A few leafy blocks from Zilker Park, bronze figures dance, reach and rest among bamboo groves and native plantings. The UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum is Austin’s quiet masterpiece, the former home, studio and garden of sculptor Charles Umlauf and his wife Angeline.
Umlauf taught at the University of Texas for forty years and became one of Texas’s most beloved artists, his expressive bronzes filling churches, universities and public spaces across the state. In 1991 the family gave the property to the city, and today visitors wander winding paths where dozens of his works stand among the trees exactly as he placed them.
The garden changes with the light and the seasons, and the small gallery rotates exhibitions that pair Umlauf’s work with contemporary artists. Family days, yoga among the statues and evening openings keep the place gently alive rather than hushed.
Every city needs a room with no walls where art and nature share the rent. In Austin it is the UMLAUF, and Happy City News sends every art lover who visits us straight to its green shade.
