Third Ward TX (2007,
57 minutes, DigiBeta)
Sunday, May 4 at 7:30pm
A film by Andrew Garrison, Nancy Bless, Noland
Walker and Sandra Guardado
A neighborhood in Houston’s inner-city
Third Ward seems doomed to decay until a group
of African-American artists starts Project
Row Houses. First, they clean up a row of
condemned shotgun houses and hold a “drive-by”
exhibition of paintings on the fronts of the
abandoned homes. Then they do something really
unusual. They ask the community what it needs—and
listen to the answers. In the process, this
tidy little row of born-again houses has become
cutting-edge public art and a homegrown challenge
to traditional notions of community development.
Post-film discussion featuring artist Rick
Lowe, founder of Project Row House and an
arts planner for the downtown Seattle Public
Library.
About the Presenters
Rick Lowe is a Houston-based artist
who is committed to merging art with activism
by making the community itself the basis for
his work. In 1992, he founded Project Row
Houses, a program that bought 22 “shotgun”
houses in the middle of one of Houston’s
poorest neighborhoods and renovated them into
art galleries, workshop spaces, offices and
housing for young single mothers. This project
has served as a catalyst for realizing meaningful
community and social development in its neighborhood.
Lowe has also helped expand the concept of
public art in Seattle as an arts planner for
the new Seattle Public Library.
Lowe has been involved in numerous community
activities, including serving as board president
of the National Association of Artist Organizations
and as commissioner of the Municipal Arts
Commission of Houston. His work has been included
in exhibitions and programs nationally and
internationally, including Los Angeles’
Museum of Contemporary Arts, the Neuberger
Museum in Purchase, New York and the Kumamoto
State Museum in Japan. He has received the
Rudy Bruner Award in Urban Excellence, the
American Institute of Architecture Keystone
Award, the Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities
and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
Governors Award. He was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard
University from September 2001-June 2002 and
is an Osher Fellow at the Exploratorium in
San Francisco. Rick serves on the board of
the Menil Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation
for the Visual Arts.
Project Row Houses’ work is
founded on the principle that art and the
community that creates it can revitalize even
the most depressed of inner-city neighborhoods,
for the mutual good of existing and future
residents. Thus, the mission of Project Row
Houses is to create community through the
celebration of art and African American history
and culture. Inspired by the work of African-American
artist Dr. John Biggers, through the power
of art, Project Row Houses has established
programs that encompass arts and culture,
neighborhood revitalization, low-income housing,
education, historic preservation, and community
service. For more information see the Project
Row Houses webpage.
Third Ward TX Website
This program is made possible in part by
a grant from Humanities Washington, a state-wide
non-profit organization supported by the National
Endowment for the Humanities, the state of
Washington, and contributions from individuals
and foundations.
