Austin Museum Competes For $2M In Grants

AUSTIN, TX — The National Trust for Historic Preservation and American Express on Tuesday announced Partners in Preservation: Main Streets, a community-based partnership created in 2006 to engage the public in preserving historic places.

This year’s theme celebrates the often untold history of women across America, officials noted.

Starting on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 20 diverse sites across the country, including the Elisabet Ney Museum in Austin, are competing for public votes to win $2 million in grant money to execute much-needed repairs to preserve their historic sites for future generations. The public can vote up to 5 times per day at VoteYourMainStreet.org.

Voting opens Tuesday, Sept. 24, and closes Oct. 29. Community members can cast their votes at VoteYourMainStreet.org, or in-person at the Museum’s Open House event on Oct. 27.

About the Elisabet Ney Museum

Elisabet Ney rocketed to fame as a sculptor in 19th-century Berlin. Deeply intellectual, a gender non-conformist, and a democracy activist, she fled persecution in 1871 and landed in Texas. In 1892, after farming and raising a son, she built Formosa, a rugged but majestic limestone homestead and studio, and relaunched her career. She created important artwork here, but also sparked a brilliant legacy: the birth of Austin’s independent spirit.

Today, the Elisabet Ney Museum at Formosa provides both an anchor and a laboratory for progressive identity and art. Funding will help restore the homestead’s 18 exterior doors. Worn and fragile, plain but grand, they graciously welcome outsiders—women, artists, and immigrants—just as they did a century ago.