|
Capital Area Statues, Inc., (CAST) will unveil a seven-foot tall monument of Angelina Eberly, with a dedication ceremony
and free public celebration on Sunday, September 26 at 6 p.m. on Congress Avenue between Sixth and Seventh Streets.
The oversized bronze statue commemorates the woman who, in 1842, saved Austin by thwarting the attempted theft of the records
of the Republic of Texas by a band of Texas Rangers. The 2,200-pound statue of Angelina Eberly, the heroic Austin innkeeper
who fired the cannon alerting the citizens of the city to the crime, reflects the imagination and humor of its sculptor Pat
Oliphant, the native Aussie and Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist.
"Angelina Eberly" will be donated by CAST as a gift to the City of Austin, and it will be the first public work of art to
permanently reside on the sidewalks of historic Congress Avenue. To celebrate the occasion, the city is closing a portion
of Congress Avenue for the public to participate in the formal unveiling ceremony, which will include Australian Ambassador
Michael Thawley and Austin Mayor Will Wynn. The UT Longhorn Band will present live music, and the Austin Circle of Theaters
plans special entertainment. Singer/songwriter Monte Warden will perform a special ballad about Angelina Eberly following
the unveiling. Many Austin merchants will add to the festivities by offering free drinks and snacks while supplies last. Among
the participants are Waterloo Ice House, The Driskill Hotel's 1886 Cafe & Bakery, Las Manitas Avenue Cafe, The Hideout
Coffee Shop, Starbucks, Jamba Juice, and The Alamo Drafthouse. The City of Austin is a co-sponsor of the public celebration.
About Angelina Eberly. Many consider Angelina Eberly the savior of Austin. In 1842, six years after Texas won its independence from Mexico, the
capital of the young nation was an isolated village on the western frontier. Sam Houston, president of the Republic of Texas,
thought Austin was an inappropriate location for the capital seat of government, and campaigned to have it moved to a city
he found more to his taste - Houston. When the congress resisted his attempts to move the capital, Houston sent a delegation
of Texas Rangers to steal the government archives. They would have succeeded if it had not been for a fiery local innkeeper
named Angelina Eberly, who heard the Rangers loading their wagons in the middle of the night. She hurried down to the corner
of what is now Sixth Street and Congress and fired off the town cannon, missing the Rangers but blowing a hole in the General
Land Office building, three blocks north. The cannon fire roused the populace, who chased down the Rangers and recovered the
archives near Brushy Creek. Had it not been for Angelina's impulsive gesture, Houston would now be the capital of Texas.
About CAST. Capital Area Statues Inc. is a non-profit organization dedicated to celebrating the history and culture of Texas through
highly original works of monumental sculpture. Its first statue, Philosophers' Rock, was installed in 1994. It depicts three
legendary Texas writers - J. Frank Dobie, Walter Prescott Webb, and Roy Bedichek - and stands just outside the entrance to
Barton Springs under a towering grove of pecan trees in Zilker Park. The artist for this first effort was Glenna Goodacre,
who is also known for her Women in Vietnam memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C., and for designing the new Sacagawea dollar
coin. The board of CAST is composed of producer Elizabeth Avellan (the "Spy Kids" series, "Desperado," and the forthcoming
"Sin City," among many other films); Marcia Ball, the award-winning rhythm & blues singer and pianist; novelist Stephen
Harrigan, author of "Gates of the Alamo" and the forthcoming "Nasa Road 1"); writer-producer Bill Wittliff ("Lonesome Dove,"
"The Perfect Storm"); and Lawrence Wright, author and staff writer for The New Yorker magazine.
About Pat Oliphant. The sculptor of "Angelina Eberly" is Pat Oliphant, the most widely syndicated cartoonist in the world, in addition to being
an accomplished sculptor. His bronzes have been exhibited in the Smithsonian Institution and the National Portrait Gallery.
Recently he became the first artist to exhibit his works in the newly restored Great Hall of the Library of Congress. In "Angelina
Eberly," he has created a masterful work of art that will become an immediate icon of the city, capturing as it does the boldness
and whimsy that are so deeply ingrained in this city's culture.
|
