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Art & Ecology


Art & Ecology:

Perspectives and Issues



Social Restoration

Rick Lowe, Project Row Houses

by Elizabeth Garber

Project Row Houses, a community arts education/ community revitalization/ urban renewal project, is located in an impoverished neighborhood near downtown Houston, Texas. Twenty-two historic "shotgun houses" are located on the site, remnants of a communal way of life once typical of older inner-city black neighborhoods. The wood-framed houses are called "shotgun" because of their layout--one room wide, one story high, and several rooms long--so that a bullet shot through the front door of the house would exit the back door without penetrating any walls. 1

Location is integral to Project Row Houses. Project director Rick Lowe came across the houses in the summer of 1992 after meeting with a group of fellow artists who also felt that art needs to be a part of community life. The houses then were dilapidated and abandoned. Realizing the houses were historically significant, and the site ideal for artist use and community involvement, Lowe set up a non-profit organization to raise funds, develop, and administer various programs. "We wanted to use something already a part of the community, something people felt comfortable with," says Lowe. "It is in the home, in the neighborhood, where we develop our tastes for things," he told a student reporter (Francis, 1994, p. 3). Lowe's commitment to community arts education is a driving force behind the project.

Project Row Houses is a focal point for many activities in the neighborhood, including regular Thursday night community activities that range from art classes to poetry slams and even domino games. The project is also a source of pride and attention for the greater Houston community,and has been called 'a model public art project' by the National Endowment for the Arts. Overall, the site forms a community arts center, dedicated to public art education. The grand plan for the site includes spaces for artists and writers-in-residence; arts programs for children, youth, and the community; transitional housing for unwed teen-aged mothers and their children; a day-care center; classroom and project galleries; and a Spoken Word House. Artists whose work deals with themes relevant to African-Americans are invited to create six-month-long installations inthe art houses. In creating their installations, they are asked to involve the neighborhood. Arts education projects emphasize social issues and community awareness. For example, Project Chrysalis brings sixth graders from nearby schools to work with artists for a week in an arts focused conflict-resolution curriculum developed by former Teach for America instructors. The program incorporates activities such as role playing, journal entries, and "Random Acts of Kindness" to encourage kids' sense of achievement, community,and cooperation. After the week, children return to their home schools and form a "club" to take on projects in the community, from forming a recycling program to recording oral histories. (Dewan, 1995)

Project Row Houses has received tremendous support from arts organizations,community organizations, and businesses, who have given grants, loans, volunteer labor, and materials to the project. (The project has cost well over a quarter of a million dollars so far.) Why? The project involves art, community revitalization, community involvement in the arts, historic preservation, and community service. Sponsors hope that it will serve as a catalyst for other projects that involve art, site specificity, social restoration, and human renewal.

The shotgun house, as a link to the past, "expresses the enduring social values and cultural tradition of generations of African-Americans" and serves as a symbol of unity. (Row houses, p. 76) Project Row Houses involves social ecology and restoration. Dewan (1995) notes that "because the project is designed for historic preservation and urban revitalization as well as arts programming, it sends a message of esteem to its neighbors, "bringing 'cultural capital' out of the museum district and into the 'hood."(p. 77)

Questions

References

Chadwick, S. (1994, June 13). Project Row houses: Group negotiates to buy land, houses for art community. The Houston Post, pp. D-1, D-2.

Dewan, S. (1995). Project row houses: Art in the house. Highperformance,18 (1/2), 74-77.

Johnson, P. (1994, April 8). All in a row: Third Ward gets a face lift. Houston Chronicle, pp. 1E, 4E.

Francis, R. (1994, May 19). Artist tries to revitalize culture. Houston Chronicle, p. 3.

Row houses. (1996). Architectural Design [London], 66 (5/6),76-77.




Footnote
1. Shotgun houses, according to Sheryl Tucker, a researcher at the University of Houston, have their origins in Africa. They were brought to New Orleans by freed Haitians in the early nineteenth century after the Haitian slave rebellion. Because they were brought to the south by freed slaves, they became a symbol for freedom, with clusters of the houses known as Freedman's Town.








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