DIGITAL EXHIBIT

This digital exhibit was created by Todd Richardson and Kelli Shapiro, PhD. It includes selected highlights from the physical exhibit and the accompanying exhibit catalog (with its chapter-based website structure following that of the catalog). The site was built using Omeka, a free, open-source, web-publishing platform for digital exhibits (provided by the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University).

PHYSICAL EXHIBIT

The physical version of the Homegrown: Austin Music Posters 1967 to 1982 exhibit runs from January 12 to July 3, 2015, at the Wittliff Collections, Texas State University. It showcases approximately 150 concert posters and handbills, along with ephemera including album covers, comics, ads, matchbooks, and t-shirts. The exhibit was curated by Katie Salzmann and Alan Schaefer.

EXHIBIT CATALOG

The accompanying exhibit catalog, edited by Alan Schaefer, will be published in February 2015 by the University of Texas Press as part of the Wittliff Collections' Southwestern Writers Collection Series.  The 150+ page book contains over 120 images, along with detailed contextual information (including material from interviews with multiple poster artists) in articles written by authors such as Joe Nick Patoski and Nels Jacobson. 

THE WITTLIFF COLLECTIONS

The Wittliff Collections—including the Southwestern Writers Collection, the Southwestern & Mexican Photography Collection, and the Lonesome Dove Collection—are located on the seventh floor of the Albert B. Alkek Library at Texas State University in San Marcos.

Founded in 1986, the Wittliff Collections are devoted to collecting and preserving the creative legacy of the Southwest and to fostering “the spirit of place” in the wider world through the acquisition of significant archives and works of the Southwest’s literature, film and music, as well as the photography of the Southwest and Mexico. The Wittliff Collections welcome visitors, tours, and classes, host lectures, readings, and symposia, assist researchers, and present major exhibitions year-round from their archival repositories in over 6,600 square feet of viewing space.

THE WITTLIFF'S POSTER COLLECTION

The Wittliff Collections’ assemblage of posters began with the donation of a large collection from Austin music enthusiast Tom Wilmore and has continued to grow with additional donations and purchases. Wilmore moved to Austin in 1972 and quickly began collecting posters. He was a regular patron at the Armadillo World Headquarters, the reopened Ritz Theatre on Sixth Street, and several other holes in the wall around Austin. Wilmore notes that in addition to seeing posters hung on walls, billboards, and telephone poles, he frequently saw stacks of posters sitting in record stores. These posters were available for customers to take home, and Wilmore would often take one for himself and a few extras for friends. While he missed the heyday of psychedelia at the Vulcan Gas Company, Wilmore acquired several posters from a local DJ who decided to relinquish his collection of art from Texas’ premier psychedelic ballroom.

Wilmore’s donation accounts for a large portion of the collection, but the Wittliff Collections has acquired numerous posters from other notable figures in the Austin music scene, including Jodie Fischer, a longtime assistant to Willie Nelson; Nancy Coplin, a well-respected Austin booking agent and event producer; Joe Nick Patoski, Texas music and popular-culture scholar; Bobby Earl Smith, a founding member and bassist of Freda and the Firedogs; and Houston White, one of the founders of the Vulcan Gas Company. The collection has also been bolstered by acquisitions from several of the artists featured in the exhibit.