Friends Fair Launch Party
In Partnership with Future Front Texas, curated by Jane Hervey
On May 6 (Wed) join us on The Moody Rooftop at the Jones Center to launch the second annual Friends Fair, presented in partnership with Future Front. Curated by Jane Hervey, the evening’s lineup reflects the overlapping friendships that define Austin’s analog art and live music scenes.
Event schedule
6P Rooftop and bar opens with an all-vinyl set by Antone’s Nightclub photographer, live music curator and DJ Salihah Saadiq aka Foxxxy Brown
7:30P Intimate art-rock performance by Austin Music Awards 2026 Best Vocalist BRUCE
ALL NIGHT Masked movement artists, featuring pieces by Mexic-Arte Artist-In-Residence Carla
8:30P Bar closes
9P Museum closes
For accommodation needs, please contact [email protected]
Know Before You Go
• The event is rain or shine—hopefully the latter! However, we're closely monitoring the weather and will issue any updates here should conditions change
• Meet us at our downtown location, the Jones Center, located at 700 Congress Ave
• Rideshare is encouraged. Metered street parking and parking garages are available throughout downtown. Check out our visit page for parking tips.
• Jones Center is open from 12–9P, plan to arrive early to view our current exhibition Sable Elyse Smith: Clockwork
• The Moody Rooftop opens at 6P
• Walk-ups are welcomed. Members get free entry!
• Be sure to stop by Friends Fair at The Hotel Loren from May 7–9. Free to RSVP!
• Members of The Contemporary get special access to free, guided tours or Friends Fair from May 8-9. Learn more here.
About the artists
BRUCE is the new project of Carrie Fussell, the former front-woman of Calliope Musicals.
you're home alone in the shower; you're singing "all by myself" by celine dion at the top of your lungs while ice cold water prickles your skin into that of a chicken. from somewhere that seems far away, a stadium full of people throw flowers at your feet and chant your name.
your name is BRUCE.
BRUCE is an art rock project. BRUCE got ready for sunday school all by herself. her debut album "must love teeth" was released on july 11, 2025, and she released a live concert film by the same name on november 4, 2025. at the very end of 2025, BRUCE was nominated by the austin chronicle as best vocalist (which she won), best new band and most creative event. pretty cool, huh?
Salihah Saadiq aka Foxxxy Brown is a local vinyl vixen who's all about a good time and a good groove. Heavily inspired by the energy of 70s/90s and innovation of the modern sounds, she integrates the old with the new, providing a sweet sonic experience. Her signature sounds include soul, hip-hop, funk and electronic/house.
Carla Santillana is an artist and art educator from Brownsville, Texas, currently based in San Antonio. Working across oil painting, textiles, and sculptural forms, including handmade masks, her practice explores how emotion is held and expressed through the body. She is a 2026 Changarrito Resident at the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, and her work was featured on the cover of Bittersweet Memories, a publication by a Rio Grande Valley artist.
Taryn Lavery, originally from Utah, is a freelance dancer, choreographer, cross-disciplinary design artist and co-founder/co-director of Austin’s BLiPSWiTCH— a project-based dance company focused on collaboration and site-specific performance works as an avenue to community expansion. She is a current dancer with Allysen Hooks Projects, Performa/Dance, RushTopFish and TY&CO, and has worked with ARCOS (2015-2022), Jennifer Sherburn (2016-2021), KDH Dance Company, Lisa Nicks, Justo Cisneros, Pearl Bhatnagar, Collide Arts, Dance Carousel, SEAM Project and more. Taryn has a creative philosophy rooted in the belief that the way we gather and share in exposition is an extension of process, and she fuses her classical background with a desire to revitalize modern dance for broader audiences, extracting a new form of contemporary performance.
Aída Hernandez-Reyes is a freelance dancer, performer, choreographer and interdisciplinary art maker based in Austin, Texas. Their movement training spans from local Austin studios to programs with Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Alonzo King Lines Ballet, Sidra Bell, B12 and the University of Texas at Austin from which they received a BFA in dance and performance. Aída has worked with Jesse Zaritt, Michiyaya, Valleto, Sarah J Bartholomew, Mama Duke, Thee Gay Agenda, Andrew Schneider and Annie Saunders, Kelsey Oliver, Joy Alpuerto Ritter, ARCOS, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Performa/Dance, JKJK, and more. Their creative process is inspired by a motivation to build stamina, rest, be upside down, craft and diy, punk around, appreciate the mundane and notice the sublime, and examine and embody their multiracial queer experience of the world around them.
Event partners
Friends Fair is Austin's newest hotel art fair featuring galleries from Austin and across the country. Now in its second year, the fair returns to The Loren at Lady Bird Lake from May 7–9. Encompassing two floors of the hotel, each participating gallery curates their own room. The hotel boasts an impressive art collection and has actively supported cultural programming, including exhibitions at the nearby historic Paggi House. Read recent coverage of the Friends Fair in ArtNews.
Homegrown in Austin, Future Front is an award-winning cultural space and public exhibition series—with women and LGBTQ+ creatives at the front. As a 501c3 arts and culture nonprofit, Future Front produces two annual community-led exhibitions, The Front Market and The Front Festival, platforming independent artists and creatives across disciplines in Texas. Beyond these flagship exhibitions, they host seasonal shows and workshops at our creative space in East Austin, welcoming 20,000+ visitors per year.
Through these programs and a diverse network of partnerships, Future Front invites the public (including you) to dream of a future where local art and creativity thrive in Texas—where we see ourselves and our cultures reflected in our communities.