Culture and the Arts
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Buddy Holly. |
Lightnin' Hopkins. | Janis Joplin. | Roy Orbison. |
Texas Music: Its Roots, Its Evolution
By Jay Brakefield
Among the glories of Texas is its music, which is as diverse and vital as the state and its people. Woven into the musical fabric are country, blues, jazz, spirituals, gospel, rock 'n' roll, Tex-Mex, Cajun and the music of Czechs, Germans and other European immigrants.
These forms have not only coexisted, they have evolved and cross-pollinated as Texas has changed, becoming steadily more urban. Texas is the birthplace of Western swing, which incorporates elements of country, blues, pop, big-band jazz and Latin rhythms, and of conjunto, which combines traditional Mexican music with polkas and other European forms. Texas has nurtured zydeco, the music of French-speaking blacks, which has increasingly incorporated elements of rhythm and blues. . . .
Texas Makes Movies
Texas has been calling itself the Third Coast of filmmaking – third after the West Coast and the East Coast – since about 1978. That boast, which is challenged by Illinois and Florida, was given credibility at the 1984 Academy Awards ceremony, where films made wholly or partially in Texas captured seven of the top eight Oscars. Movie-making is clearly coming of age as an industry in Texas.
The Lone Star State has long been a Hollywood favorite as a film subject and a film setting: California-based companies have been filming in Texas since the 1920s. . . .
From the Almanac
Texas Medals of the Arts
The Texas Medals of the Arts were presented to artists and arts patrons with Texas ties in April 2011. The awards are administered by the Texas Cultural Trust Council. The council was established to raise money and awareness for the Texas Cultural Trust Fund, which was created by the Legislature in 1993 to support cultural arts in Texas (www.txculturaltrust.org).
The medals, awarded every two years, were first presented in 2001. A concurrent proclamation by the state Senate and House of Representatives honors the recipients, and the governor presents the awards in Austin.
2011
• Lifetime Achievement Award: Barbara Smith Conrad from Center Point near Pittsburg, operatic mezzo-soprano and civil rights icon.
• Music: ZZ Top of Houston, legendary band that sold over 50 million albums.
• Literary: Robert M. Edsel, Dallas, author and founder/president of the Monuments Men Foundation for the Preservation of Art.
• Visual arts: James Drake, Lubbock, artist.
• Theater arts: Alley Theatre, Houston.
• Multimedia: Ray Benson, Austin, front man for Asleep at the Wheel and co-writer of the play A Ride with Bob based on the life of Bob Wills.
• Film: Marcia Gay Harden, UT-Austin graduate, Oscar-winning actress.
• Film: Bill Paxton, Fort Worth, four-time Golden Globe nominee.
• Television: Bob Schieffer, Fort Worth, CBS news anchor.
• Arts education: Tom Staley, director of the Harry Ransom Center at UT-Austin.
• Individual arts patron: Ernest and Sara Butler of Austin, major donors to Austin arts groups.
• Corporate arts patron: H-E-B, grocer with a long history of supporting the arts in Texas.
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| The late Robert Rauschenberg was honored posthumously with a 2009 Texas Medal of the Arts. File photo. |
