Landmarks

Landmarks is the award-winning public art program of The University of Texas at Austin and  one of the most important public art programs at an American university. Presented throughout Austin’s main campus, Landmarks’ collection features modern and contemporary art by some of the most prominent and promising artists of our time. Beyond beautifying campus, the collection encourages critical thinking and dialogue, and fosters a lifelong appreciation of the arts. Most importantly, Landmarks is open to all, 24/7, free of charge.

Landmarks launched in 2008 with an historic, ongoing loan of 28 sculptures from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Since that time, Landmarks has commissioned or acquired roughly 1-2 new projects per year, expanding the collection to nearly 50 works of art. An extension of the collection, Landmarks Video features a rotating selection of influential video art from the past six decades.

Landmarks provides multiple points of entry for engaging its diverse audiences. Public offerings include monthly tours, music performances, and artist lectures. Its website and mobile app feature scholarly essays, self-guided tours, artist videos, music playlists, and activity guides for all ages.

Robust volunteer and internship programs support learning and growth. The Landmarks Preservation Guild provides opportunities for students to learn conservation and maintenance techniques. A dedicated team of docents give tours throughout the year, building their public speaking skills while bringing the collection to life for broad audiences. Paid interns in Landmarks’ education and communications departments receive training that prepares them for the workforce as the next generation of arts professionals.

By bringing great art to The University of Texas at Austin, Landmarks enriches the lives of students and visitors, engaging thousands of people each day. It is a point of pride for the university and an integral part of the Longhorn experience.

Landmarks Announces Completion of Endowment Campaign – 5 April 2023 (pdf link)

At UT’s public art program, the effort to diversify is underway
Sightlines, 31 July 2021
In the last year, museums and cultural institutions have rushed to release statements about their support of social justice issues. But evidence of substantial change is scant. Turns out, at Landmarks, The Public Art Program of The University of Texas at Austin, the DEIA work has been underway for several years already.

School of Arts
Tribeza, 01 November 2019
Take time to explore the University of Texas Landmarks program, a collection of more than 40 works of distinguished public art, spread across campus, all free and open to the public. Some pieces are practically hidden in plain sight. Others are impossible to miss. Here are 10 selections from the program that are worth seeking out.

UT’s Landmarks Wins its Fifth National Award for Public Art
Glasstire, 14 June 2019
This year among the Texas-based winners of [Public Art Network's Year in Review award] is José Parlá’s Amistad América. a 4,000-square-foot mural inside the University of Texas at Austin’s Robert B. Rowling Hall. The piece was commissioned and unveiled in 2018 by Landmarks, UT’s acclaimed public art program. This is Landmarks' fifth national award from AFTA.

Curating on Campus: A Dialogue
Andrée Bober and Amanda Douberley, Public Art Dialogue, 19 May 2017
People walk around campus every day as a student or a staff member or faculty, so they have a unique opportunity for the art to unfold. It's different from a museum experience. You're building a collection where people can really live with it and see some of these connections, and forge new ones as the collection changes over time.

UT's Public Arts Program Debuts an Ambitious New Project
Robert Faires, The Austin Chronicle, 27 January 2017
The more one learns about O N E E V E R Y O N E, the more it seems a natural extension of what Landmarks has always done: utilize art to spark and engage public spaces on UT's campus. Bober doesn't disagree: "You can look at this as a continuation of exactly what we set out to do: to provide great works of art that are of a really high quality, that are accessible to everyone, that are free. It's like another step forward – another giant step forward."

6 Unbelievable Public Art Pieces at The University of Texas
Kelli McDonald, The Austinot, 23 June 2015
The University of Texas campus contains a large community. For those who don’t have a direct connection to this part of town, it can be daunting to navigate or even considered an area to avoid. For art lovers, this is a huge mistake.

STREET ART: Outdoor Public Sculpture for the UT Campus
Erika Huddleston, aether magazine, 01 April 2015
“Here was this petite woman with a walkie talkie and a loud voice directing workers hoisting canoes and row boats,” recalls Andrée Bober, Founding Director of the UT Landmarks public art program, which curates and manages the UT collection. Bober says, “The crane would put the boat in place and then the cherrypicker moved in with her crew. Nancy has this explosive artistic vision. It takes strength and stamina to spend three weeks directing 16,000 pounds of metal assembled from 70 fishing boats, cable wire, and support armature.“

Building Landmarks
Andrew Roush, The Alcalde, 15 January 2015
It’s 4:30 p.m. on a lip-chappingly cold Wednesday during the intersession, and campus is dead. The normally bustling stretch of Speedway between 21st Street and Dean Keaton is deserted, so there’s no one to gawk at the jumbled pile of canoes, kayaks, and other small watercraft that is washed up in front of the Norman Hackerman Building on 24th Street.

Landmarks project transforming UT’s campus into an all-access open air gallery
Michael Graupmann, CultureMap Austin, 03 July 2012
Whether you're a regular purveyor of fine art or just curious to unpack the hidden secrets our city holds, the Landmarks project is a free hidden gem in the heart of Austin.

