ABOUT THE ARTWORK & THE ARTIST
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The artwork is fully funded and maintained by Pease Park Conservancy, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that works in partnership with the City of Austin to share responsibilities for the operations and maintenance of Pease District Park. Public funds are not used to support Pease Park Conservancy and are not being used to support this project.
The Tejemos Foundation and other supporters generously donated the funds to Pease Park Conservancy for the costs associated with the installation and maintenance of the troll.
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Thomas Dambo is a critically acclaimed artist and designer and a self-described “Recycling Art Activist” who creates public art sculptures from recycled and reused materials. He specializes in making sculptures from wasted materials, such as scrap wood, and has installed more than 100 trolls worldwide.
Every piece of art Thomas Dambo creates has a story - a message about environmental or ecological awareness. Before building a sculpture, Thomas Dambo works with locals to understand their culture and stories, seeking to find commonality in goals related to taking care of Mother Nature and to educate on how to do better.
His whimsical, recycled-wood trolls provide community members with the opportunity to explore nature on their visit and to experience an example of how materials can be reused and repurposed into art. The trolls created by Thomas Dambo are hand-built so impact to the surrounding environment is minimal.
Learn more about Thomas Dambo and his trolls here and check out the Troll Map to see where these incredible sculptures can be found. Thomas Dambo can be found on social media at instagram.com/thomasdambo and facebook.com/thomasdambos
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The Pease Park troll can be found just north of Kingsbury Commons in a wooded area with sufficient clearance for tree-critical root zones.
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All Thomas Dambo trolls are made mostly from recycled and reused materials. The majority of the wood used to build the Pease Park troll was sourced from Harvest Lumber, a sawmill dedicated to giving new life to Austin’s fallen trees. Specifically, the cladding and shake boards used to build the troll were milled by Harvest Lumber from a water tank that resided at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus of the University of Texas at Austin.
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You can visit Malin, the Pease Park troll, any day for free between the hours of 6am and 10pm.
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As always, we recommend that Pease Park visitors walk, bike, or take public transportation to visit the park if possible. There are 5 Capital Metro bus stops for the Route 5 Woodrow/East 12th bus route that are conveniently located along North Lamar Blvd.
If driving on Saturday or Sunday, please park at the ACC Rio Grande Parking Garage for free at 824 W. 12th Street between the hours of 9am and 6pm. Please keep in mind that this garage closes at 6pm.
You may park at the Austin Recreation Center at 1301 Shoal Creek Blvd. for free any day.
If it is going to take you 5 minutes to find a parking spot close to the park, you might as well park at the Austin Recreation Center which Is just a 5 minute walk away from Pease.
There are limited parking spots available in the parking lot by Kingsbury Commons or along the nearby streets. Please leave these spots to those who need to park close.
You can find wheelchair accessible parking spaces in the small parking lot in front of Pease Park at 1100 Kingsbury Street. From this lot, it is a 1/2 mile walk north on the Shoal Creek trail to get to the troll site.
Learn more about accessing Pease Park here
Once you arrive at Pease Park (1100 Kingsbury Street), head north on the trail through Kingsbury Commons. You will see an “Art In The Park” sign on your left. Just past this sign, there will be a trail that leads through the wooded area up the hill. Nestled into the trees, you will find Malin!
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The Tejemos Foundation has generously underwritten the costs associated with commissioning and installing the troll in Pease Park. However, there will be costs associated with welcoming all of the troll visitors and continuing our operations, conservation, and programmatic work during the troll excitement! Any amount you can contribute to Pease Park Conservancy is appreciated.
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Thomas Dambo has recycled trash into art his entire life. His family instilled in him the idea that things should be reused and recycled instead of thrown away. With his friends as a child, he collected things that others no longer wanted and used his imagination to create something new with which they could play. Over the years, he has built many different art projects and sculptures; however, the trolls have been his largest creations. They bring together all of the things he has always loved to do - explore communities, find treasures that would otherwise be trash, and build amazing things from his imagination that other people are able to interact with.
about the conservancy
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Pease Park Conservancy is 100% funded by the generosity of its community of donors in support of its mission to celebrate the diverse ecology and history that make Austin’s first public park valuable and unique. The Conservancy works to restore, enhance, and maintain Pease Park’s public green space for the sustainable use and enjoyment of all.
Public funds are not used to support the organization and would not be used to support this project.
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The work of the Conservancy is governed by a Park Operations & Maintenance Agreement (POMA) with the City of Austin. The POMA requires the Conservancy to:
*operate and maintain Kingsbury Commons in accordance with a Park Operations and Maintenance Plan which must be submitted to, and approved by, PARD on an annual basis;
*provide programs and activities in Pease Park in accordance with an Annual Programming Plan which must be submitted to, and approved by, PARD on an annual basis;
*undertake throughout the park certain land management activities described in the park’s Land Management Plan;
*meet four times per year with a committee organized by the City for ongoing communication and cooperation under the POMA;
*meet monthly with PARD to coordinate operations and maintenance activities for the month.
about the artwork donation & loan
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Pease Park Conservancy followed the City of Austin Artwork Donation and Loan Policy and application process, which is under the oversight of the Economic Development Department Cultural Arts Division. The Conservancy also obtained feedback from 1500 community members through a survey about the project. The application and survey results were reviewed and approved by a committee that consisted of representatives from the following Divisions:
* Park Planning, Architecture, or Landscape
* Operations & Maintenance
* Museums & Cultural Programs
* EDD’s Art in Public Places
* Site/Program Manager of the affected property
* Park Rangers and/or other designated security entityThe review committee evaluated the following aspects of the project:
* adequacy of funding to cover the costs associated with the project
* impacts to the environment or the public’s enjoyment of parkland
* public benefits of the project
* alignment with the Department’s mission and valuesThe project was then reviewed and approved by the Austin Parks & Recreation Board, the AIPP Review Panel, and the City of Austin Arts Commission.
