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Presenting East Austin Cutie-o Tour 2021

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I am beyond grateful to have my first experience hosting a double-weekend East Austin Studio Tour event on the Dear Diary Coffeehouse patio. It’s going to be a lot of fun so I hope you can make it out!

Earlier this year, I started the Creative Cuties community here in Austin to help others connect, create, and celebrate all of our gifts. Since the beginning of this year, we’ve gained over 120 members and have hosted nine Sprout Sessions, guerrilla open studio times for members to gather in parks, coffee shops, and outdoor eateries all around the city to put energy into their creative practices… and make some friends while doing it.

When the owner at Dear Diary asked me if I’d like to take over their patio during Austin Studio Tour, I was thrilled to extend the opportunity to my community, give those without a studio the space to participate, and introduce Creative Cuties to the city. Luckily, over 30 creators responded to bring their work and make East Austin Cutie-o Tour a reality.

Introducing East Austin Cutie-o Tour

Weekend 1 Line-Up

Weekend 2 Line-up

Want to learn more about our creators? Check out our 2021 East Austin Cutie-o Tour Creators Guide.

What You Can Expect

Community Sketch Journals — Get a taste of our Sprout Sessions meet-ups by leaving your mark in one of the sketch journals. Need ideas? Pull a prompt, freestyle on your favorite subjects, write a message, or collab with someone at your table! Journals will live on in the coffeeshop afterwards to inspire patrons for years to come.

***Sanitizer will be available at each table, so please use it. Limited selection of creative supplies will be available for everyone to use, so please share and leave them at the table for those after you. PLEASE, use the sanitizer before touching anything.***

Creative Cuties Community Table — Support new and emerging artists at our community table. Meet some of our members and shop a selection of mixed merchandise from participating new vendors. You’ll also be able to learn what Creative Cuties is all about, while picking up some official gear or making a donation to support our ongoing efforts to make free creative spaces more accessible to all of Austin.

Live Painting & Live Music — Get inspired by our talented live painters and musicians. We’re featuring different entertainers every day, to keep the energy flowing throughout the two weekends. So they didn’t have to supply all of their own materials, live painters will have a box of spray paints and caps, sponsored by the legends at Vandals Container.

Pop-Up Mini-Market — Tired of corporations starting holiday marketing way too early? Stop giving them your money and start your holiday shopping with us instead. We’ve got a rotating mini-market of vendors every day of the tour, featuring a wide variety of art, decor, accessories, and apparel. Gift yourself those warm fuzzies of supporting a local artist and finding unique gifts for your loved ones!

Solarium Exhibition — Inside Dear Diary Coffeehouse, you’ll be able to experience the Solarium garden-themed group exhibition, while sipping on flora and foliage drink specials and golden butter mochas.

Sponsors & Organizers

This event wouldn’t be possible without the support of all of our amazing sponsors and organizers. So I wanted to show them a little love.

Dear Diary Coffeehouse

First and foremost, thank you Dear Diary Coffeehouse for allowing us the space and opportunity to put on a fantastic show as part of your Austin Studio Tour partnership. I am eternally grateful to you for putting your trust in me to run this event and even for letting me name it something silly. None of this would have been possible without you hitting me up to ask me if I wanted to do “something art awesome for Austin Studio Tour.”

They also sponsored the community sketch journals for everyone who comes through to enjoy a little Sprout Session action!

Creative Cuties Community Members

If I didn’t have people willing to show up to be a part of this, we would not have an event. I mean, I guess I could have just song and danced by myself, but the fact that I have a community of fantastic creators behind me, ready to support whatever I am dreaming up, is beautiful. Seeing them support each other and consistently show up to participate in some good creative chaos is everything I have ever wanted out of life. They fill my heart with so much love.

Rusty Paige aka Caroline Stradley

Between all the things I was already planning, the idea of finding musicians to fill our live music bill on top of that was too much. Luckily, Rusty Paige, who runs the open mic at Dear Diary every Monday, knew plenty of musicians and was able to take over coordinating that. Super grateful to have her help and support to get us some live music to help keep the energy moving throughout the two weekends!

Vandals Container

Big, big thanks to Vandals Container for sponsoring a box of spray paints and caps for our live painters. Art supplies can get real expensive real quick and we were working with a very tiny budget for the show. It makes me so happy that we were able to work something out to help our live painters mitigate some of the cost of materials. Laced and Found and SNUK ONE of Vandals Container do so much to support the local community and have built an amazing local spray paint shop.

Thanks for reading!!

Beyond excited to bring this experience to the city. We’ll see you out at the Cutie-o Tour!

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