Nov. 15, 2026 @ 6:00 pm – Feb. 14, 2027 @ 7:00 pm
DETAILS
Exhibition: Connecting Stories: Texas in 1776
Curator of Exhibitions & Director of Programs: Luisa Fernanda Perez
Co-curator & Advisor: Dr. Frank de la Teja
Advisor: Mr. Wallace Coffey
Where: Mexic-Arte Museum at the Austin History Center, 1933 Building 800 Guadalupe St, Austin, TX 78701
Mexic-Arte Museum is inaugurating a temporary home with the opening of Connecting Stories: Texas in 1776. For the next few months, Mexic-Arte Museum will host exhibitions and programs at the Austin History Center 1933 Building, in addition to the 419 Congress location. The Austin History Center has moved next door to the Faulk Building. Over the following months, Mexic-Arte Museum will transition completely to programming at the temporary location Austin History Center while construction of the new museum building takes place. We wholeheartedly thank the City of Austin for the continued support in building a permanent museum building for Mexic-Arte Museum serving the Austin community. For now, please visit the Mexic-Arte Museum at both locations.
When: November 15, 2026 – February 14, 2027
Admission: Adults: $8, Senior, Active Military, Veterans, Students, & Educators: $5
Ages 12 & Under: $1, Free Admission on Sundays!
Hours: Mon: CLOSED, Tues – Thur: 10am – 6pm, Fri & Sat: 10am – 5pm, Sunday: 12pm – 5pm
Public Programs: The Destruction of Mission San Sabá: Art, Indigenous Politics, and Spanish Texas: Exhibition panel discussion with Historian, Dr. Frank de la Teja, Historian, Dr. Joaquin Rivaya-Martinez, and Art Historian, Dr. Marion Oettinger – Sunday, November 15th at 2pm-3:30pm
Family Day 1: Flags, Banners & Texas History – Papel Picado & Prints – December 6th, 2026 at 1pm-4pm
Family Day 2: Natural Heritage & Living Histories- Printmaking and Zines – January 10th, 2027 at 1pm-4pm
ABOUT THE EXHIBIT
Connecting Stories: Texas in 1776 is a new exhibition commemorating the 250th anniversary of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. Looking beyond the thirteen original colonies, the exhibition explores the region now known as Texas before, during, and after the American Revolution, highlighting the diverse peoples, cultures, and historical events that shaped its identity. This exhibition is supported by a major grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities.
While the American colonies fought for independence from British rule, the region that would become Texas was undergoing its own transformations. Indigenous nations, Spanish colonial settlements, and emerging political and economic networks shaped a landscape defined by cultural exchange, adaptation, resistance, and conflict. Rather than presenting Texas as a distant backdrop to the American Revolution, Connecting Stories: Texas in 1776 examines the region’s connections to a larger history and the many communities whose experiences contributed to its development.
Featured Artwork: Connecting Stories: Texas in 1776 features the major work Destruction of Mission San Sabá, c. 1758-1765, generously on loan from the Museo Nacional del Arte (MUNAL), Mexico City, Mexico. The Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) in Mexico City is Mexico’s premier institution for the historical study, conservation, and display of national visual arts. The exhibition also includes other items from various museums and private collections such as: Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, Pioneer Farms Texas General Land Office, Texas Tech University, Texas Tejano, The Bryan Museum, The University of Texas at Austin as well as Museo del Sarape y Trajes Mexicanos and Charreria Museum and private collections.
Exhibition Highlights
Exhibit Sections: Through historical artworks, photographs, maps, documents, oral histories, and community voices, the exhibition invites visitors to explore the evolving relationships between people, place, and power. Organized into four sections, An Evolving Frontier, Texas during Independence, Revolution and Transformation, and Reflections, the exhibition brings together historical perspectives that challenge traditional narratives and encourage a deeper understanding of Texas’s complex past.
An Evolving Frontier: The exhibition begins by examining the eighteenth-century Texas frontier, where Indigenous nations, including the Coahuiltecans, Comanches, Lipan Apaches, Tejas, and Tonkawas, navigated relationships with one another and with Spanish colonial authorities. Among the featured works is Destruction of Mission San Sabá (1765), attributed to José de Páez and recognized as the earliest known painting of a Texas historical scene by a professional artist. Depicting the 1758 destruction of Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá, the painting offers insight into Spanish colonial ambitions, Indigenous resistance, and the competing visions of power and sovereignty that shaped the region.
Texas during Independence: As the exhibition moves into the period of American independence, visitors discover how Spanish Texas played a role in the broader conflict. Following Spain’s entry into the war against Britain in 1779, resources from its North American territories supported military campaigns along the Gulf Coast. Tejano communities contributed cattle and supplies, connecting the region’s developing ranching economy to events unfolding far beyond Texas.
A featured video installation, Paths That Map Our History, by artists Cindy and Ernesto Hernandez, traces the transformation of the San Antonio de Béxar landscape through its missions, ranches, settlements, and cattle routes. Narrated by Ralph Anthony Pacheco, an eighth-generation descendant of Mission San José residents of Lipan Apache heritage, the installation highlights the personal and ancestral connections that continue to inform our understanding of this history. Historical correspondence, illustrations, saddles, and spurs further document the emergence of ranching and horsemanship as defining elements of Texas’s cultural and economic identity.
Revolution and Transformation: The exhibition also explores the political transformations that followed American independence, including the transition from Spanish colonial rule to Mexican sovereignty and the events leading to the Texas Revolution. Central to this section is Lorenzo de Zavala (1788–1836), a Mexican statesman, diplomat, and reformer whose support for federalism ultimately led him to participate in Texas’s independence movement. As a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence and the Republic of Texas’s first Vice President, Zavala represents the complex political identities and competing visions that shaped the region. Through historical documents, portraiture, and reproductions of early Texas symbols, visitors are invited to reconsider the Mexican and Tejano contributions to Texas history.
Connecting these historical narratives to the land itself are photographs by Andrew Austin, a lifelong naturalist, wildlife photographer, and lineal descendant of the Lipan Apache people of southwest Texas. Drawing from his Indigenous heritage and deep connection to the natural world, Austin documents Texas’s diverse landscapes, wildlife, and increasingly rare habitats. His photographs offer a visual reminder that the state’s history is inseparable from the natural environments that have sustained communities for generations.
Reflection: The exhibition concludes with an interactive section encouraging visitors to reflect on the ideals of liberty, self-government, and equality, and to consider whose voices have historically been included or excluded from these narratives. Through interpretive activities, historical quotations, and opportunities for personal reflection, Connecting Stories: Texas in 1776 invites audiences to question how history is recorded, whose stories are preserved, and how those perspectives influence our understanding of the present.
As the nation reflects on 250 years of independence, Connecting Stories: Texas in 1776 offers an opportunity to recognize the many histories that existed before the founding of the United States and the communities that continue to shape Texas today. By bringing these stories together, Mexic-Arte Museum encourages visitors to engage with the region’s shared cultural heritage while considering the ongoing relationship between history, identity, and belonging.
Destruction of Mission San Sabá, c. 1758-1765
Atrributed to José de Páez
Oil on canvas
6’ 11″ x 9’ 7″
Generously on loan from the Museo Nacional del Arte (MUNAL), Mexico City, Mexico
Destruction of Mission San Sabá – Painting provenance
Painted soon after the 1758 attack, this work is believed to have been based on eyewitness accounts. It is considered the earliest known surviving painting by a professional artist depicting an event in Texas history.
For centuries, the painting remained in private and institutional collections in Mexico. In 1981 the painting was bought in Spain and brought to Texas for a private sale, where its presence became the subject of controversy. U.S. Customs agents confiscated the painting and ultimately returned it to Mexico.
Today, Destruction of Mission San Sabá is permanently housed at the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL) in Mexico City. Official photographic reproductions are displayed in Menard County, Texas, near the site of the historic mission.
Excavation of the site of Mission San Sabá
Archaeological excavations have helped reconstruct what remains of Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá (and the nearby Presidio San Sabá) after its destruction. Driven by an interest in family genealogy, architect Mark Wolf helped identify the original site, working with a historian, and alongside archaeologists and students from Texas Tech University. In 1993 the team re-discovered the original site, and in 1994, the team tested and confirmed the remains belonged to the historic mission. Using metal detectors, they located various Spanish colonial artifacts throughout the site, offering insight into what life on the land may have looked like.
A larger excavation in the summer of 1997 uncovered nearly 100 post stains and about 30 archaeological features, revealing some of the buildings’ locations and helping researchers better understand the mission’s original layout. Some of the post stains – remnants of the building’s wooden structural members and stockade walls – contained ash, charcoal, and burned soil, while pieces of melted lead and burnt building material called fired daub provided evidence that allowed for researchers to better understand the mission’s original layout.
Acknowledgment
Mexic-Arte Museum extends its appreciation to the artists, scholars, cultural institutions, community partners, and supporters whose contributions made this exhibition possible, including the National Endowment for the Humanities, Texas Commission on the Arts, City of Austin, Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment, the Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL), The Bryan Museum, Secretaria de Cultura Coahuila, Municipio de Saltillo, Consulate General of Mexico in Austin, CG&S Design, CapMetro, and the many collaborating organizations and individuals who helped bring these histories to life.
