Building a village of artists, advocates, and innovators.
DORF was founded with a mission to build a village of artists, advocates, and innovators. DORF’s values of openness, intention, expression, and community have guided its programming, which includes exhibitions that promote social justice, amplify marginalized voices, and foster meaningful dialogues.
Location: In 2024, DORF opened a new location at the Zilker Point building in a landmark partnership between public and private entities that allows DORF to occupy the space for $1 per year — a model that reflects its commitment to sustainability and equity in the arts. DORF joins neighbors Zach Theater, Dougherty Arts Center, Umlauf Sculpture Garden, Zilker Botanical Gardens, and The Long Center to expand the South Shore Cultural District. Our new space includes a gallery, rooftop garden, outdoor plaza, and a permanent public sculpture by Jessica Bell.
Address:
218 South Lamar Blvd.
Suite 140
Gallery Hours
Saturdays 12-5 pm.
What is DORF?
DORF was born out of the South Austin two-car-garage-converted studio of artists Eric Manche and Sara Vanderbeek. The organization was established in 2018 to support and promote Texas-based artists, build arts-based community partnerships and advocate for the Austin art community. Manche and Vanderbeek started building out their garage studio space as a response to the unavoidable closures of art spaces in Austin, attributed to skyrocketing real-estate prices and the shortage of affordable venues for art.
Partners include Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Austin Justice Coalition, Bat City Review, registertovote.org, Refugee Services of Texas, Deeds Not Words, The SAFE Alliance, Center for Youth Wellness, Planned Parenthood of South Texas, Collide Arts, and Big Medium. Their work has been featured in Texas Monthly, Arts and Culture Texas, The Austin Chronicle, Sightlines magazine, fields magazine, Glasstire, Art Daily, Southwest Contemporary and more. DORF was awarded “Best New Experimental Gallery Space” in The Austin Chronicle, 2018.
The name?
DORF Coffee / Restaurant located in Kyoto, Japan, January 2007. Photo by Sara Vanderbeek.
Sara and Eric first met by chance in 2007 in Kyoto, Japan. Eric was a student from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) on a printmaking study-abroad program, and Sara—a RISD Printmaking alum—was visiting as a scholar from Christie’s Auction House, where she worked at the time. During their stay, they kept passing a small coffee shop and restaurant called DORF. Its sign—an iconic serifed logo accompanied by an image of a mother with ducks and a mysterious tagline—caught their attention. Sara snapped a photo of it, not knowing how meaningful it would later become.
After the trip, they went their separate ways. A year later, chance brought them together again in Austin, Texas. They became creative partners, later married, and opened a shared studio—where the photograph of DORF always resurfaced, tucked somewhere among their materials.
In 2018, they opened their studio’s garage doors to the community, creating a nonprofit art space that would be free and accessible to all. When they looked up the word Dorf, they discovered it means “village” in Dutch and German—an unexpectedly perfect name for the community-centered art space they were building. And so, the small, memorable café in Kyoto became the namesake and inspiration for an Austin community and artist-centered space: DORF.
We have no affiliation or commentary on the celebrated, but problematic, VHS series DORF on Golf.