Marking the Land
Matt Fajkus, Texas Architect, March/April 2012
Perhaps the most success aspect of Landmarks is the variety of artworks on display, as well as the diversity of contextual relationships established in carefully placing each piece in an architectural setting. Landmarks, under the skillful direction of Andrée Bober, has selected fitting--and sometimes surprising--locations for particular sculptures.

Works of Art
Rebecca Fontenot, The Alcalde, Jan/Feb 2011
At a university whose main building was once one of its few iconic images and where mayn statues depict 19th-century way heroes, a public-art program has emerged that is changing the face of campus. In the past two years Landmarks has peppered the Forty Acres with thoughtfully places sculptures, giving students daily interactions with art and new campus landmarks to remember.

Modern and contemporary sculptures bring creative energy to campus in Landmarks public art program
UT News, 22 September 2008
They arrived on campus from New York City's Metropolitan Museum of Art last month on flatbed trucks and tractor trailers: several towering giants of steel, iron and metal; a triad of tall, stately whip-thin spires; two carved, organic pieces, full of motion in black walnut and cherry wood. Seventeen sculptures (with 11 more arriving in January 2009) by some of the greatest artists of the mid-to-late 20th century were brought to campus through a new public art program called Landmarks at The University of Texas at Austin.

Interview: Andrée Bober, Landmarks Public Art Program
Claire Ruud, ...might be good, 22 August 2008
Last week in the Life Science Library, while her team installed a piece from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's loan to The Univeristy of Texas at Austin, Andrée Bober, Director of Landmarks, talked with ...might be good about the role of the public art program on this university's campus. During our conversation, I learned, disappointingly but not unexpectedly, that UT Austin will be assembling a rather conservative public art collection.

Texas Sculpture Loan
Carol Vogel, The New York Times, 01 August 2008
With the help of the Met, the 360-acre main campus at the University of Texas, Austin, is poised to become a destination for modern sculpture. Rather than let them languish in storage, the museum is lending the university 28 pieces by artists like Beverly Pepper, Tony Smith and Louise Bourgeois.

2023
CODAawards, Merit Winner, Education for Sarah Oppenheimer, C-010106.

2022
CODAawards, Merit Winner, Landscape for Simone Leigh, Sentinel IV.

2021
CODAawards, Winner, Education for Jennifer Steinkamp, EON. (pdf link)

2019
Public Art Network Year in Review, Americans for the Arts, Winner for José Parlá, Amistad América. (pdf link)

2018
Public Art Network Year in Review, Americans for the Arts, Winner for Ann Hamilton, O N E E V E R Y O N E.
CODAawards, Winner, Education for Ann Hamilton, O N E E V E R Y O N E.
CODAawards Top 100, for José Parlá, Amistad América.

2016
CODAawards, Winner, Public Spaces for James Turrell, The Color Inside.
Austin Critics Table Awards, Nomination, Work of Art: Installation for Michael Ray Charles, (Forever Free) Ideas, Languages and Conversations.

2015
Public Art Network Year in Review, Americans for the Arts, Winner for Casey Reas, A Mathemetical Theory of Communication.
Best of Austin, The Austin Chronicle, Best New Public Sculpture for Nancy Rubins, Monochrome for Austin.
Best of Austin, The Austin Chronicle, Best Zen Inducing Art Installation, for James Turrell, The Color Inside.
CODAvideo Awards, Winner, Concept for Casey Reas, A Mathematical Theory of Communication.
Austin Critics Table Awards, Flight of Fancy Special Citation Award for Nancy Rubins, Monochrome for Austin.
CODAvideo Awards, Top 100 for Sol LeWitt, Circle with Towers and Wall Drawing #520.
CODAawards, Merit Winner, Public Spaces for Nancy Rubins, Monochrome for Austin.
CODAvideo Awards, Top 100 for Nancy Rubins, Monochrome for Austin.
CODAvideo Awards, Top 100 for James Turrell, The Color Inside.
Communicator Awards, Winner, Gold, Websites - Art for Landmarks Website.
Horizon Interactive Awards, Winner, Gold, Websites - School/University for Landmarks Website.
W3 Awards, Winner, Gold, Cultural Institutions for Landmarks Website.
Communicator Awards, Winner, Silver, Websites - Cultural Institution for Landmarks Website.
Davey Awards, Winner, Silver, Websites - Cultural Institution for Landmarks Website.
Davey Awards, Winner, Silver, Websites - Schools/Universities for Landmarks Website.
W3 Awards, Winner, Silver, School/University for Landmarks Website.

2014
Public Art Network Year in Review, Americans for the Arts, Winner for James Turrell, The Color Inside.

2013
Best of Austin, The Austin Chronicle, Best Visionary Change on the 40 Acres for Landmarks.
Public Art Network Year in Review, Americans for the Arts, Winner for Ben Rubin, And That's The Way It Is.
CODAawards, Winner, Public Spaces for Ben Rubin, And That's The Way It Is.

2011
Austin Critics Table Awards, Nomination, Work of Art: Independent or Public Project, David Ellis, Animal.

2009
Interactive Media Awards, Best in Class, Arts/Culture for Landmarks Website.