a year at Spicewood Vineyards, an annual art festival, gala, and community art treks to studios andmuseums. Perhaps most notably, the organization is working to support young artists, Jurgens said. This spring, Spicewood Arts will award scholarships to students at Lake Travis and Marble Falls ISDs who are pursu- ing a higher education in the arts. In over 20 years, more than $100,000 has been donated in $1,500 scholarships and various school programs. Nearby in Bee Cave, a nonpro t shares a similar goal. The Bee Cave Arts Foundation has been work- ing to bring art and cultural experiences to public spaces since 2009. The foundation is responsible for Buzzfest, an inter- active art and light festival that took place inDecember and drew inmore than 22,0000 attendees. With many achievements under its belt, Director Deby Childress said there is much more on the hori- zon for the foundation. The organization is developing Bee Cave’s rst arts and culture master plan, which will serve as a 10-year blueprint for the continued development of arts within the city. The plan, which is still under development, will be presented to Bee Cave City Council in July. “We want to do what we can in our community to enrich everybody’s lives but also to make it a place where people would want to come and spend a weekend,” Childress said. The plan will be funded by Bee Cave’s hotel occu- pancy tax dollars—funds collected through a tax on city hotel rooms that can be used to promote tour- ism through events, arts and more.
Funding the arts Hotel tax funds are collected through a tax on local hotel rooms that can only be used to drive tourism within the city. In Bee Cave, the Bee Cave Arts Foundation is the authority over HOT funds provided to the arts. LAKEWAY TOTAL HOT funds: about $4.3 million
Growing a film festival The 2021 Lake Travis Film Festival will run from June 10-13 and feature more than 100 lm projects.
TOP THREE SUBMISSION CATEGORIES: 10.9% DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
40 hours of lm 19 international lms 44 Texas lms
14.5% SCREENPLAYS
TexArts: $167,950
Lake Travis Film Festival: $90,000
40.5% NARRATIVE SHORT FILMS
BEE CAVE TOTAL
HOT funds: about $2.2 million
SOURCE: LAKE TRAVIS FILM FESTIVAL COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER
Bee Cave Arts Foundation: $174,000 Lake Travis Film Festival: $90,000* Bee Cave Buzzfest: $100,000
In 2019, council approved the Bee Cave Arts Foundation as the delegating authority for roughly 15% of the city’s hotel tax funds, which total about $2.2 million. Through the master plan, Childress said the foundation will help invest hotel tax funds in various art projects and events. One recipient of the funds has been LTFF, which has received a combined $100,000 for the 2021 event allocated from Bee Cave and Lakeway City Councils. A majority of those funds will go back to the local venues that will host festival events, including High 5 and Sonesta Bee Cave. Albert said the city’s vested interest in the promo- tion of the arts is crucial to growing events such as LTFF. These endeavors not only encourage tourism but ultimately support the strong sense of commu- nity felt within the region.
“Arts are the light coming out of the darkness. You need to see the beauty around us and the beauty that we can all create, and we’re just hungry for connec- tion.” Albert said. “For us, it’s not just about seeing something beautiful. It’s about having that interac- tion with another human that makes you feel alive.” SOURCES: CITY OF BEE CAVE, CITY OF LAKEWAY COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER *$90,000 re ects the total funds, $40,000 provided by Bee Cave in 2019 and $50,000 from the Bee Cave Arts Foundation in 2020.
For more information, visit communityimpact.com.
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LAKE TRAVIS WESTLAKE EDITION • MAY 2021
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