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As part of the “Stars of Dripping Springs” public art project, the City of Dripping Springs unveiled a new set of stars at a ceremony on Oct. 8. The stars are designed to celebrate the Hill Country nature and heritage that make Dripping Springs shine.
“This has been a dream of ours for five years,” Lisa Sullivan, the city’s People & Communications Director, said. “Last year we kicked off the dream with six stars on Mercer Street, and now we have ten stars from ten wonderful artists who are going to share their story tonight.”
Sullivan thanked Pam King, the city’s tourism director, and the Dripping Springs Art League (DSAL) for making the project a reality. She also thanked the City Council for their support of the initiative.
Mayor Bill Foulds, Jr. also spoke and thanked the partners, as well as city staff, for their work.
“These stars are not just artwork, they tell a story, and the artists did a great job of expressing themselves and capturing the moment of Dripping Springs,” Foulds said.
DSAL President Steve Friedman said appreciated partnering with so many great people from the city.
“I also just want to recognize the city in general, because I think it must have taken a lot of courage to say, we’re gonna put these bright vibrant stars in the center of our downtown,” Friedman said. “But you know, it really captures a lot of the culture and the vibrancy that is Dripping Springs, and these next ten stars are just going to do even more for that.”
Dripping Springs tourism manager Pam King said the stars are a great asset for the community, and a draw for people to come and visit. She encouraged everyone in attendance to take photos with the stars and post them on social media with the hashtag #destinationdrippingsprings to help spread the word.
King also thanked Dripp’n Paint & Body for their support of the artists.
“This is a really interesting process. Our artists use different kinds of mediums to paint their stars, but all of these stars are clear-coated by Dripp’n Paint & Body,” King said. “That’s why they stay vibrant and bright and look so great and last for a very long time. So that’s a really generous donation and we really appreciate them for that.”
The new stars will be finding their homes at various sites around town, including all six city parks.
“For this phase, it was important to us that we have stars in all of our parks,” King said. “So we worked with the Parks Commission, they helped select which stars they wanted in which parks.”
Additionally, King said that four businesses stepped up and said they wanted to support this project and help spread the love - Flying Fish Academy, Ally Medical Emergency Room, Deep Eddy Vodka Tasting Room and H-E-B. Each of those locations will have a star.
H-E-B’s star, which was created by artist Melissa Richardson, is an homage to the store.
“Phase one happened because of them, and that was huge,” King said. “They helped kick this program off, so that is really a great tribute to them and our community.”
The stars will be placed in their homes in the coming weeks.
The star artists - Melissa Richardson, Joe Christenson, Kyndall Womack, Cathy Richardson, Jessie Woodhead, Erin Hounsel, Jessi Bostad, Tiffany Sierras, Jenny Swannack and Rozmary Seastrom - will be profiled in an upcoming issue.
