What we’re about
Austin, Texas History & Culture
A non-profit community organization.
Experience the history and culture of Austin, Texas - and the world!
Meetup:
https://www.Meetup.com/ATXHistoryAndCulture/
Eventbrite:
https://ATXHistoryAndCulture.Eventbrite.com
Facebook:
https://www.Facebook.com/ATXHistoryAndCulture/
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TexasHistoryAndCulture
We look forward to seeing you. : )
Thanks!
Robert Kelleman
rkelleman@yahoo.com
202-821-6325 (text only)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkelleman/
South Congress Walking Tour with The Salty Doughnut Before and/or After
Saturday, September 13 - 9:30 am. All are welcome.
Meeting Point: In front of The Salty Doughnut: 2000 South Congress - Austin.
Meet people, see beautiful and historic Austin scenery, get some steps in, and have fun!
Join Robert, Michele, and a group of friendly people for a casual walk up and down South Congress Avenue (SoCo).
South Congress (abbreviated SoCo) is a neighborhood located on South Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, United States. It is also a nationally known shopping and cultural district known for its many eclectic small retailers, restaurants, music and art venues and, more recently, food trucks.
South Congress begins at the Colorado River and Ann W. Richards Congress Avenue Bridge and runs due south towards Ben White Boulevard/TX-71. The area is bordered by two historic South Austin neighborhoods: Travis Heights to the east and Bouldin Creek to the west.
Since its humble beginnings in the 1850s, South Congress Avenue has been transformed from a rural country road to the capital city gateway and, finally, to the shopping district that it is today. Some Austinites attribute its enduring popularity to the unobstructed view of the Texas State Capitol.
***
Event Details ...
Cost: FREE for the guided walking tour. Doughnuts before and/or after at your own expense.
Weather: The event will take place light rain or shine. If it’s on our calendar then we’re proceeding as planned.
Parking: Many options throughout the area (free and paid). If driving, please arrive in the area several minutes early so that you have plenty of time to find parking and walk to our meeting point.
Meeting Point: 9:30 am in front of The Salty Doughnut: 2000 South Congress - Austin. Look for your hosts Robert (wearing a fedora-style hat) & Michele (also wearing a hat), along with a group of friendly people.
Before the Event: Socializing from 9:00 am - 9:40 am at The Salty Doughnut, and we’ll depart on our walk at approximately 9:40.
Icebreaker Introductions: We should have a good-sized group and so instead of everyone introducing themselves to the group we will get to know each other by distributing blank stickers and colored markers and we’ll invite everyone to write down on their sticker: 1). first name. 2). favorite food. 3). dream vacation. Example: “Michele - Strawberries - Kenya” or “Robert - Chocolate - Japan”.
Late Arrivals: If you arrive after our start time just catch up.
Itinerary - Subject to Change:
The Salty Doughnut (starting point)
South Congress Avenue (south to north – east side of the street)
South Congress Avenue (north to south – west side of the street)
The Salty Doughnut (ending point)
Walking Distance: Approximately two miles with a few short breaks for photos, hydration, rest, etc. along the way.
Ending Point: The Salty Doughnut (our starting point).
After the Event: To be determined. Lunch?
Additional Questions: Anything that can't be answered by the event description, Google, or common sense, please let us know.
***
Your host for this program is Robert Kelleman, the founder/director of the non-profit community organizations Texas History & Culture and Washington, DC History & Culture.
Texas History & Culture
A non-profit community organization
Experience the history and culture of Austin, Texas - and the world!
Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/AustinTexasHistoryAndCulture/
Eventbrite:
https://ATXHistoryAndCulture.Eventbrite.com
Facebook:
https://www.Facebook.com/ATXHistoryAndCulture/
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TexasHistoryAndCulture/
We look forward to seeing you - thanks!
Robert Kelleman
rkelleman@yahoo.com
202-821-6325 (text only)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkelleman/
Photo credit:
https://www.atasteofkoko.com/visit-austin/south-congress-austin
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Brian Wilson & The Beach Boys: "Love & Mercy" - Film History LivestreamLink visible for attendees
Let's spend an evening honoring the late Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
We invite you to join us for a film screening of “Love & Mercy”, the 2014 biopic on Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys.
