Celebrating the commonalities between 19th-century art and modern times, the contemporary art programs at the Elisabet Ney Museum activates conversations between artists across the centuries and in collaboration with the historic native Texas landscape. Redefining Ney's iconoclastic life and brilliant art through the lens of three female contemporary visual artists, the museum’s newest exhibition, Breaking the Mold, explores notions of the artist process, life in 19th century Austin as an immigrant, and an admiration for the natural world.

The exhibition features new and existing artwork inspired by Elisabet Ney by Austin-based artists Beili Liu, Virginia L Montgomery (VLM), as well as Tammie Rubin. In addition to the exhibition, the artists will collaborate with the museum to create a new annual educational initiative, Breaking the Mold: Mobile Hands-On Art Crates. Each unique portable classroom kit will be designed and fabricated by the artists and be deployed into Austin elementary classrooms to engage students in the areas of art, history, science, and math to encourage critical thinking and the creative process. This program will also reinforce Elisabet Ney’s vision for women in the arts while advocating for youth educational initiatives.

This project has been funded in part by a grant from the Dorothy C. Radgowski Learning Through Women’s Achievement in the Arts Grant Program, provided through the Where Women Made History and the Historic Artists' Homes and Studios programs of the National Trust for Historic Preservation along with support from the Summerlee Foundation.

The Austin Studio Tours is an annual program produced by Big Medium, featuring hundreds of open artist studios and galleries across the Austin area.