Our projects model the value of local art and creativity in our everyday lives and dreams for the future.
Since 2015, we have platformed the perspectives of thousands of artists and creatives in Texas. All of our programs are led by artists and creatives themselves, responsively designed to provide more than exhibition opportunity.
① the FRONT MARKET
The Front Market is an independent marketplace and craft fair, hosted biannually in the Spring and Fall. Since 2016, the program has welcomed 40,000+ guests and showcased more than 2,000 creatives, artists, designers, chefs, makers and craftspeople in Texas.
Learn more here.
② THE FRONT FESTIVAL
The Front Festival is an annual end-of-summer community festival and public exhibition, featuring independent music, film and art. Hosted in Austin, the festival platforms the perspectives of women and LGBTQ+ artists in Texas.
Learn more here.
③ THE FUTURE FRONT HOUSE
Located in historic East Austin, The Future Front House is a 1200 sq. ft. community space, distinctively designed to offer free/discounted educational opportunities and gathering space for creative community-building, workshops, shows and pop-ups.
Stop by during public hours, become a member or book a community rental. Learn more here.
④ OPEN CREATIVE LEARNING PROGRAMS
Our workshops, educational series and professional development programs build public education around creative leadership, community-building practices, cultural justice, arts wellness and belonging.
Current series include Community Clubs, the Work Conference, as well as Future Front’s Artist Residency AND Curators Program.
⑤ CREATIVE COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS*
We work with community partners and collaborators to design, pioneer and produce cultural programs that nurture the creative future of Texas around three core pillars:
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Our programs model the value of local art and creativity in our everyday lives and dreams for the future. Within museums and city streets, public parks and community spaces, we produce public exhibitions that connect you to diverse creatives, artists, musicians, craftspeople performers, designers, filmmakers and cultural producers in Texas—who live and work in your community.
Here, you can support and discover their projects, while nurturing your own creativity. -
All of our programs are informed by artists and creatives themselves, responsively designed to provide more than exhibition opportunity.
Since 2014, we’ve distributed $1M in commissions and developed culturally responsive resources for artist empowerment, creative business and creative leadership. -
We all need third spaces that nurture our imagination, creative growth & relationships to community, connection, healing and culture.
Our programs reflect back the public spaces we want to see in the world—spaces that encourage curiosity, value art and creativity, welcome experimentation and low-tech innovation, center diverse identities and amplify learning.
*Active pARTNERSHIPs INCLUDE:
✰ Future Front collaborates directly with like-minded partners and organizations to bring expanded versions of its programs and frameworks to the public.
This has included designing and co-founding a range of public programs with partner organizations, including Pride Picnic with Pease Park, the Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation’s VIBE WEEKEND and EMERGE with The LINE Hotel Austin.
✰ Future Front provides ongoing fiscal sponsorship, mentorship and capacity-building support to independent cultural producers’ public creative projects in Austin.
Current fiscal sponsorees include Sunday Sessions ATX, Blood Bath’s Community Fashion Show, Broad Studios’ ClubHouse Ceramics Scholarship, Highways Harm Reduction Artist Coalition and more!
Attend events, become a member or apply. Everybody and every body are welcome.
For the second time, we brought back the picnic’s annual polaroid yearbook. In these 29 snaps, we hope to celebrate (and document) the presence of community joy in Texas for future generations.
In commemoration of Madly Involved and our Spring Season, we interviewed curator Mueni Loko Rudd, as well as artists Sacugar Edwards and Moses Leonardo, on the world-buildling creative rituals that define their practices.
Co-hosted by our founding Executive Director Jane Hervey and a lineup of guest instructors, this three-part series was designed for Austin-based independent and DIY artists, creatives and small business owners.
History in the Making posed two questions — What does Black History mean to you? How are you making History today? — as an expression of solidarity, a celebration of existence and a desire for life. For ourselves and the futures of those to come after us.
