Archiving Cultural Spaces in Austin, Texas
About the Atlas
“Critical Cartographies of Southern Cultures” is an ongoing archival atlas project, developed to visualize and spatialize contemporary cultural spaces in Austin, Texas (Somi’sek). The spatial precedent for this dataset was the CAMP study conducted in 2018, linked below.
As cultural spaces in the American South are on the margins of spatial recognition and funding, they are rapidly transforming in their cartographies of connection and artmaking. This atlas studies spatial concentrations of cultural centers in Austin in relation to socioeconomic measures of wellbeing in the city.
Though this atlas explores cultural spaces in Austin, taking the 78724 zip code as a case study, it is by no means definitive. As cartographers, we should always question spatial data that is missing, fragmented, incomplete– gesturing towards the South’s rapidly vanishing resources and archives dedicated to the arts and cultural spaces. This atlas calls attention to the invisibility of cultural centers past and present, as much as their visibility on the map. What spaces are omitted? What spaces choose to not be seen?
These are not just points represented on a geographic information systems model, rather these are spaces where relationships form, where ideas are shared, where kinship is revived. By examining spatial representations of cultural spaces, we can begin to understand planning pathways to bolster and sustain their material presence for generations to come.
Sources include:
CAMP: The Cultural Asset Mapping ProjectCity of Austin Displacement Risk Areas 2022
Texas Commission for the Arts Approved Funding 2024Thrive GrantUprooted: Residential Displacement in Austin’s Gentrifying Neighborhoods and What Can Be Done About It: A Report Median Income in the Past 12 Months (in 2022 Inflation-Adjusted Dollars)
Maps Included in the Atlas