A North Austin Branch Library exhibition with artwork inspired by a series of roundtable discussions on how the community changed over time will open this month.
Titled “Voices of North Austin: Changes Over Time,” the exhibition, featuring the work of visual artist Antonia Ruppert, was two years in the making.
“I have to thank Arystine Danner, the director at the North Austin Branch Library, who thought it might be a good idea to gather people together to talk about those changes,” Ruppert explained.
Those discussions took place the summer of 2022 with both laughter and tears as residents shared experiences and memories that are reflected in exhibition pieces. A Caucasian resident who did not leave the community also took part in the roundtable.
Danner suggested bringing North Austin residents together after hearing from a Woodson Regional Library archivist that there was very little, if any, research information on North Austin.
“Even though North Austin is part of Austin, technically, it’s its own community,” Danner said. “So, I thought we need to get some stuff.”
A funding opportunity made it possible.
“I chose to get the voices of people who lived in the community for over 30 years who’ve seen the changes in North Austin including white flight that occurred in Austin in general,” she said.
Danner and her family moved to Austin 50 years ago when she was 12. Her family, she said, was the second or third African-American family on her block.
“Within months the family on the right of us and the left of us had moved,” Danner said.
The roundtable discussions and will be archived within the Chicago library system as a way to ensure North Austin has a place in Chicago history, as opposed to being swallowed up by Austin, Danner added.
As for today, Danner attributes crime in Austin in general to drugs, a breakdown in the Black family structure and overall lack of resources.
Family and community unification and supporting Black-owned businesses are necessary for North Austin to thrive, she said.
Ruppert’s work celebrates the resilience of individuals and their hope as they continue to deal with systemic racism.
“My artwork is my interpretation of a couple of things filtered through the idea that as a little girl, I was a member of this community and coming up I saw things happen and not realizing I was part of a system,” Ruppert said. “My artwork is depicted from my lens but also from my interpretation of what I was told through these interviews.”
Ruppert is proud of her work featuring portraits of Austin community members and includes collaborations.
Her acrylic portraits are complemented with collage, integrating the speakers’ words onto the image as a way to preserve the roundtable voices for generations to come.
“We are producing a hanging piece where Mary Griffin, who is in the community, is taking some words such as one of the speakers saying she came to the community because it was a safe community and she wanted a better education, and put that onto a piece. I’m doing the background with layers, color, mostly abstraction. The rest of the pieces are all mine.”
Residents are also involved with doing some of the underpainting.
“Some of that work you won’t see because I went over it with the portrait work, ” Ruppert clarified. “We came together to teach them my technique and how I work. Quite a few hands got to work on these pieces.”
When asked if artistic expression is an outlet for communities to use a healing process from the trauma of high crime, Ruppert said, “Art is the way we heal the community. It’s the expression, otherwise what do we have?
Included in the exhibition is a piece called “A Healing Guide,” created by Rupperts’ two daughters.
“One of them is a therapist and the other one is a graphic design student at Iowa State University,” Ruppert said. “Under my direction, the therapist put together information about how you cope and get beyond issues of violence and the systemic things that have happened over time. We have about 12 pages or so and information on where you can go in the community for therapy, healing. My other daughter designed it. It looks amazing.”
As the artist in residence in Austin from 2020 to 2021, one of the things Ruppert said back then was that she wanted to be able to have young people walk outside their door and look out and see art that looks like them. It’s still something she would like to see manifest.
The exhibition at the North Austin Branch runs from January 20 – March 30.
A reception will be held Feb. 17 from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