The screening will have two parts. Part one, approximately 15-20 minutes, will be a historical context of the film, things to look for, accuracy, etc. Part two will be a full screening of the film.
During the screening there will be an opportunity to discuss the film with other participants via Zoom.***
Love & Mercy is a 2014 American biographical drama film directed by Bill Pohlad about the Beach Boys' co-founder and leader Brian Wilson and his struggles with mental illness during the 1960s and 1980s. It stars Paul Dano and John Cusack as the young and middle-aged Wilson, respectively, with Elizabeth Banks as his second wife Melinda Ledbetter and Paul Giamatti as his psychologist Dr. Eugene Landy. The title comes from Wilson's 1988 song of the same name.
The film alternates between Wilson's production of the album Pet Sounds (1966) and his treatment under Landy's 24-hour therapy program in the late 1980s. Wilson called the film "very factual", albeit containing parts that "weren't actually as factual". He had little involvement with its making, although Ledbetter was relied upon for the 1980s portions. The cast and crew maintained that nothing in the film was a "Hollywood" embellishment and that everything was intended to be as truthful as possible. Conversely, Landy's son Evan felt that his father was unfairly portrayed. Ledbetter said that Landy's treatment of Wilson "was even worse" than the film portrays.Film Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lioWzrpCtGQ***
Brian Douglas Wilson (June 20, 1942 – c. June 11, 2025) was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition and mastery of recording techniques, he is widely acknowledged as one of the most innovative and significant songwriters of the 20th century. His best-known work is distinguished for its high production values, complex harmonies and orchestrations, vocal layering, and introspective or ingenuous themes. Wilson was also known for his versatile vocal range. He faced lifelong struggles with mental illness.
The Beach Boys are an American rock band formed in Hawthorne, California, in 1961. The group's original lineup consisted of brothers Brian, Dennis, and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine. Distinguished by their vocal harmonies, adolescent-oriented lyrics, and musical ingenuity, they are one of the most influential acts of the rock era. They drew on the music of older pop vocal groups, 1950s rock and roll, and black R&B to create their unique sound. Under Brian's direction, they often incorporated classical or jazz elements and unconventional recording techniques in innovative ways.
The Beach Boys formed as a garage band centered on Brian's songwriting and managed by the Wilsons' father, Murry. In 1963, the band enjoyed their first national hit with "Surfin' U.S.A.", beginning a string of top-ten singles that reflected a southern California youth culture of surfing, cars, and romance, dubbed the "California sound". They were one of the few American rock bands to sustain their commercial standing during the British Invasion. Starting with 1965's The Beach Boys Today!, they abandoned beachgoing themes for more personal lyrics and ambitious orchestrations. In 1966, the Pet Sounds album and "Good Vibrations" single raised the group's prestige as rock innovators; both are now considered to be among the greatest and most influential works in popular music history.
The Beach Boys are one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful bands of all time, selling over 100 million records worldwide. They helped legitimize popular music as a recognized art form and influenced the development of music genres and movements such as psychedelia, power pop, progressive rock, punk, alternative, and lo-fi. Between the 1960s and 2020s, the group had 37 songs reach the US Top 40 (the most by an American band), with four topping the Billboard Hot 100. In 2004, they were ranked number 12 on Rolling Stone's list of the greatest artists of all time. The founding members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988.***
Zoom Connection Link
Click (or Copy and Paste) and Follow the Instructions:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81764605670?pwd=NmxDYThSSDh6QzdkUXJjZTBzelBaQT09
Meeting ID: 817 6460 5670
Passcode: 482534
Dial by your location
• +1 253 205 0468 US***
Your host for this program is Robert Kelleman, the founder/director of the non-profit community organizations Texas History & Culture and Washington, DC History & Culture.
Texas History & Culture
Experience the history and culture of Texas - and the world!
Meetup - Austin:
https://www.meetup.com/AustinTexasHistoryAndCulture/
Meetup - Dallas-Fort Worth:
https://www.meetup.com/DallasFortWorthHistoryAndCulture/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TexasHistoryAndCulture/
Eventbrite:
https://TexasHistoryAndCulture.eventbrite.com
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TexasHistoryAndCulture/videosDonations Support Our Non-Profit Community Programs - Thank You!
PayPal: DCHistoryAndCulture@gmail.com
Venmo: @DCHistoryAndCulture
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/d29491c0We look forward to seeing you - thanks!
Robert Kelleman
rkelleman@yahoo.com
202-821-6325 (text only)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkelleman/ - Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun - Art and Film History LivestreamLink visible for attendees
Bonjour!
"Elisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun:
At 15 she was painting the aristocracy, in her 20s she was the favoured painter of Marie-Antoinette, and by her 30s she was fleeing the French Revolution."Join us for an educational and entertaining look into the inspiring life and amazing career of French artist Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun.
Part one of our program will be an approximate 30-minute overview lecture of the artist including a review of her most noteworthy paintings.
Part two of our programme will be a full screening of the excellent hour-and-fifty docudrama "The Fabulous Life of Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun" (aka "Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun Portraitist of Marie-Antoinette").
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (16 April 1755 – 30 March 1842), also known as Madame Le Brun, was a prominent French portrait painter of the late 18th century.
Her artistic style is generally considered part of the aftermath of Rococo with elements of an adopted Neoclassical style. Her subject matter and color palette can be classified as Rococo, but her style is aligned with the emergence of Neoclassicism. Vigée Le Brun created a name for herself in Ancien Régime society by serving as the portrait painter to Marie Antoinette. She enjoyed the patronage of European aristocrats, actors, and writers, and was elected to art academies in ten cities.
Vigée Le Brun created some 660 portraits and 200 landscapes. In addition to many works in private collections, her paintings are owned by major museums, such as the Louvre, Hermitage Museum, National Gallery in London, Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and many other collections in continental Europe and the United States.***
Zoom Connection Link
Click (or Copy and Paste) and Follow the Instructions:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87970768403?pwd=OTBWRHMwTWVzcFhPckt0c3FhekRrUT09
Meeting ID: 879 7076 8403
Passcode: 053792
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,87970768403#,,,,*053792# US
Dial by your location
+1 646 931 3860 US
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kpmid1hRf
Connecting a few minutes early is recommended.
When all else fails please read and follow the directions. : )***
Your host for this program is Robert Kelleman, the founder/director of the non-profit community organizations Texas History & Culture and Washington, DC History & Culture.
Texas History & Culture
Experience the history and culture of Texas - and the world!
Meetup - Austin:
https://www.meetup.com/AustinTexasHistoryAndCulture/
Meetup - Dallas-Fort Worth:
https://www.meetup.com/DallasFortWorthHistoryAndCulture/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TexasHistoryAndCulture/
Eventbrite:
https://TexasHistoryAndCulture.eventbrite.com
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TexasHistoryAndCulture/videosDonations Support Our Non-Profit Community Programs - Thank You!
PayPal: DCHistoryAndCulture@gmail.com
Venmo: @DCHistoryAndCulture
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/d29491c0We look forward to seeing you - thanks!
Robert Kelleman
rkelleman@yahoo.com
202-821-6325 (text only)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkelleman/ - Spirit & Splendor: El Greco, Velázquez, and the Hispanic Baroque - OpeningBlanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX
Spirit & Splendor: El Greco, Velázquez, and the Hispanic Baroque
Blanton Museum of Art
University of Texas - Austin
Sunday, August 24, 2025 - Sunday, February 1, 2026Let’s meetup and check out this major exhibit at the Blanton Museum of Art.
Additional details when we get closer to the event date.The Hispanic Society Museum & Library is home to the most extensive collection of early modern Hispanic art and literature outside of Spain. Featuring selected highlights from this esteemed collection, Spirit & Splendor traces a 150-year history of Spanish painting that culminates with the Baroque, a style characterized by dramatic realism, opulence, and religious devotion.
Showcasing 57 works, the exhibition includes masterpieces by renowned artists like El Greco and Diego Velázquez, as well as by José de Páez and Melchor Pérez Holguín, painters who actively spread the Baroque aesthetic in Mexico and Peru, territories that at the time were under Spanish rule.
One of the must-see exhibitions around the world in 2025 — The Art Newspaper
This exhibition was organized by The Hispanic Society of America, with support from The Museum Box.
This presentation is organized by Holly Borham, Associate Curator of Prints, Drawings and European Art and Rosario Granados, Marilynn Thoma Curator, Art of the Spanish Americas, Blanton Museum of ArtExhibition Link:
https://blantonmuseum.org/exhibition/spirit-splendor/ - Frederic Remington Film - Art History LivestreamLink visible for attendees
Frederic Remington Film - Art History Livestream
&
Frederic Remington Lecture - Art History LivestreamWe invite you to a special two-part art history program on the life and career of Frederic Remington, and the art of the American West.
Part 1, on Friday, September 5, will be a screening of the film “Frederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days”.
Part 2, on Saturday, September 6, will be an art history lecture on the life and artistic career of Frederic Remington.Frederic Remington Lecture - YouTube Preview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNLoaUt1JfgFrederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days
Frederic Remington: The Truth of Other Days is a 1991 documentary film of American Western artist Frederic Remington made for the PBS series American Masters. It was produced and directed by Tom Neff and written by Neff and Louise LeQuire. Actor Gregory Peck narrated the film and Ned Beatty was the voice of Remington when reading his correspondence.
The documentary was produced by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; NHK Corporation (Japan); and Polaris Entertainment, Nashville, Tennessee. It was the first documentary to be filmed in High Definition Television (HDTV), but at the time it was years away from high-definition television broadcasting.
Film Trailer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUnO8lfPSOkFrederic Sackrider Remington (October 4, 1861 - December 26, 1909) was an American painter, illustrator, sculptor, and writer who specialized in the genre of Western American Art. His works are known for depicting the Western United States in the last quarter of the 19th century and featuring such images as cowboys, American Indians, and the US Cavalry.
Remington was one of the first American artists to illustrate the true gait of the horse in motion (along with Thomas Eakins), as validated by the famous sequential photographs of Eadweard Muybridge.
Also, noteworthy was Remington's invention of "cowboy" sculpture. From his inaugural piece, The Broncho Buster (1895), he created an art form which is still very popular among collectors of Western art. He has been called the "Father of Cowboy Sculpture".***
Zoom Connection Link
Click (or Copy and Paste) and Follow the Instructions:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87970768403?pwd=OTBWRHMwTWVzcFhPckt0c3FhekRrUT09
Meeting ID: 879 7076 8403
Passcode: 053792
One tap mobile
+16694449171,,87970768403#,,,,*053792# US
Dial by your location
+1 646 931 3860 US
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kpmid1hRf
Connecting a few minutes early is recommended.
When all else fails please read and follow the directions. : )***
Your host for this program is Robert Kelleman, the founder/director of the non-profit community organizations Texas History & Culture and Washington, DC History & Culture.
Texas History & Culture
Experience the history and culture of Texas - and the world!
Meetup - Austin:
https://www.meetup.com/AustinTexasHistoryAndCulture/
Meetup - Dallas-Fort Worth:
https://www.meetup.com/DallasFortWorthHistoryAndCulture/
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/TexasHistoryAndCulture/
Eventbrite:
https://TexasHistoryAndCulture.eventbrite.com
YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/@TexasHistoryAndCulture/videosDonations Support Our Non-Profit Community Programs - Thank You!
PayPal: DCHistoryAndCulture@gmail.com
Venmo: @DCHistoryAndCulture
GoFundMe: https://gofund.me/d29491c0We look forward to seeing you - thanks!
Robert Kelleman
rkelleman@yahoo.com
202-821-6325 (text only)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkelleman/
