Only a few short weeks ago, it was looking grim for the longstanding art pieces in the Austin Convention Center. The city shed its ownership over the pieces in January, leaving their fate up to the artists. If the artists couldn’t find a way to de-install the pieces, then they would be destroyed with the Convention Center in May. Now it looks like the pieces will all be preserved, with some help from a new city office.

One of the pieces slated for demolition was the late Damian Priour’s Waller...

The Texas Senate Committee on Education K-16 heard public testimony last week for Senate Bill 326, which would extend a controversial definition of antisemitism to all student conduct policies at public universities. If passed, schools would use a definition set by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance to determine whether a student’s conduct violation “may have been motivated” by antisemitism.

The proposed bill comes after an executive order last March that required public universit...

Amid a burst of immigration policies from the new Trump administration, the state Legislature has some bills on the table that could intensify the crackdown.

Gov. Greg Abbott has already thrown his support behind President Trump’s immigration approach. In a Jan. 29 executive order, he directed all state agencies to assist in federal immigration law enforcement operations. He also ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to deploy “tactical strike teams” to assist the Trump administration....

When President Trump sent shock waves through the government with his January federal funding freeze, one of the programs affected was the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar for All fund, which put some local funding in peril. While that fund has been restored, other environmental programs remain in limbo.

If a new bill in the Texas Senate becomes law, Texas’ trial run limiting the number of students who receive sex education will become a permanent project.

State Sen. Donna Campbell’s Senate Bill 371 would once again require Texas parents to provide written consent before their children in public schools receive sexual education. That would make Texas one of only a handful of “opt-in” states.

A 2021 law, House Bill 1525, made Texas an opt-in state, but that provision expired in August 2024. Cam...

The colors inspire “moments of reverie.”

At least that’s how Margo Sawyer describes her piece, Index for Contemplation. From Russian tea sets to Buddhist temples, the work draws inspiration from all over the world. Each piece in the 40-foot-high sculptural arrangement has a story behind it, and their meticulous placement across the walls of the Austin Convention Center creates unexpected collisions of culture and color.