Project Row Houses

Rick Lowe, a native of Alabama and 2014 MacArthur "genius" grant winner, founded Project Row Houses in 1993 with James Bettison, Bert Long Jr., Jesse Lott, Floyd Newsum, Bert Samples, and George Smith.{{cite journal|last1=Spector|first1=Nicole Audrey|title=Rick Lowe: Heart of the City|journal=Guernica|date=25 September 2014|url=https://www.guernicamag.com/daily/rick-lowe-heart-of-the-city/|accessdate=14 March 2016}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.chron.com/local/history/culture-scene/article/Project-Row-Houses-melds-art-and-community-in-the-7950310.php|title=Project Row Houses melds art and community in the Third Ward|last=Sewing|first=Joy|date=2016-05-27|website=Houston Chronicle|access-date=2019-03-22}} In 1990, according to Lowe, a group of high school students approached Lowe and asked him to create solutions to problems instead of creating works that tell the community about issues it is already aware of. Lowe and a coalition of artists purchased a group of 22 shotgun houses across two blocks that were built in 1930 and, by the 1990s, were in poor condition. Lisa Gray of the Houston Chronicle said that the houses, originally used as rentals, were "previously ruled by drugs and prostitutes."{{cite news|last1=Gray|first1=Lisa|title=Project Row Houses endeavor branches into laundromats|url=http://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Project-Row-Houses-endeavor-branches-into-1732654.php|accessdate=14 March 2016|work=Houston Chronicle|date=27 September 2009}}{{cite news|last1=Greenberg|first1=Mike|title=Project ROW Houses - Neighborhood blight becomes neighborhood hope in Houston's Third Ward|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SAEC&p_theme=saec&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAFE76C42AA81FA&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|accessdate=15 March 2016|work=San Antonio Express-News|date=6 August 1995}}

Inspired by the work of John T. Biggers,{{cite news|last1=Gaines|first1=Sallie|title=Shotgun Houses Gave Artist A Prime Target|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1996/03/31/shotgun-houses-gave-artist-a-prime-target/|access-date=15 March 2016|work=Chicago Tribune|date=31 March 1996}} the group used seed money funds from the Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts to restore the houses. Corporate sponsor Chevron renovated the outside of several shotgun houses. The director of the Menil Foundation allowed Monday to be a day off of work for the employees so that they could help renovate the shotgun houses. Volunteers numbering in the hundreds fortified porches, removed trash and used needles from lots, and hung wallboard. Several individuals and families from the area and one local church "adopted" individual houses. Garnet Coleman adopted one house. The houses first opened in 1994.

Deborah Grotfeldt created the concept of the Young Mothers Residential Program, which began operations in 1996; Grotfeldt had worked with Lowe since the Project Row Houses project started. The program gives single mothers one year of housing to allow them to finish their education and organize themselves. Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times said "It has been as successful as the artist residency program."

As of 2009 the Project Row Houses campus had 40 properties. As of that year, some houses have art exhibitions and some houses provide housing space for resident artists. Newer low income housing blocks, using designs provided by the Rice Building Workshop, are now a part of the campus. The program for young mothers uses seven shotgun houses. A playground is adjacent to those houses. In addition, several shotgun houses built in the Victorian era, moved there earlier from historically black communities under development, are a part of the campus. The Eldorado Ballroom and the Bert Long sculpture "Field of Vision" are a part of the campus. Lisa Gray of the Houston Chronicle said during that year "Driving around, this writer found it's hard to tell where the Row Houses campus begins and ends."

Source:{{Cite web|url=https://www.christies.com/features/Art-cities-how-Houston-became-a-hotbed-of-contemporary-art-9568-1.aspx|title=Art cities: How Houston became a hotbed of contemporary art {{!}} Christie's|website=www.christies.com|language=en|access-date=2018-12-16}}

