Old Sixth, Meet the New Residency

“Just watch your step,” director and co-founder Jordan Nelsen says as we make our way off the street and into the foyer. The familiar stink of stale beer sits heavy in the August heat. Abandoned refuse dots the block. 

It’s my first time in 612a E. Sixth, also known as estudiosix (e6), and this stretch of Downtown has not received the spitshine of its neighbors to the west. Tucked between vacant spaces of what once was – the original location of Emo’s, the former Daruma Ramen, and a slew of Dirty Sixth bars that have either closed or been revamped – this beautiful old 19th century limestone building and its new artist residents are optimistically looking forward to the next chapter.

Helmed by Nelsen and artist Mark Hilton with financial backing from the Old Sixth revitalization campaign, estudiosix quietly launched its residency program earlier this summer. Its pilot project featured nine local Austin artists, including Sean Ripple, Anahita Bradberry, and Manik Raj Nakra, spanning mediums across photography and sculpture to painting and printmaking. The goal was to test the efficacy of the space – how well it functioned, how the studios were best utilized, how it felt to develop small groups oriented around peer-led critiques and conversations. 

This initial experiment proved a success and has now ushered in the Fall 2026/Spring 2027 class, which was announced earlier this week. Juan Cisneros, Eli Decker, Jeffrey From, Michael Anthony García, Terra Goolsby, Rowan Howe, Elizabeth Maria Hudson, Payton McGowen, Britt Wilder Moseley, Alexandre Pépin, Matt Rebholz, Carlos Rosales-Silva, Ana Treviño, and Alex Trippe will utilize e6’s studio space beginning Sept. 1. 

A landscape by upcoming estudiosix artist in residence Matt Rebholz Credit: estudiosix

In speaking about the selection of the new cohort, Nelsen states that e6’s independent panel of jurors were looking for a “diversity of material use and thematic interests.” That’s clearly evident, and it will be compelling to see how these artists build into the space as individuals and as a unit. From Garcia’s performance and sculptural work to Rebholz’s cinematic, surreal landscapes, there’s great potential for influence and dialogue, with some shared themes of technology, identity, and politics among the 14 artists. It’s in this connectivity that e6 hopes to offer something distinct – not just affordable, accessible studio space in Central Austin but also an interdependent network of artists.

“[There’s] an eagerness for … a feedback structure and places to gather, oriented towards open dialogue,” claims Nelsen, and it’s hard to disagree. So many of the city’s Aughts studio spaces have ceased operations in recent years. The closures of Bolm Studios, Pump Project and its Flex Space, and Up Collective were scattered against the dissolution of Big Medium, the arts organization that founded the Texas Biennial in 2005 and created EAST (East Austin Studio Tour). These events, combined with the shuttering of the Contemporary’s Crit Group program in 2020, left many artists in Austin considering the financial and existential viability of their practices. 

e6 bears the mark of this new epoch in the Austin arts community. While wildly affordable by today’s standards, the residency does include a $250/month studio fee, which funds the program and its 24/7 facilities. Nelsen hopes to have more of these costs subsidized in the future, with Hilton acknowledging that these are not traditional studio spaces in either cost or execution. He ventures that in cities across the country, having artists embedded into the infrastructure of historic districts is par for the course and that Austin has been behind the curve – a particular affront for a city that has long coasted on the reputation of weird, wild creativity. 

During our tour, sunlight streams down into the central interior courtyard. Artists tinker, paint, and posit, while the soft thud of a late afternoon soundcheck from a nearby bar sidles down the street. 

The building has endured much: originally operating as the King-Tears Mortuary in the early 1900s, later becoming an automotive repair shop, then standing vacant on-and-off through the turbulent tech years as a coworking and startup space.  This tenure carries some threshold of imperviousness. Out with the old, in with the new, rinse and repeat in perpetuity. But e6 feels like the rare hiccup of thoughtful forward progress, both preserving the city’s history and centering artists in Austin’s future. 

estudiosix’s Open Studio welcomes visitors to view work from its current summer residents this Sunday, Aug. 23, from 11am to 3pm.

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