Diss chord: Demolition of Austin Convention Center’s music mosaic may face legal challenge

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A retired University of Texas at Austin art professor is considering a legal challenge to the city’s decision to destroy his iconic “Riffs and Rhythms” mosaic in an effort to require city officials to save it ahead of the bulldozers.

Time is not on John Yancey’s side. His large-scale mural is embedded in a wall of the convention center that, city officials say, makes it too big and expensive to move – which Yancey disputes.

The acclaimed artwork, commissioned by the city in 1995 as part of the city’s public art initiative, is set to be destroyed in May. That is when the city plans to start tearing down the 33-year-old Austin Convention Center to make way for a larger convention center and redevelopment on six square blocks of downtown. City officials say the redevelopment will take four years to complete at a cost of $1.6 billion.

In recent weeks, some people (including a convention industry expert) have raised questions about the viability of Austin’s expansive convention redevelopment, given market trends. Others have criticized the city for its heavy reliance on hotel occupancy tax revenue for its financing.

Yancey points to the mural contract he signed in 1995, which he said, “makes the city responsible for taking this down at no cost to the artist.”

“At this point, the city is actually in violation of its own contract,” Yancey told Austin Free Press. He said his attorney, Andrea Perez, is drafting a letter to city leaders about their legal responsibilities to Yancey.

That contract language flip flops on who bears the costs of saving the work from destruction. If the city decides to dispose of the work it shall “offer the Artist a reasonable opportunity to recover the Work at no cost to the artist,” the contract says. That same sentence, however, goes on to say, “except for an obligation of the Artist to indemnify and reimburse the City of the amount by which the cost to the City of such recovery exceeds the costs to the City of the proposed destruction.”

This may suggest that the artist is chiefly responsible for the cost of saving the artwork, with the city chipping in whatever it would cost to destroy the piece.

Meanwhile, Austin Creative Alliance CEO John Riedie said that rumors are circulating that Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax may be seeking a way to save the mosaic from convention-center wrecking balls. Austin Free Press has reached out to Broadnax for comment.

“The city manager could do this in the blink of an eye, just with a word,” Yancey said. “There’s a moral and ethical thing that they could do right now.”

“I would love to shake up their unshakable schedule because that would cause movement,” Yancey said. “If there were an actual, viable threat of a temporary injunction on the demolition process, that would get their attention.”

Yancey constructed the mosaic by carefully fitting together broken ceramic shards to create a mosaic that tells Austin’s musical and cultural history as he saw them 30 years ago.

“With ‘Riffs and Rhythms’ that was the whole deal,” the retired professor said over coffee and pastries in a dimly lit East MLK cafe. “Talking to that broad audience at that time, and Austin’s culture, that’s what I thought was the most celebratory aspect of what we had.”

“Although in Austin, historic landmark status seems to be only granted to buildings, structures or sites, there are many places where art by a Black artist of Yancey’s stature would be cherished and revered,” said Roxanne Evans, who served on Austin’s Historic Landmark Commission until February.

Evans, pointed to a City Code provision that potentially could be used by Yancey or the Historical Landmark Commission to “recommend that council confer special historic recognition” to “an object that is not permanently affixed to land.”

“Some people might interpret (that provision) as applying to situations that Yancey finds himself in with his mural,” Evans said.

Yancey’s majestic “Riffs and Rhythms” is one of four public art works slated for destruction after the city shuts down the convention center in April.

“Being accepted into the collection of a city’s permanent public art collection is supposed to provide a sense of protection,” Yancey said. “In the city’s permanent collection, you figure it will always be there. That it would be protected.”

“Public arts collections do not just destroy their works,” agreed John Riedie of the Austin Creative Alliance. “It’s unheard of and it’s immoral. In particular for a monumental piece and important milestone in that particular artist’s career to be treated so shabbily.”

The council voted in January to “deaccession” the four art pieces, removing them from the city’s permanent collection. The Art in Public Places project instead has proposed doing video interviews with the artists and documenting the vanishing works.

“Austin doesn’t [seem to] understand what the word ‘stewardship’ means,” Yancey said. “If you remove it from your collection, you steward it into another collection. You figure out how to make that happen. That’s what deaccession actually is.”

Anthony Segura, the interim director of Austin’s Economic Development Department, told members of the Austin Arts Commission last year that “Riffs and Rhythms” weighs an estimated 2-3 tons and attempts to de-install the piece would irreparably damage it.

Saying three contractors told the city it couldn’t be salvaged, Segura said, “Unfortunately, it’s just too big for anybody to do.”

Yancey said that a conservation company, Sheehy Fine Art Services, told him that it could do the job safely in about a week for $40,000 or less. “The contractor is ready,” Yancey said. “We’ve just got to get the money.”

Yancey said he personally doesn’t have the funds to deinstall “Riffs and Rhythms” or to wage a long legal battle with the city.

“Given the amount of money that’s going to be spent demolishing and rebuilding the (convention) center, this appears to be a pretty insignificant cost,” Evans said. “That makes no sense at all.”

The Austin City Council directed city staff on March 6 to draft new art contracts designed to clarify what should happen in similar cases in the future. But the council asked to review those revisions this summer — after the slated destruction of “Riffs and Rhythms.”

“Is it going to help at all?” Yancey asked, waving a hand dismissively. “It depends on how the wording goes, and if it identifies where the money comes from. If it’s left wishy-washy, it’ll become another thing to be bounced around City Hall.”

Austin Free Press sought comment from every member of the Austin City Council. Only one commented by deadline.

“I am proud to live in a city that invests in public art, but we can always strive to do better,” said a statement from Council Member Zo Qadri’s communications director, André Treiber. Council’s actions “will make sure that generations of artists will get stronger support and greater investments from the City.”

Riedie worries that the “Riffs” debacle will damage the city’s reputation.

“To basically allow this milestone piece by an African American artist to be vanished, and not do everything they could to save it, is mind boggling,” he said. “Are we going to be able to trust our public arts program any more after what is a real dereliction of stewardship?”

“They’re spending enormous amounts of money to preserve all kinds of structural parts of the (convention center) building … fixtures and columns and every manner of thing that they are carefully de-installing, packing away,” Yancey said. “So it’s hurtful, and disrespects all of the artists that are involved.”

Richard Stone is a Central Texas native reporter and editor with 35 years of award-winning experience covering local issues that matter. More at Wilcoblues.com.

Disclosure: Roxanne Evan sits on the board of Austin Free Press.