In Living Memory

IN LIVING MEMORY
ECHOES ATX × George Washington Carver Museum

Black and Hispanic Austinites have long made place here. Through neighborhood businesses and local cuisines, music and art, churches and gathering spaces, organizing, family traditions, and everyday life, generations have built spaces of their own and profoundly shaped Austin's cultural life. Their histories are distinct, but have also unfolded across neighboring and overlapping parts of the city, including East Austin and historically Black and Mexican American communities in South Austin.

But cities do not remember evenly. As Austin changes, so do the people and institutions with the power to decide what stays, what is preserved, and what disappears. Buildings are torn down. Neighborhoods change. Families move. Familiar places take on new names and uses. The people who made a place meaningful may no longer be able to remain there, even as their influence continues to shape what that place becomes.

Still, we work to remember one another. We remember lives lived and childhoods, friends and family, local legends, homes and businesses, places of worship, celebrations and losses. Through photographs, stories, objects, artworks, and the preservation of everyday places and experiences, we mark ourselves and one another into history.

Presented by ECHOES ATX at the George Washington Carver Museum, In Living Memory brings together ten contemporary artists exploring the memory, presence, and imagination of Black and Hispanic Austin. Visitors will encounter portraits of East Austin neighbors and local figures, documentary photography, Super 8 film, a towering Tejana family ofrenda, oral histories, family archives, and multimedia installations. These works bring personal and collective histories into conversation with a city that continues to change around them.

The participating artists are Dr. Robyn B. Adams, Brandon Boone, Bieke Campos, Larry Choyce, Via Madison Ceaser, Reneiss Ilisha Garcia, Alejandro Hendricks, Faiza Kracheni, Leslie Lozano (Ella Ella), and Chia Webb-Cázares. Their work has reached audiences locally and nationally: Adams is the ACLU of Texas's 2026–27 Artist-in-Residence; Hendricks's film Airport BLVD premiered at the 2026 Tribeca Festival; Lozano has performed at Coachella and SXSW; and Campos has been featured through Mexic-Arte Museum's Changarrito residency and mural programming.

Moving through three themes: place, memory, and legacy. The exhibition begins with a series of questions: How do we make a place for ourselves on our own terms? What do we carry with us from the people, places, and memories that shaped us? What do we inherit, and what do we leave for those who come after us?

In Living Memory looks to memory and archives not only as records of the past, but as things we continue to carry, interpret, and bring into the present. Remembering can be an act of care, self-definition, and reverence: a way of honoring what came before us while considering what we carry forward.

The exhibition asks what we make, what we carry, and what we leave.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS AND CURATORIAL CREDITS 

Lead curator: Shania Montúfar
Curatorial collaboration and artist selection: Freddie Crocheron, George Washington Carver Museum
ECHOES ATX co-founders: Shania Montúfar and Jay Ybarra
Presented by ECHOES ATX in collaboration with the George Washington Carver Museum; fiscally sponsored by Future Front Texas.

PLAN YOUR VISIT

Opening celebration — Friday, November 13, 2026, 6–9 PM. Free admission, music and refreshments, exhibition viewing, and opportunities to meet the artists. Reservations strongly encouraged.

Reserve the free opening reception: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-living-memory-opening-reception-at-the-carver-museum-tickets-2003185571970

Austin Studio Tour — November 14–15 and November 21–22, 2026, planned 11 AM–5 PM each day. Sunday opening hours are pending final Carver staffing confirmation; the RSVP page will show available dates.

Reserve a free Austin Studio Tour visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-living-memory-austin-studio-tour-weekends-at-the-carver-tickets-2003185647195

Regular exhibition visits — November 2026 through January 2027, during scheduled museum hours. Free regular-visit reservations are currently offered through December 31; January dates will be added when confirmed.

Reserve a free regular gallery visit: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/in-living-memory-free-exhibition-visits-at-the-carver-museum-tickets-2003185671267

Admission is always free. Visitors who are able to contribute are encouraged to consider an optional $5–$10 donation to ECHOES ATX. No donation is required.

George Washington Carver Museum, Cultural and Genealogy Center
1165 Angelina Street, Austin, TX 78702

Community volunteers are welcome to help greet visitors and support exhibition activities.

Sign up to volunteer with ECHOES ATX: https://www.givepulse.com/event/950661

This project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment.