If you went to the Cool Arts Show last month expecting to also swing by a few artists' home studios afterward, the way you might have in years past, you came home with half the tradition. The other half wasn't cancelled. It just got moved to a different weekend, ten weeks out.
The Lakeway Arts Committee has quietly split its two signature events apart. For years, the Studio Tour rode alongside the Cool Arts Show on the same August weekend: one stop for browsing finished work at the Activity Center, a second stop for watching artists work in their own homes. Starting with the 2025 season and continuing this year, that pairing broke. The Studio Tour didn't fold. It moved. It's now part of the Lakeway Art Walk, a separate fall weekend that lands on November 7 and 8 this year.
That's not a scheduling footnote. It changes what each event actually gives you, and it means anyone who treated August as the full experience walked away without the part they may have come for.
What August 22 already gave you
This year's Cool Arts Show ran Saturday, August 22, from 1 to 5 p.m. at the Lakeway Activity Center on Cross Creek. Admission was free. Local artists set up with paintings, jewelry, and pottery, and Austin-based acoustic performer Rich Stolp played live while people browsed. There were face-painting stations and hands-on projects for kids. In past years the show has drawn around twenty local artists, and this year's format followed that same one-room, one-afternoon shape.
What was missing from that lineup, deliberately, was the home studio component that used to run in parallel. The Lakeway Arts District, the independent organization that helps coordinate the arts calendar, has said plainly that studio tours are no longer part of Cool Arts Show. They've been folded into the Art Walk instead. So the August event turned out to be exactly what it looked like on paper: a one-day show and sale. Tighter, more contained, and no longer a two-stop outing.
What's coming in November
The Lakeway Art Walk, set for November 7 and 8, is where the studio-hopping tradition actually lives now. This is the version where you wander into artist galleries, private studios, and pop-up venues scattered around Lakeway rather than one consolidated room at the Activity Center. This year's weekend adds a new front end to it: a Friday-night Artist Open House paired with a TexARTS performance, giving the weekend an opening event before the studios open their doors Saturday.
Artists with home studios in Lakeway can still register to participate, and that registration window is open right now through the city's Arts Committee.
The two events, side by side
| Cool Arts Show | Lakeway Art Walk | |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 date | Saturday, August 22 (already passed) | November 7 and 8 (upcoming) |
| Location | Lakeway Activity Center, 105 Cross Creek | Private studios, galleries, and pop-up venues across Lakeway |
| Format | One-day show and sale | Weekend-long studio tour plus Friday open house |
| Cost | Free | Free to attend |
| Best for | Buying finished work in one stop | Seeing how the work gets made |
Seen together, the split makes sense. Cramming a browsing show and a scattered home tour into a single afternoon meant most attendees only had time to do one well. Separating them into two distinct outings, ten weeks apart, means each one gets its own attention instead of competing for the same Saturday.
The bridge event you'd otherwise miss
Between those two dates sits a smaller gathering that doesn't get the same billing: a free, family-friendly concert and street dance the Arts Committee is hosting Friday, September 18, starting at 7 p.m. at the Hurst Creek Sculpture Garden, next to the Lakeway Justice Complex. It's not part of either headline event, and it won't show up if you're only tracking Cool Arts Show and Art Walk dates. But it's the kind of evening that fills the gap between the two, and it's easy to miss if you're not checking the Arts Committee's calendar directly rather than relying on memory of how things used to run.
If you want a monthly option instead of waiting for either weekend, the Bee Cave Artisan Market runs the first Saturday of every month from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Hill Country Galleria, a short drive down 620. It's not a Lakeway event, but it's the closest thing to a standing substitute if a Saturday opens up between now and November.
Why this is worth tracking at all
None of this changes what you can eventually buy or see. What it changes is timing, and timing is the only thing that actually catches people off guard here. Anyone who showed up at the Activity Center on August 22 expecting to also tour a sculptor's backyard studio that same afternoon found a show, some live music, and no map to hand out. The map comes in November now.
That's a small thing until it isn't. Local artists like Linda Wells and the sculptor J.J. Priour, whose work draws on Central Texas limestone and glass, have opened their home studios during past tours specifically so residents could see process, not just finished pieces. That kind of access hasn't gone away. It's just been rescheduled to a weekend most people aren't yet used to thinking of as the studio tour weekend.
How to actually plan around it from here
- Mark November 7 and 8 for the studio tour experience, including the new Friday-night Artist Open House and TexARTS performance.
- If you're an artist with a home studio, register with the Arts Committee soon. The Art Walk now carries the weight both events used to share, and registration is open now.
- Don't skip the free concert and street dance at Hurst Creek Sculpture Garden on Friday, September 18. It sits in the gap between the two headline events and won't show up if you're only watching for Cool Arts Show and Art Walk dates.
- If a free Saturday opens up before November, the Bee Cave Artisan Market at Hill Country Galleria runs monthly and doesn't require waiting for a Lakeway date.
- Next August, remember that Cool Arts Show is now a one-stop show and sale on its own. Save the studio-hopping for fall.
The arts calendar here didn't get smaller. It got rearranged, and the rearrangement rewards people who are paying attention over people who are working from last year's habits. Two events, two very different experiences, ten weeks apart. One's already behind you this year. Mark the other.
If you're weighing a move to Lakeway or the wider Hill Country and want a read on how neighborhoods here actually function day to day, not just what a listing says, Casey Marquez can walk you through it. Let's Connect.
