates, please email the Education Coordinator at lindsay.barras@austintexas.gov or call 512-974-1625
- Menu of Cross-Curricular, TEKs-Aligned Lessons
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1. Art through Portraiture: Science and Technology in the 19th Century will examine Ney’s work as a sculptor. The lessons will give students the opportunity to learn about the scientific and mathematical elements that informed Ney’s execution of portrait statues.
2. Women on The Frontier: Elisabet Ney’s Artistic Perspective on Texas History, students will learn about Texas History through technological projects.
3. Life as a Naturalist: Elisabet Ney’s perspective on art and science through nature, will focus on the connection between Ney’s views as a naturalist and her work as an artist.
Get Involved
To find out more about volunteer opportunities, please email the Education Coordinator at lindsay.barras@austintexas.gov or call 512-974-1625
Physical Address: 304 East 44th Street, Austin, 78751
Elisabet Ney Biography
Formosa Studio
In 1892, European portrait sculptress Elisabet Ney (1833-1907) purchased property in Austin, established a studio named Formosa and resumed her career as a noted sculptor of notables.
At Formosa, Ney sculpted legendary Texans, among them Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston. Ney also assembled at her American studio portraits of European notables, including King Ludwig II of Bavaria, Otto von Bismarck, Arthur Schopenhauer and Jacob Grimm rendered from life as a young artist in Europe.
From Studio to Museum
At the turn of the 19th century, Elisabet Ney’s studio became a gathering place for influential Texans drawn to “Miss Ney” and to the stimulating discussions of politics, art and philosophy that took place there. Following Ney’s death in 1907, her friends preserved the studio and its contents as the Elisabet Ney Museum and established the Texas Fine Arts Association dedicated to her memory.
About the Museum
The Elisabet Ney Museum is listed on the National Register of Historic Places based on its significance as the former American studio of Elisabet Ney. The museum is also a member of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Historic Artists’ Homes and Studios program. Unless otherwise indicated, the portraits and personal memorabilia in the Elisabet Ney Museum form the Elisabet Ney Collection of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center of the University of Texas at Austin.
Additional Information
