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CAST
Capital Area Statues, Inc.

About CAST
Capital Area Statues, Inc. is a non-profit organization founded in 1992 for the purpose of celebrating the history and culture of Texas through public sculpture. We believe that cities are made great, at least in part, by the monuments they choose to express their identity. Often it is the function of a monument to lend a sense of dignity or humor -- in any case, humanity -- to a particular space, to somehow marry the genius of the culture with the spirit of the place. In New York’s Central Park, for instance, there is a delightful seated figure of Hans Christian Andersen reading from his Fairy Tales. There is almost always a child or two nestled in his lap. The American Academy of Sciences in Washington is graced by one of the great modern statues, Robert Berks’s study of Einstein moodily staring into a pool of stars. These figures honor not only the persons they represent but also the profound qualities we associate with them -- in these cases, the love we have for children and our awe at the wonder of creation.

CAST was begun by a small group of Austin citizens who felt that our city was deserving of such cultural lodestones. We believe that great statues are a binding force that can help draw the cizens of Austin into a shared understanding of our city’s past and the promise of its future.

Our statues are gifts to the city. We raise money independently, through the generosity of individual donors and foundations. We have no employees or fixed expenses. None of our board members receive any form of compensation or remuneration.

Philosophers’ Rock
CAST’s first project, installed in 1994, is a larger-than-lifesize bronze sculpture of three renowned Austin writers that sits under a pecan grove at the entrance to Barton Springs Pool. J. Frank Dobie, Roy Bedichek, and Walter Prescott Webb used to meet at Barton Springs every afternoon and hold forth in what has been characterized as "Austin’s first literary salon." The men met on a rock at the edge of the pool that Bedichek dubbed "Philosophers’ Rock." The statue, by renowned sculptor Glenna Goodacre (who created the Women in Vietnam memorial in Washington D.C. and the image of Sacajawea on the new dollar coin) is an unforgettable depiction of three good friends engaged in an informal but intense discussion. A monument to friendship, ideas, the glory of nature and the joy of conversation, Philosophers’ Rock quickly became a beloved Austin landmark. The Austin Chronicle, in naming Philosophers’ Rock the "Best Public Art" in Austin, wrote: "It does what great statues do: recognize achievement, convey a sense of the community from which it sprang, and inspire us." The Austin American Statesman declared it "an irresistable connection to Texas’ literary past."

On About.com
On Frommers.com

CAST’s new project: Angelina Eberly
In 1842, six years after Texas won its independence from Mexico, the capitol of the young republic was an isolated village on the western frontier whose name had recently been changed from Waterloo to Austin. President Sam Houston thought Austin was an inappropriate location for the capitol of Texas, and campaigned to have it moved to a city he found more to his taste--Houston. When the citizens of Austin resisted his attempts to move the capitol, 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 the corner of what is now Sixth and Congress and fired off the town cannon, missing the rangers but blowing a hole in the General Land Office building. 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 capitol of Texas. In a very real sense, Angelina Eberly was the savior of Austin.

Article in the May 2004 issue of Texas Monthly about CAST and the Angelina Eberly statue.

The Location
The statue of Angelina Eberly firing off her cannon will be erected at the very spot this historic event took place: Sixth and Congress. The project, and its location, has already won the approval of Arts in Public Places Commission, the Austin Arts Commission, the Historical Landmark Commission, the Austin City Council, the Downtown Austin Alliance, and Capital Metro.

The Artist
The sculptor of the Angelina Eberly statue is Pat Oliphant, the most widely syndicated cartoonist in the world. Among his numerous prizes are the Pultizer Prize, the German Thomas Nast Prize, and the Premio Satira Politica of Italy. His achievements as cartoonist, painter, and sculptor have been celebrated in major exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institution, the National Portrait Gallery, and several presidential libraries (including the Lyndon B. Johnson Library). Recently he became the first artist to be exhibited in the newly restored Great Hall of the Library of Congress.

