On the south shore of Lady Bird Lake, a sweeping crescent of a building guards Austin’s Latino cultural flame. The Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center — the ESB-MACC, designed with Teodoro González de León inspiration — opened in 2007 after decades of community advocacy from East Austin.
Its two galleries rotate exhibitions by Latino and Chicano artists; its theater and plaza host the city’s signature celebrations — Diez y Seis, Día de los Muertos, the Austin Latino Arts Festival spirit — and its Latino Arts Residency Program incubates the next generation of Austin’s Latino theatre, music and visual artists. Classes in everything from ballet folklórico to screen printing fill its studios year-round.
It’s less a museum than a movement with an address — Austin’s Latino arts, housed beautifully by the lake.
