Walking into the quiet atrium of the new Carver Museum and Cultural Center feels like being in the heart of a nautilus shell. Wrapped around you are light, history, heart, struggle, celebration, and the solidity of white and red stone. The ambitious Carver complex centers around the old Carver Library, the first library for residents of color on the Eastside of Austin. The transformation of the library and the birth of the Cultural Center – modern buildings flanking the old wood-framed structure – is one of the proudest, wisest, and most beautifully accomplished civic changes Austin has ever seen. Go to see the mosaic murals gracing the south side of the building; visit the dance studio, gallery, darkroom, or theatre in the museum; sit in the library's comfortable chairs or its marvelous children's reading area; and take a tour through Juneteenth history in the gallery. Hard-won, deeply earned, and aesthetically sumptuous, the Carver Complex is the new heart of East Austin.
