Local artist Victor Hardy highlights a number of his home city’s most celebrated cultural highlights.
From music, theater, and film to food, drink, and countless other points of interest, Austin, Texas, is widely celebrated for its rich culture. Buoyed by the diversity and eccentricity of many of those who call Austin home, award-winning local artist Victor Hardy provides a closer look at culture and contemporary life in the city – the capital of the state of Texas and the 11th-most populous in the United States.
“Austin is celebrated for everything from its live music, theater, and film to its annual cultural events, cuisine and breweries, libraries, museums, galleries, and more,” explains Hardy, a multi-award-winning artist and proud Austin resident.
The capital city of the state of Texas, Austin is also the seat and largest city of Travis County. The southernmost state capital in the contiguous United States, it’s also the nation’s fastest-growing large city, according to local artist Victor Hardy.
Known in particular for its live music scene, Texas barbecue, and Tex-Mex cuisine, the city hosts a variety of annual events centered around the Texas state capital’s cultural highlights. “These,” says Hardy, “include Austin City Limits Music Festival, Art City Austin, Texas Relay Weekend, the Austin Reggae Festival, annual festival and competitive cook-off Spamarama, the city’s famous Kite Festival, and the Texas Craft Brewers Festival, among many others.”
According to the local artist, Austin is also home to a number of famous cultural hubs, including the Austin Central Library and the Austin History Center. The city’s Central Library, he goes on to point out, boasts a sixth-floor rooftop garden, large indoor and outdoor event spaces, and an art gallery. “In fact,” Hardy reveals, “in 2018, the Austin Central Library was named as one of Time magazine’s ‘World’s Greatest Places.'”
Largely regarded as the live music capital of the world, Austin, Texas, also has a strong theater and movie culture, and hosts a number of annual film festivals including the Austin Film Festival and SXSW Film Festival, according to artist Victor Hardy.
Other cultural points of interest, meanwhile, he goes on to suggest, extend to the George Washington Carver Museum and Cultural Center, the Texas Memorial Museum, the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, the Blanton Museum of Art, and the Bob Bullock Texas State History Museum.
“Austin’s Sixth Street is also a cultural and music hub for the city,” adds Hardy, wrapping up, “as is multi-acre outdoor art, music, and performance space, the magical Enchanted Forest, in South Austin.”