Due to the termination of the National Endowment of the Arts’ cooperative agreement with South Arts, Future Front’s $65,000 ArtsHERE grant award was rescinded on May 5, 2025
On April 12, 2025, we hosted a soft afternoon of all-ages creative workshops, outdoor DJ sets and community vibes during Pease Park’s Squirrel Fest—an annual day to celebrate Spring, Austin’s natural ecosystems and the city’s iconic native squirrel.
For The Front Market’s Spring 2025 Season, we exhibited 175+ independent artists, makers and creatives, welcoming 5,000 visitors across the state of Texas.
The Broad Studios Club House x Future Front Community Clay Fellowship awards 12 students with six free weeks of ceramic classes every year.
Future Front provides ongoing fiscal sponsorship, mentorship and capacity-building support to independent cultural producers’ public creative projects in Austin.
From November 2024 to February 2025, we hosted Ceremony, a collaborative group show celebrating independent visual artists in our 2024/25 Artist Residency.
Every year during SXSW, Future Front hosts artists, creatives, cultural workers and activists across the U.S. for International Women's Day and Women's History Month.
In 2024, our leadership team worked with the Downtown Austin Alliance Foundation to publish its first Artists and Creatives Thrive report, exploring cultural relationships to downtown Austin.
It’s time for a close read. Bookmark Future Front’s big event and open calls dates for 2025.
Last season, we collaborated with artist Lola Budimir (a featured creative within The Front Market) to design a fresh take on the Future Front logo, inspired by vintage I <3 Mom tats—and the goods are finally here.
Written by Texas-based licensed therapists, this step-by-step guide explores realigning values, boundaries and frameworks toward both self-care and collective-care within your community work.
In response to recent rollbacks and bans on federal diversity and grants programs, Future Front (and many arts organizations like ours) will continue to be discriminately affected without cause. As familiar as the challenges are, nothing has changed at Future Front—and we will let you know if anything does.
From welcoming 18,000 visitors to hosting more than 200 community events, we reached every milestone on our list. Continue reading for some of 2024’s highlights and takeaways.
Keep reading for an introduction to five Austin-based artists and their thoughts on independent creative work, nurturing community and returning to oneself.
Through annual art shows and pop-ups to our award-winning parties at the hotel’s pool (also known as Swim Sessions), these strategic collaborations have generated $75,000+ in support for local arts and culture over the last seven years.
This Fall, we welcomed back Highlander Center for the second iteration of Future Lands, an all-day teach-in exploring the artistic, cultural and creative impact of southern people’s struggles for justice and democracy.
Learn about our 10-day exhibit, A Path of Impermanence, featuring archival photo prints by Future Front Resident Artist Liz Moskowitz.
With The Front Market’s 2024 Season officially wrapped, this year's Gift Guide—featuring 200+ women and LGBTQ+ creatives from The Front Market—is live.
For The Front Market’s Fall 2024 Season, we exhibited 175+ creatives and welcomed 4,000+ visitors at our largest location yet—Waterloo Greenway—in the heart of downtown Austin.
In November 2024, we hosted Body Freedom for Every(Body), a cross-country art exhibition tour that takes place inside a 27-foot box truck.
What conditions are best for our communities’ growth? In this guide, we break down proven ways to show up, shop small and sustain local.
This October, Future Front is proud to announce the launch of a new mural by Austin-based illustrator, designer and small business owner Steffi Lynn Tsai in partnership with Waymo.
This July, we partnered with Red River Cultural District to present The Front Market for Hot Summer Nights, an annual festival celebrating Austin's live music scene.
For our third re-opening anniversary, we hosted an intimate three-night supper club at The Future Front House with one of our favorite South Indian-Texan chefs, Deepa Shridhar.
Featuring 65 women and LGBTQ+ artists, filmmakers, performers and independent creatives across Texas, The Front Festival 2024 welcomed 1,300+ visitors this weekend.
Austin-based chef Deepa Shridhar and Future Front Executive Director Jane Hervey host their second-annual supper club and community fundraiser.