ART OF THE PARTY

THE CONTEMPORARY AUSTIN CELEBRATES THE JONES CENTER’S RENOVATIONS AND STUNNING NEW EXHIBITS WITH A PARTY UNDER THE STARS.

After closing for months of renovations, The Contemporary Austin’s Jones Center downtown reopened in December with renovated galleries, an open-air canopied rooftop space, an exhibit by Polish artist Monika Sosnowska, and an outdoor sculpture by Jim Hodges. To celebrate, the museum treated 170 donors to an intimate, seated seasonal dinner by noted

Chef Larry McGuire on the Moody Rooftop (made possible by a

$1.3 million gift from The Moody Foundation) and a conversation between esteemed journalist

Dan Rather and Hodges, whose glittering “With Liberty and

Justice for All (A Work in Progress)” now hovers 50 feet over Congress Avenue, stretching in dramatic fashion nearly 145 feet across the building’s parapet. Hodges told Rather he hopes the work will create a dialogue about equality, diversity, and respect.

Richard Marcus, president of The Contemporary Austin’s board of trustees, with legendary journalist Dan Rather.

Paul Lewis, Michael Schissel, and Marc Tsurumaki Jo Harvey, Terry Allen, and Diane Boddy Jim Hodges, “With Liberty and Justice for All (A Work in Progress),” 2014–2016, Installation view, The Contemporary Austin – The Moody Rooftop at the Jones Center...

Luci Baines Johnson, Ross Moody, and Brad Nelson Jim Hodges and Barbara Gladstone Louis Grachos