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Anonymous donor gifts $450,000 to beloved Houston arts festival canceled due to COVID-19

An anonymous donor has gifted $450,000 to assist artists involved in the Bayou City Arts Festival.

Photo courtesy of Bayou City Arts Festival

Springtime in Houston sees myriad festivals, few as popular as the beloved annual Bayou City Arts Festival. Each year, thousands of locals descend upon Memorial Park to meet artists, view original works, purchase one-of-a-kind art, prints, jewelry, sculptures, functional art, and more. Sadly, the festival, like so many others, was canceled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

In some bright news, The Art Colony Association, Inc., the producer of Bayou City Art Festival, announced that an anonymous donor has donated $450,000 to the festival. The funds will provide all 300 of the 2020 Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park artists with a cash grant for $1500 each, according to organizers.

The gift is personal, given in memory of the donor’s mother, a watercolor artist from Arlington, Texas. "My Mom died in August of 2019 and I was waiting for the right time and organization to honor her memory," the donor tells CultureMap. "I read an article about the artists that were affected by the cancellation of the Bayou City Art festival and decided that this was something that my Mom would have wanted to do. When I was young, my Mom was a working single mom and often struggled to make ends meet, so I can appreciate the hardships of artist."

Additionally, all artists confirmed for the canceled Memorial Park festival have been invited to exhibit in the Bayou City Art Festival Downtown, now slated for Saturday-Sunday, October 10-11.

The donation was made as a contribution to Artists for Artists, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that provides Emergency Recovery Grants and free medical programming to Houston-based artists.

For those who are looking forward to the fall festival: The Bayou City Art Festival Downtown will feature two music stages, a culinary arts stage with chef demonstrations, strolling live entertainment, food trucks, and a craft beer and wine garden. In the Children’s Creative Zone, sponsored by Texas Children’s Hospital Specialty Care, the festival’s nonprofit partners will host art activities for all ages and include an interactive area for all attendees to enjoy

McKenzie Fisk, a painter who hails from Los Angeles, will be the featured artist for Bayou City Art Festival Downtown. All tickets purchased in advance for the Memorial Park 2020 Festival will be honored at the Downtown Festival in October 2020.

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Mags Move In

Shuttered Houston magazine stand finds new home at Austin coffee shop

Tomo Mags bus outside of brick-and-mortar Austin store

Photo courtesy of the Downtown Austin Alliance

Tomo Mags is driving into a new era.

Austin's roaming newsstand Tomo Mags — which sells books out of a signature blue bus — is moving up in the world. Its new brick-and-mortar bookstore and partner coffee shop, Cielito Lindo, are celebrating their grand opening Thursday, January 22, at 411 Brazos Street, #101. A ribbon-cutting ceremony from 10-11 am with the Downtown Austin Alliance and the Austin Chamber of Commerce will mark the occasion.

Tomo Mags started in 2015 in Houston, on a decommissioned school bus. Founder Vico Puentes hit the ground running — or driving — visiting shopping centers, galleries, universities, cafés, and more. It toted artsy independent magazines about fashion, photography, design, erotica, and even some comparatively normie selections like The Economist and New York Magazine.

The journey so far has included an earlier stationary space that later closed (and another one that reopened), a pause for several years, and a "bittersweet" move to Austin in 2025.

Tomo Mags Austin interior The collection has a lot more room to expand in this new space.Photo courtesy of the Downtown Austin Alliance

The new shop offers more of the same: a wide selection of magazines and art books alongside studio tools like pens and notebooks, merch, and fashionable accessories. It's been in a soft-opening phase since mid-December. Cielito Lindo, which opened in a coffee pot-shaped trailer in Manor in spring 2025, also kicked off its soft opening in the space a few days. Both the Tomo bus and Cielito's trailer will continue operating.

Even though both businesses are relatively new to Austin, Puentes has deep personal connections with the city.

“Before opening TOMO mags, I worked in downtown Austin for the last six years, and I’ve seen such an incredible evolution in what it feels like for the people who work and live here, as well as the visitors passing through,” said Puentes in a press release.

Tomo Mags Austin interior Cafe tables are great for flipping through new finds with Cielito Lindo's signature horchata latte.Photo courtesy of the Downtown Austin Alliance

Driving around town to make sales may sound like a fast-paced existence, but Puentes hopes visitors to Tomo can slow down when they visit, enjoying the physical experience and maybe even creating a personal art archive over time. Part of that includes getting to know the artists filling the shelves.

"With TOMO mags, our goal is to create a place people can come back to regularly to slow down, find inspiration, and leave with something special, or a gift that actually feels thoughtful," he said. "We’re already meeting people from all over the world, and we’re proud to host them and share recommendations that help them experience Austin beyond just downtown, while also spotlighting the creative community and local businesses that make this city so special.”

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