Through the preservation and exhibition of African American material culture, history, and aesthetic expression, the Carver Museum works to create a space where the global contributions of all Black people are celebrated. We accomplish this by telling stories about our local community and connecting those histories to larger narratives about Blackness.
For interest in the artifact(s) donation procedure please visit our Donations & Collection Information Page.
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IMPORTANT UPDATE: Boyd Vance Theatre renovation closure dates: June 2023 - March 2024
The Carver Museum is open to the public. Entrance is free and walk-ins are available. Masks are strongly encouraged inside the Museum.
Featured Exhibitions
Small Black Museum Residency Project Vol.II
Join us at the Small Black Museum Residency Project Vol. II opening reception Thursday, March 16, 2023 from 5-8PM. This exhibit features multimedia work and installations from our residency artists of Alexis Hunter, Elisha Luckett, and Elizabeth Hudson.
Small Black Museum Residency Project is a three-month residency for three local Black artists to develop new artwork and engage in professional development opportunities. The mission of this residency program is to support and promote both established and emerging artists of African descent who are largely underrepresented in institutions. SBMRP gives artists access to financial and institutional resources that lead to the development and advancement of their professional careers. This program is ideal for artists who have a progressive approach to both content and form and whose work reflects shifting paradigms around race, identity, nation, and place.
On view March 16-July 29, 2023.
Field Order 15: And Other Broken Promises
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In partnership with the Long Center, Carver Museum ATX is proud to announce an upcoming exhibit, Field Order 15: And Other Broken Promises, a multimedia installation that engages artists of African descent around the concept of repair. The exhibition title refers to a Civil War era order issued by William T. Sherman that effectively confiscated 400,000 acres of land previously held by Union forces and reallocated to newly freed Black families in forty-acre segments along the East Coast stretching from Charleston, North Carolina to the St. John’s River in Florida. This ephemeral pledge never came to fruition but is part of the origin story that surrounds reparations for enslaved people and the delegation of 40 acres and a mule to surviving Black descendants of American chattel slavery.
Today, the modern American mortgage system is based on income, credit, and existing assets that are used to buy property and land. However, the first mortgage system in the United States was the slave mortgage system. Modern accounting practices were developed and perfected on plantations, which were effectively forced labor camps. Under this banking structure, Black people were early capitalism’s most valuable commodities: traded, mortgaged, and used as collateral for additional loans. In essence, Black people were gold. As a result, every part of the Black body, including physical labor and intellect, was used to build America. From the cultivation of tobacco by enslaved Africans that fueled and financed the American Revolution to the proliferation of cotton, the singularly barbaric form of slavery practiced in the United States for two and a half centuries has made America one of the wealthiest and most powerful nations in the world.
Coinciding with A Conversation with Ta-Nehisi Coates, Field Order 15 will have a private opening on January 16, 2023 at the Long Center. Ta-Nehisi Coates is an award-winning author and journalist who penned the essay The Case for Reparations in the June 2014 issue of the Atlantic. The paradox of American exceptionalism and the call for reparations is the inspiration for Field Order 15. Eleven artists were asked to consider what is required for America to atone for the continued denial of full citizenship to Black people and what repair would feel like in the body. Themes in the exhibit are presented through a series of short film-based vignettes devised around a series of prompts and displayed next to sculptural and two-dimensional works that explore repair, identity, and contradiction.
Featuring works by Alexis Hunter, Tia Boyd, Queen Deelah, Elizabeth Hudson, Kemi Yemi-Ese, Chris Hills, Moyo Oyelola, Joe Anderson, Carlton Wilcoxson, Elisha Luckett, and Hakeem Adewumi, Field Order 15: And Other Broken Promises will open to the public in the Long Center’s Gallery 701 February 3, 2023 - March 23, 2023. A closing reception will be held on Thursday, March 23, 2023 from 6-8PM at the Long Center's 701 Gallery. Free and open to the public.
Carver Museum Facility Expansion Plan
CarverMusemATX Facility Expansion Plan Process
On Exhibit
History, culture and art exhibits curated to educate and inspire. The Carver Museum has two rotating art galleries as well as four permanent exhibits honoring African-Americans in Austin and beyond.
Programs and Events
The Carver provides culture and arts based programming free and for all ages to allow visitors to connect with community through special events and ongoing learning experiences.
Education Programs and Services
The Carver offers culture and arts classes and educational programs that will come to you.
Genealogy Center
The Genealogy Center provides genealogy databases, workshops and seminars for free.
Learn about what is happening at the Carver from special events, classes, and more.
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