The Shepard Fairey mural installation scheduled for 2 p.m. yesterday in Austin was hastily cancelled yesterday morning. Apparently, the artist, who was going to be in town for SXSW had contacted UT’s College of Fine Arts and offered to do a mural on one of its buildings. (From what I can figure out, Fairey’s team was going to post his posters.) In the excitement of getting art by the artist of the moment, there was an attempt to condense the traditionally lengthy review process for university public art into the space of a week. It seems the dean of the College of Fine Arts, Doug Dempster stepped in and halted – er, postponed – things. The current plan seems to be to do a – well-reviewed – project at a later date and have Fairey engage with UT students. Spontaneous street art, meet university bureaucracy. (See the salient press release excerpts in Roy Neinast’s "Hustletown" blog.)
Nevermind…
