The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin has announced a $5 million gift from Ernest and Sarah Butler in support of an outdoor space dedicated to sound art.

The Butler Sound Gallery will be an integral facet of Blanton's grounds revitalization slated to be completed in late 2022. Once complete, the space will be a park-like area on the museum campus and will open with a site-specific installation by sound art pioneer Bill Fontana that incorporates recordings of Texas wildlife and geological structures taken over the course of four seasons. In addition, the gift will support an endowment for future site-specific sound art installations for the gallery.

"Our new outdoor Butler Sound Gallery, which is an important part of the new grounds initiative on which we broke ground in March 2021, will change the way people encounter and experience the museum," said Blanton Museum director Simone Wicha. "For me, it felt especially important to launch this project with an artist whose work will not only surprise us and help us see more clearly through sound, but also will create a time capsule that captures the beauty and wonder of our rapidly changing world. Longtime supporters Sarah and Ernest Butler immediately saw the importance of this project, and their generous $5 million gift was pivotal in creating this latest initiative."