Best Public Artwork

Although the plaque on the Stevie Ray Vaughan Statue along the Town Lake Hike & Bike Trail is simply titled "Musician," the man was more than just a musician to countless Austinites who watched him grow up into a guitar hero. The statue by Ralph Helmich is as much a monument to the Capital City's young, creative energy and dreams as it is to one man. Officially titled "Night Wing," the rotating, purple metal sculpture of a bat in flight by Dale Whistler at the corner of South Congress & Barton Springs Road honors Austin's most famous part-time residents. Every evening around sundown from mid-March through October, 1.5 million Mexican free-tail bats soar off into the night, in columns that look like wisps of smoke.