Pease Park Interpretive Planning

An interpretive plan is a strategic document that helps guide an organization when sharing the stories of a space. It offers guidance on programming, educational opportunities, and ways to engage visitors with the deeper interpretation of a space.

Pease Park Conservancy partnered with PARD and specialists from MuseWork and RECLAIM to create the Pease Park Interpretive Plan in 2019. This plan explores the meanings and implications behind the cultural, historical, and geological histories of the park and the impacts we can have on the park and the environment.

Identified Themes for the Pease Park Interpretive Plan

Theme One

Pease Park is a place that reveals the wonders of the natural world and the intersections and tensions of our evolving place within it.

Theme Two

Pease Park is emblematic of racial and economic injustice in Austin and presents a unique opportunity to acknowledge our history of slavery, segregation, and exclusion in order to create a public space that is welcoming and accessible to all.

Theme Three

Pease Park is a natural treasure that belongs to us all, and caring for it is part of our heritage.

Interpretive Plan Implementation

Pease Park Conservancy has initially focused resources on the implementation of Theme Two of the interpretive plan. In 2021, the Conservancy worked with Civic Arts on a community engagement project to understand how to effectively share the history of Black enslavement, segregation, and exclusion on the land that is now Pease Park through programming, signage, and events.

In 2024, the Conservancy received a grant from the City of Austin Heritage Tourism Division to fund a project researching and sharing the history of Black people as it relates to the land that is now Pease Park. In partnership with Black Austin Tours and Art Is Cool, the history of people enslaved by Governor Elisha Pease and the Freedom Communities that emerged in the area after emancipation will be shared with the community through an annual RISE: Freedom Communities Festival and Pease Park History Tours (beginning in the fall of 2025).