The Contemporary Austin is marking five years of The Very 'Rary with an eco-futuristic celebration set for Sunday, October 18, at Laguna Gloria, the museum's 14-acre lakeside sculpture park. The all-ages afternoon event blends wearable design, hands-on artmaking, and interactive installations spread across the grounds, with tickets running $35 to $40. Organizers note the event is subject to change due to weather or other concerns.
According to CultureMap Austin, this year's edition celebrates five years of the event, billed as a once-a-year afternoon of art and amazement. The 2026 gathering runs from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. and leans into an eco-futuristic theme merging ecology and technology, according to The Contemporary Austin. Proceeds benefit the museum's K-12 arts education and free family programming, which the museum says reaches more than 25,000 young people across the region each year.
A Milestone Five Years in the Making
The Contemporary Austin launched the first Very 'Rary on October 30, 2022, introducing it as an illusion- and Halloween-inspired afternoon of artmaking and outdoor performance. Last October's iteration took on a surrealist safari theme, featuring performances by thereminist Aileen Adler, magician Peter Hinrich, and the world premiere of “Flourish! The Musical,” a work commissioned from Austin new-music collective Density 512, the museum's event archive notes. Museum records indicate the event now draws more than 1,000 children and family members annually to Laguna Gloria's lakeside grounds.
This year's edition features performances, hands-on artmaking, wearable design, and discoveries scattered across the sculpture park, per CultureMap Austin's event listing. The Contemporary Austin's own event page for the 2026 gathering reinforces those elements while emphasizing the fifth-anniversary framing and the ecology-meets-technology concept guiding this year's programming.
Community Art Leads Into the Big Day
In August, Laguna Gloria hosted community art workshops with Parents Climate Community to craft a community art quilt titled “Dear Me,” which is being created for display at The Very 'Rary, according to the museum's venue page. The project follows another recent initiative at the site: in July, the museum launched “Laguna Gloria – Listening to the Land,” a guided and self-guided tour program exploring the property's ecological history along with the indigenous and settler communities who lived there before it became an art park.
A Historic Estate Turned Public Art Park
Laguna Gloria sits at 3809 W 35th St in Austin, along Lake Austin and the Balcones Escarpment. The estate's centerpiece is the Mediterranean Revival-style Driscoll Villa, designed by San Antonio architect Harvey L. Page, according to Guide To Austin Architecture. The villa was built in 1916 by Texas philanthropist Clara Driscoll, famed for her role in preserving the Alamo, and Driscoll later donated the 14-acre estate along with a $5,000 gift to the Texas Fine Arts Association in 1943 to establish an art venue, per Tribeza.
Outside of ticketed events like The Very 'Rary, general admission to both of The Contemporary Austin's locations — Laguna Gloria and the downtown Jones Center — remains free to all visitors every Thursday, the museum notes on its visitor information page. That standing access policy sits alongside the paid fundraiser as part of the institution's broader push to keep art accessible while still funding its youth programming. Hoodline previously covered fall fundraisers boosting Austin arts education in the region, underscoring how events like this one fit into a wider local pattern of arts-and-education fundraising each autumn.
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