Design
Why Every City Needs an 'Art Chapel'
Ellsworth Kelly's upcoming non-denominational chapel in Austin points to the need for inclusive spaces in diverse but segregated cities.
Houston's got the Rothko Chapel. Dallas has Thanks-Giving Square. Now Austin's getting in on the business of building visionary non-denominational chapels.
The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas is reviving plans by Ellsworth Kelly, the great minimalist painter, to build a chapel. Alan G. Brake at The Architect's Newspaper reports that Kelly first designed the project for a collector in 1968. The university museum has raised $7 million toward a $15 million campaign toward construction costs and an endowment for the chapel, which will be Kelly's first building when it is completed next year.