Austin as a Music City: Policy, Place & Precarity

Part Two centers Austin itself, a globally celebrated “music city” grappling with the lived realities of artist instability, rising costs, and uneven institutional support.

This Town Hall highlights research connected to the Support Austin Musicians project and broader scholarship on music, labor, and cultural policy. The discussion examines how local economies, public institutions, and policy decisions shape musicians’ livelihoods, and what cities like Austin must do to truly support their creative communities.

Guest Speakers:

Robin Moore
Professor of Ethnomusicology, Butler School of Music, UT Austin; specializing in Latin American music, cultural policy, and music & society.

Charles Carson
Associate Professor of Musicology and Editor of the Journal of the Society for American Music, Butler School of Music, UT Austin.