RPM Sound Art Exhibit in Austin: Jennie C. Jones Transforms the Blanton Museum of Art Experience

Starting April 22, the Blanton Museum of Art unveils RPM (revolutions per minute) by Jennie C. Jones—a unique outdoor sound installation in its Butler Sound Gallery.

Photo: Casey Dunn

Starting April 22, the Blanton Museum of Art unveils RPM (revolutions per minute) by Jennie C. Jones—a unique outdoor sound installation in its Butler Sound Gallery.

Built on looping, shifting tones, RPM creates a calm, immersive soundscape that blends with the environment, encouraging visitors to experience art through active listening.

This marks Jones’ first work in the museum’s collection and highlights the Blanton’s role as the first major museum with a permanent space dedicated entirely to sound art.

Visitors can experience RPM through winter 2027.

RPM (revolutions per minute) is the first work by Jones to enter the museum’s collection.  

“RPM expands the Blanton’s modern and contemporary collection’s engagement with abstraction, inviting visitors to stop and engage with art differently,” said Hannah Klemm, Blanton Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. “Through active listening, sustained sound can subtly reshape one’s sense of space and awareness.”

Photo: Taylor Miller

“We are so grateful to Sarah and Ernest Butler for their generous investment to make this beautiful space on our grounds possible, as well as to establish an endowment so that we can continue to commission and acquire new works of sound art for our collection said Blanton Director Simone Wicha

She continued,” We are thrilled to bring work by the extraordinary Jennie C. Jones to the Blanton as our second Butler Sound Gallery artist and look forward to announcing the next project in this series soon, too. This is an important, dynamic part of our program that we are excited to share with our community,”

Visitors can experience RPM (revolutions per minute) through winter 2027. Learn more about the Blanton’s grounds.