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Thomas Dambo has granted a 15-year exclusive license to the artwork, subject to the Conservancy maintaining the sculpture over this period. At the end of the license period, the parties may (I) agree on an extension period or a new license, (ii) the artist may grant a third party a license, or use some or all of the work for their own purpose, or (iii) the Conservancy will remove the work ensuring that materials are recycled and reused as much as possible.
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The pre-existing trails just to the south and west of the troll were freshly mulched and had erosion control bars installed to reduce erosion.
The new primary mulch trail is intended to provide access to Malin without damaging critical root zones of nearby trees and to discourage the creation of new “volunteer” trails. Signage has been added to direct visitors to the preferred trails and to discourage the creation of new trails.
Pease Park Programming & the troll
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Installation of a Dambo troll aligns with, and is integrated into, the Conservancy’s Peasecology School Field Trip program. This children’s field trip program activates Pease Park as an outdoor classroom and engages kids of all ages in experiencing the sights, scents, sounds, and textures of the outdoors.
These field trips to Pease Park, facilitated by Pease Park Conservancy staff, are service-learning opportunities where students volunteer in the park and learn about the environment through a curriculum thoughtfully designed by the Conservancy and inspired by Families In Nature’s Ecologist Guidebook. These experiences match with STEAM classroom instruction and inspire creative thinking while offering students unique, hands-on learning opportunities. The troll will introduce the “a” for “art” in STEAM!
As Pease Park Conservancy CEO, Nicole Netherton, expressed in her blog post on Art In Public Spaces, “(Public art) can provide a connection between people and their environment, a valuable proposition in a time when it may be easy to feel disconnected from the world and the people around us. Public art can be a gateway - for questions, exploration, and observation.” Our hope is that the Pease Park troll can be this connection and this gateway for many of our park visitors and program participants. Read Nicole’s blog post here.
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In 2019, Pease Park Conservancy worked in partnership with PARD and specialists from MuseWork and RECLAIM to create the Pease Park Interpretive Plan. The plan provides a strategic framework intended to guide the park in telling the stories of the green space.
The Pease Park plan explores the meanings and implications behind the cultural, historical, and geological history of the park and the impacts we have or can have on the park and the environment. This plan has offered us guidance on programming, educational opportunities, and ways to engage visitors with the deeper meaning of the space.
The first theme identified in the Pease Park Interpretive Plan states:
Pease Park is a place that reveals the wonders of the natural world and the intersections and tensions of our evolving place within it.
The Pease Park troll lives in an urban forest, not far from downtown Austin, is made of repurposed natural materials, and teaches visitors the importance of valuing our one and only Earth.
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Theme two of the Pease Park Interpretive Plan is:
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.
In 2021 and 2022, the Conservancy and Civic Arts conducted research and community engagement to learn more about how Black communities in Austin want their stories and the stories of their ancestors told in the park. Some of these efforts are documented in Along the Water by Funmi Ogunro.
In 2023, additional collaborative partners joined in researching and documenting (via film and other media) Austin’s Black Freedom Communities. A Juneteenth celebration and panel took place in Pease Park featuring local experts, Dr. Tara Dudley, Funmi Ogunro, Harrison Eppright, Rachel E. Winston, Cullen Cooper, Stephanie Lang, and Shanisha Johnson.
For 2024, Pease Park Conservancy was just awarded a Heritage Grant that will support additional research on Freedom Communities, with a goal of telling their stories in Pease Park beginning in 2024 or 2025. Local artists have been and will be commissioned to bring oral, film, and physical stories of Austin’s Black Freedom Communities to Pease Park.
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Pease Park Conservancy recognizes and values the work of Austin artists and compensates them for their talents and contributions to our park programming.
*The Conservancy’s music series, Pease Nights, showcases local musicians, including Buffalo Hunt, Graham Wilkinson, Hong Kong Wigs, Annabelle Chairlegs, Aaron McDonnell, and Brother Thunder
*The Conservancy partners with Future Front to bring hundreds of local queer and BIPOC artists and their work to Pease Park’s artist vendor markets
*The Conservancy partners with BookPeople to bring local children’s book authors to Pease Park for storytime; authors include: Meghan P. Browne, Nicholas Solis, Lindsay Leslie, Samantha M. Clark, Jessica Lee Anderson
*The Conservancy partners with local puppeteer, Joan Klasson, of Small Wonders Puppet Theater, to present almost monthly puppet shows for children
*At Sound Baths in the Treehouse, the Conservancy brings local artists and musicians, such as Bad Luck Penny, Harboursome, Maru, Bruised Sinatra, and Cynthia Bernard
*In partnership with The Contemporary Austin and their Museum Without Walls program, Pease Park hosts David Deming’s Mystic Raven in Lamar Terrace near 29th and Lamar. Deming taught at the University of Texas Austin from 1972-1996, serving as the Chair of the Art Department from 1992-1996 and Dean of the College of Fine Arts from 1996-1998.
*In 2018, the Conservancy commissioned Patrick Dougherty, a renowned southern artist to install Yippee Ki Yay, a sculpture consisting of five L-shaped elements that sat at odds with one another, giving them a rough and tumble look. The surfaces were a bit rude and raw, like the terrain of the Texas Hill Country where the ligustrum, ash, and Roosevelt Weed material was gathered. His work of art was meant to be outside, in the conditions from which its materials originated, and later — after, as the artist put it, “a few good years, depending on the weather” — it will return to the earth.