Donors
CAST estimates the cost of the Angelina Eberly statue, including plaques and site preparation, to be approximately $300,000. We have already raised almost half that amount, thanks to the generosity of a great number of people, including these major donors:

• Philip Breland/The Radisson Hotel
• Lee Walker and Jennifer Vickers
• Warren Skaaren Foundation
• Will and Anne Elizabeth Wynn
• AT & T
• Equity Office Properties Trust
• Lawrence and Roberta Wright
• Elizabeth Avellan and Robert Rodriguez
• Hillcrest Foundation, founded by Mrs. W.W. Caruth, Sr.
• Austin Community Foundation
• Downtown Austin Alliance
• Bill and Sally Wittliff

We welcome donations of all sizes. Checks should be made out to Capital Area States, Inc. and sent to CAST, 2801 Clearview Dr., Austin TX 78703. Please direct phone inquiries to Larry Wright at (512) 479-9838 or Steve Harrigan at (512) 472-2149.

Major donors of $10,000 or more will be acknowledged on the plaque next to the sculpture. They will also receive a magnificent bronze maquette of Oliphant’s statue.

CAST is also grateful for the support of:

• Eddie Safady and Liberty Bank
• Vincent Salas and AT&T
• Rebecca Wallace and Word of Mouth Fine Catering
• Peggy Hubble
• Jon Kemmerer
• Amon Burton
• Graeber, Cowan & Simmons

CAST Board Members

LAWRENCE WRIGHT has been a staff writer for Texas Monthly, Rolling Stone, and, since 1992, The New Yorker, for whom he won the National Magazine Award for reporting in 1994. He is the author of six books, most recently God’s Favorite, published by Simon & Schuster in 2000. As a screenwriter, he co-wrote the movie The Siege (1998) and wrote Noriega: God’s Favorite (2000). He is currently working on a book about the events of September 11th.

BILL WITTLIFF is best known for his work as a screenwriter for television and film. Among his many credits are Lonesome Dove (1989) which received 18 Emmy nominations and many other awards; The Black Stallion, The Cowboy Way, Legends of the Fall, and The Perfect Storm. He is also an accomplished photographer whose photographs documenting the life of the Mexican vaquero have been exhibited in numerous galleries and institutions. Bill and his wife Sally are founders of the Southwestern Writers Collection and the Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern and Mexican Photography. Both collections are Southwest Texas State University.

ELIZABETH AVELLAN was born in Caracas, Venezuela, where her grandfather, Gonzalo Veloz, was a pioneer in the commercial television industry. At the age of 13, she moved with her family to Houston, where she later attended Rice University. She co-founded Los Hooligans Productions with husband, Robert Rodriguez. Their first feature film, El Mariachi, won the Audience Award at the 1993 Sundance Festival. Among the many films Avellan has produced or co-produced are Desperado (1995), From Dusk Til Dawn (1996), The Faculty (1998), Spy Kids (2001) and Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams (2002)

STEPHEN HARRIGAN is a long-time writer for Texas Monthly and the author of six books, including the national best-seller The Gates of the Alamo. He is also a screenwriter who has written many works for television, including HBO’s award-winning The Last of His Tribe, the CBS production Beyond the Prairie: The True Story of Laura Ingalls Wilder and, most recently, King of Texas, a western version of Shakespeare’s King Lear which aired earlier this year on TNT.

MARCIA BALL was born in Orange, Texas, and raised in Vinton, Louisiana. A fourth-generation musician, she was passing through Austin, Texas, when her car broke down. She stayed on to become a founding member of our city’s music scene. In 1989 she was inducted into the Austin Music Hall of Fame and has been awarded Austin’s Best Keyboard and Best Female Vocalist honors many times. She recently received five W.C. Handy nominations, the most ever received by any individual recording artist, and won Best Album honors. The Marcia Ball Band travels coast to coast and internationally. Her albums include Soulful Dress, Hot Tamale Baby, and, most recently, Presumed Innocent.