Austin Convention & Visitors Bureau Records

An Inventory of the Collection

Administrative History

The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB) concerns itself with the promotion of Austin, Texas as a destination for trade and travel. The goal of the ACVB is to market Austin both nationally and internationally as a city with a one-of-a-kind culture. The ACVB engages in various projects and programs that promote Austin’s heritage, as well as its film and music scenes. Divisions of the ACVB have included Heritage Marketing, Convention Sales, Convention Services, Marketing Communications, Tourism Sales & Marketing, Sports Commission, Visitor Center, Film Commission, and Music Office. The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau is also called the Austin CVB.

The ACVB has existed both as an independent nonprofit organization and a department within the city government. Its predecessor, the nonprofit Austin Convention and Visitor Bureau, Inc. (ACVB, Inc.), was established by the Austin City Council on November 20, 1986, with ordinance no. 861120-J. This organization was charged with developing tourism and convention activities within the city of Austin. The need for oversight and greater accountability led to the bureau being made a city department in August 1989. City Council ordinance no. 890824-F dissolved ACVB, Inc. and placed the organization’s duties with the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau Department and the Austin Convention and Visitors Commission. The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau Department was merged with the Convention Center Department in 1991, in anticipation of the completion of the Austin Convention Center in 1992. The departments were separated in 1993.

The current organization, known as the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB) was created when the Austin City Council passed ordinance no. 960815-J on August 15, 1996, replacing the department. The bureau was made a nonprofit organization with the hope that separation from city management would make it more efficient and competitive. The Austin Convention and Visitors Commission was officially dissolved on July 3, 2006 with ordinance no. 20060622-015, when the ACVB assumed the activities of the Commission. The ACVB is funded by a portion of the hotel occupancy tax and is overseen by a board of directors. Of the many departments of the ACVB, the Film Commission, the Music Office, and Heritage Marketing are represented in this collection.

The Film Commission promotes Austin as a destination for both independent and large budget film shoots, commercials, television shows, music videos, and still photo-shoots. The office reviews submitted screenplays, suggests locations for the filmmakers to use, and provides services for film shoots. In addition, the department works with production companies, residents, business interests, and governmental entities.

The Heritage Marketing Department functioned as a separate department until it was absorbed into the collective Marketing Department during the 2010-2011 fiscal year. It promoted Austin as a tourism destination with a focus on the city’s historical and architectural features. Its programs included offering guided tours of three National Register Districts in Austin, permitting and controlling signs on Congress Avenue and East Sixth Street, awarding preservation grants, maintaining relationships with local history related groups, and sponsoring a Black History Month celebration.

The Music Office markets Austin as the Live Music Capital of the World and promotes local music to convention and meeting event planners. The Music Office maintains files on local musicians including biographies, press releases, and audiovisual materials. These files are used to promote Austin musicians to venues, bookers, and conventions. In addition, the Music Office acts as a go-between for musicians who are looking to book gigs with events in the city. The department also includes the Austin Music Commission, which is tasked with advising the Austin City Council on music development issues.

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Scope and Contents

The Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau Records (1974-2005) consist of minutes, agendas, reports, notes, attendance lists, memoranda, screenplays, videocassettes, audio cassettes, photographs, pamphlets, clippings, programs, brochures, correspondence, photocopies of land titles, historical marker drawings, banners, flyers, and postcards documenting the activities of the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau (ACVB). The materials present insight into the ACVB’s efforts to market Austin as a destination for travel and trade. The records date roughly from 1874-2005, with the bulk of the materials covering the period between 1970 and 1998. The collection is divided into three series: Heritage Marketing, Film Commission, and Music Office. Each series represents a distinct department and thus mirrors the organizational system used by the ACVB.

The Film Commission series contains screenplays and videocassettes. The Screenplays subseries includes 23 screenplays from films that were shot in Austin from 1976-1998, including Gilbert Grape, an early title for What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, and Courage Under Fire. The Video Collection subseries contains videocassettes from travel shows shot in and about Austin, videos highlighting the Austin music scene, and videos produced by the ACVB.

The Heritage Marketing series includes pamphlets, clippings, correspondence, memoranda, photocopies of land titles, historical marker drawings, maps, programs, photographs, videocassettes, posters, and street banners. Materials in this series mostly date to the period between 1979 and 1989. The Algerene Craig Papers subseries contains correspondence, dedication programs, historical marker drawings, and meeting files collected by prominent member of the Travis County Historical Commission, Algerene Craig (1910-1996). Craig was the first black public school librarian in the southwest. After retirement she worked with the Travis County Historical Commission and the W. H. Passon Historical Society to place historical markers at local sites, especially those important to black history. It is unclear how her papers came to be collected by the Heritage Marketing department of the ACVB. The Collected Materials subseries consists of pamphlets, reports, photographs, patches, maps, videocassettes, and land titles gathered by the Heritage Marketing department of ACVB. Videos were both sent to ACVB by outside organizations and production companies for marketing and promotional purposes. The Distributed Materials subseries includes materials intended for publication or circulation by ACVB, including bookmarks, brochures, pamphlets, street banners, posters, and videocassettes.

The Music Office series contains records that focus on the activities of the Music Office and Austin Music Commission and makes up a bulk of the overall collection. The Administrative Files subseries contains annual reports, membership lists, parking placards, sound ordinances, funding proposals, and formal recommendations. The Meeting Files subseries makes up the bulk of the Music Office series and covers Austin Music Commission meetings from 1989-2003. These materials include notices of meeting, agendas, minutes, handwritten notes, annual reports, attendance lists, and memoranda. The Musician Files subseries contains press kits and memorabilia, including biographies, clippings, flyers, press releases, and video and audio cassettes, collected by the Music Office for over 350 local artists.

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Restrictions

Restrictions on Access

Open to all users.

Advance notice is required for any audiovisual materials that do not have an access copy already created. Turnaround time for requested access copies will be no less than one week and is determined by the number of items requested and their duration.

Restrictions on Use

The Austin History Center (AHC) is the owner of the physical materials in the AHC collections and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from the AHC before any publication use. The AHC does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners. Consult repository for more details.

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Related Material

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Separated Material

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Administrative Information

Custodial History

Material is this collection was received in multiple donations made by the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau and several members, including Wendy Morgan, Colby Dunagan, Marian Augustine, Ed VanDeVort, and Rose Reyes.

Preferred Citation

Austin (Tex.). Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau Records (AR.2004.027). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, Texas.

Acquisition Information

Donor #: DO/2002/043

Donation Date: 2004, 2007, 2008,2012

Processing Information

Finding aid created and encoded by Lauren Gaylord, Nathaniel Hutcheson, and Stephanie Lopez in 2014. 3 posters added my Molly Hults in 2021.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

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