The Austin Studio Tour's Two Hubs and Its Birthplace Are All in East Austin

Bays 8, 9 and 10 of a warehouse at 5305 Bolm Road are where the tour starts for visitors to Bolm Studios this Saturday, November 14. The tour's own host page for Bolm Studios calls the complex "the historic birthplace of the East Austin Studio Tour." Artists first moved into it more than twenty years ago.

That name no longer appears on the event. The November tour is now the Austin Studio Tour. It runs over two weekends, November 14–15 and 21–22, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, and it is free to attend, though some special programming can carry a fee. This year's map covers 815 artists, art groups and hosts at 309 locations around the city. The producers call it the largest edition yet. The map spread citywide, but its center stayed put. The official gallery hub, the producer's own studio building and the warehouse where the tour began are all east of I-35, in 78702 and 78721.

How EAST Became the Austin Studio Tour

The rename follows a change of ownership, and the dates matter.

Visit Austin's 2026 tour guide says Almost Real Things "saved the annual tour." In their 2026 letter, producers Natalie Earhart and Zachary Zulch write that they have taken part in the tour since 2016. They describe last year as "a rapid passing of the torch" and say this year's work went into "new systems that ensure a sustainable future for the Tour."

Those new systems still run out of East Austin addresses. The new producer took over the tour and kept its base on the East Side.

Canopy on Springdale Road Is the Front Desk

On the tour website, Almost Real Things calls its gallery at Canopy, 916 Springdale Road, Building 2, Suite 101, "the hub for all things Austin Studio Tour." Official tour merchandise is sold there, and the team is on site to help visitors plan routes. The gallery's tour listing promises exhibitions, a patio and atrium, food, drinks, live music and a market, open on all four tour days.

The 2"x4" group exhibition was scheduled to open at the ticketed November 6 kickoff, and it is the reason to stop here before going anywhere else. The show brings together work from more than 200 tour artists. The show stays up through the tour weekends. In a single room you can see work by hundreds of artists, then pick which studios to visit in person.

The rest of the Canopy complex is open both weekends too. Its tour listing counts 89 studios, five galleries, creative offices, retail and a café. Sa-Tén, a 2026 tour partner that provided food and coffee at the kickoff, sits across from the gallery. Big Medium moved out of Canopy in 2023. The complex is still the tour's starting point.

2324 East Cesar Chavez Is the Producer's Own Building

Almost Real Things' second hub is at 2324 E. Cesar Chavez Street. The producers call it their "east-side HQ." The building has 18 studios of artists and wellness professionals and a mural-covered courtyard with a curated market. The tour listing puts 18 resident artists and more than 15 guest artists there across both weekends.

So both producer-run hubs are on the East Side, one on Springdale and one on Cesar Chavez. Many other stops are spread across town. Austin's own visitor bureau points readers to Redbird Studio in South Austin, for example. But anyone who wants the guidebook, help with a route or the group show has to come to East Austin first.

The guidebook is substantial. The 2026 print edition runs 376 pages and includes a fold-out map. The producers say they designed it, along with the tour website, to be used all year.

Bolm Road, Where the Tour Began, Has New Leadership

Bolm Studios is the third address. It is the oldest of the three. Artists Zac the Maker and Stephanie Mervine now lead the complex. Its tour listing counts more than 40 artists and three gallery spaces: Bolm Arts Gallery, Crow's Nest Micro Gallery and a new flex-space gallery. It is open on all four tour days, with visitors directed to Bays 8, 9 and 10.

All three anchors share a pattern. Each is a building that houses many artists. The original tour grew out of warehouse studios on the East Side, and the citywide tour still treats East Side complexes as its fixed points.

The East Side Stops, Street by Street

The 2026 host directory lists more East Austin stops beyond the three anchors. Grouped by corridor, the East Side map looks like this:

All of these stops are listed as open on both weekends. Splinter Group fits the multi-artist pattern of the anchors, with more than 30 makers under one roof. Haus Obscura's listing includes artist talks and community events alongside its exhibitions, so it is worth checking the schedule before you go.

The Newest Stop on Manor Road

Raasin in the Sun Studios is the newest space on this list. In August, KUT reported that the arts nonprofit had built a studio in the courtyard of Seabrook Square, a new housing development near Mueller, as part of a larger plan for murals, a playground and other art installations around the site. KUT also reported that the studio is the group's first brick-and-mortar space and that local artists will be able to sell work there. Program director Tiffany Kowalski told KUT that workshops may include woodworking, collage, cooking and watercolor.

"It gives us a heartbeat for the organization in the sense that we have a place that people are going to know that they can come to."

Kowalski made that comment to KUT about the new space. Raasin in the Sun founder Raasin McIntosh started the organization in 2014 to bring more attention to public art, and it pays artists to paint murals around the city. This November, the studio is one of the East Side stops on a citywide map.

Planning Two Weekends From an East Side Address

Because the East Side holds the hubs, East Austin residents can do the tour in a different order than visitors coming from elsewhere. They can go to Canopy on a Saturday morning, see the 2"x4" show, pick up the guidebook, and still have both weekends to reach the studios that caught their attention, close to home or across town.

Each tour day runs six hours, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. For stops farther away, Almost Real Things runs the ART Bus. It follows routes the team picks, visits new locations each day, serves complimentary drinks and saves riders from looking for parking. The producers warn that seats fill up fast. Blue Owl Brewing and CapMetro are also on the 2026 partner list.

Some routes that fit easily into one day:

• Springdale and Cesar Chavez: Canopy and the Almost Real Things gallery, then 2324 E. Cesar Chavez and Splinter Group farther east on the same street.
• East 4th to East 6th: Red Line Studios, Haus Obscura and Factory on 5th, with the Alleyway Art Crawl on Cesar Chavez nearby.
• North and east: Bolm Studios, Koerner Studios and Raasin in the Sun on Manor Road, starting at the tour's original warehouse.

When the first weekend begins on Saturday, November 14, the gallery hub, the producer's studios and the original warehouse will all open within a few miles of each other in East Austin.

Ruth and Evonne follow these East Side studio complexes all year, not only in November. If you're thinking about how a home near Springdale, Cesar Chavez or Manor Road fits the way you live, Powers Property Group is glad to talk it through. Request a Personalized Consultation.