Troupe Earnest Gammage III was born on December 8, 1944 in Brownwood, Texas. He attended Lamar High School in Houston, Texas and graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a BBA in Finance in 1967. After college Earnest was employed as a college administrator until 1974 when he decided to dedicate himself to his primary interest, music. He became a self-employed musician, writer, producer, vocalist and performer. During the 1980s Gammage began involving himself with a variety of Austin and Texas civic and arts associations such as the Austin Music Industry Council, Austin Alliance, Texas Music Museum, City of Austin Music District Committee, Texas Arts Alliance, Cultural Affairs Task Group (Austin Plan), Texas Music Association, and the Austin Music Advisory Committee (Austin Chamber of Commerce). He also attended Leadership Austin in 1986-87. As a performer he has garnered awards for his songs and as a vocalist and band member from the Austin Chronicle.
The majority of the collection relates to Gammage's work as head of Austin Aqua Festival in 1993. Materials include meeting minutes, agendas, organization lists, financial documents, correspondence, contracts, clippings, press materials, and a survey conducted about Aqua Fest in 1993. Additionally, Gammage retained documents from his work with the Cultural Affairs Task Group for the Austinplan in the mid-1980s. Included are agendas, task group membership lists, memorandum, meeting minutes, draft reports and correspondence dating from 1986 to 1989. Also documented are his presentation given at the "Winning in the Art" event hosted by the Art Task Force of the Austin and San Antonio Corridor in 1986, his participation in Leadership Austin in 1986-1987, and his attendance of the "Dealmaking in the Arts: Legal, Financial and Marketing Consideration" conference in 1986.
General Collection
This record series is indexed under the following controlled access subject terms.
Open to all users.
None.
Earnest Gammage Papers (AR.2006.041). Austin History Center, Austin Public Library, Texas.
Donor #: DO/1989/032
Donation Date: 2006
Finding aid created and encoded by Molly Hults/2010. Updated by Kathryn Garvey/2011.
Materials in 3-ring binders were removed and foldered in original order and the notation (3RB) has been added to the folder tab. Agendas, notes, speaker and participant lists, and introductory materials for "Leadership Austin" and "Dealmaking in the Arts" were retained. Reading materials provided to participants were discarded.