• Terry Adkins
• Edgar Arceneaux
• Michelle Barnes{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1060194912|title=Collective creative actions : Project Row Houses at 25|others=Dennis, Ryan N., Jackson-Dumont, Sandra.|year=2018|isbn=978-0-692-12642-4|location=Houston, TX|oclc=1060194912}}
• William Cordova
• Aisha Cousins
• Erika DeFreitas
• Brendan Fernandes
• Coco Fusco
• Charles Gaines
• Leslie Hewitt
• Ayana Jackson
• Ayanna Jolivet McCloud{{Cite web|url=https://projectrowhouses.org/past-artist-rounds/round-42|title=Round 42|website=Project Row Houses|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-22}}
• Rodney McMillian
• Charles Huntley Nelson
• Mendi & Keith Obadike
• Lovie Olivia{{Cite web|url=https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/arts-theater/article/Project-Row-Houses-draws-from-past-looks-to-the-5153575.php|title=Project Row Houses draws from past, looks to the future - HoustonChronicle.com|date=2014-01-23|website=www.houstonchronicle.com|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-20}}
• Robert Pruitt
• Kameelah Janan Rasheed
• Martine Syms
• Tatyana Fazlalizadeh{{Cite web|url=https://projectrowhouses.org/press-releases|title=Press Releases|website=Project Row Houses|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-22}}
• Autumn Knight{{Cite web|url=https://projectrowhouses.org/past-artist-rounds/round-37|title=Round 37|website=Project Row Houses|language=en-US|access-date=2019-03-22}}
• Otobong Nkanga
• Tricia WardProject Row Houses. [https://projectrowhouses.org/past-artist-rounds/tag/John+Outterbridge Round 9]. Past Projects. Retrieved February 2, 2022.
• Question Bridge: Black Males ( Chris Johnson, Bayete Ross Smith, Hank Willis Thomas and Kamal Sinclair)
• [https://www.in-situ.org.uk In-Situ]2013 [https://projectrowhouses.org/rounds/round-37/] [http://www.williamtitley.org William Titley], Kerry Morrison, and Paul Hartley

In 2006, the Houston City Council gave Project Row Houses a grant of $975,000.{{cite news|title=A bigger canvas: Project Row Houses receives almost $1 million to continue its visionary mission|url=http://www.chron.com/opinion/editorials/article/A-bigger-canvas-Project-Row-Houses-receives-1527964.php|accessdate=14 March 2016|work=Houston Chronicle|date=20 December 2006}}{{cite news|last1=Johnson|first1=Patricia C.|title=Administrator admits stealing from Project Row Houses|url=http://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Administrator-admits-stealing-from-Project-Row-1565668.php|accessdate=15 March 2016|work=Houston Chronicle|date=19 November 2006}}

• 1997: Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence silver medal{{cite book|last1=Farbstein|first1=Jay|last2=Wener|first2=Richard|last3=Axelrod|first3=Emily|title=Visions of Urban Excellence: 1997 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence|date=1998|publisher=Bruner Foundation|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-1-890-28602-6|url=http://www.brunerfoundation.org/rba/pdfs/1997/1997_Visions%20of%20Urban%20Excellence.pdf|accessdate=25 September 2014|oclc=608115343}}

Children living in the houses attend schools in the Houston Independent School District."[https://projectrowhouses.org/contact/ Contact]." Project Row Houses. Retrieved on April 22, 2018. "Project Row Houses 2521 Holman St. Houston, TX 77004" Zoned schools include Blackshear Elementary School,"[http://www.houstonisd.org/cms/lib2/TX01001591/Centricity/domain/32468/boundarymaps/Blackshear_ES.pdf Blackshear Elementary School Attendance Zone]." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on April 21, 2018. Cullen Middle School,"[http://www.houstonisd.org/cms/lib2/TX01001591/Centricity/domain/32468/boundarymaps/Cullen_MS.pdf Cullen Middle School Attendance Zone]." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on April 21, 2018. and Yates High School."[http://www.houstonisd.org/cms/lib2/TX01001591/Centricity/domain/32468/boundarymaps/Yates_HS.pdf Yates High School Attendance Zone]" Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on April 21, 2018. Students were previously zoned to Ryan Middle School before 2013;"[http://dept.houstonisd.org/ab/schoolboundarymaps/RyanMS.pdf Ryan Middle Attendance Zone] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630001236/http://dept.houstonisd.org/ab/SchoolBoundaryMaps/RyanMS.pdf |date=2007-06-30 }}." Houston Independent School District students were reassigned to Cullen after it closed.Mellon, Ericka. "[http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/HISD-to-close-Ryan-tables-plan-to-merge-two-high-4338067.php HISD will close Ryan, tables plan to merge two high schools]." Houston Chronicle. March 7, 2013. Retrieved on March 14, 2013. "Ryan, the district's smallest middle school with 263 students, will close at the end of this academic year. The students will attend Cullen, which is 4 miles away." Beginning in 2018 the magnet middle school Baylor College of Medicine Academy at Ryan also serves as a boundary option for students zoned to Blackshear, Lockhart, and MacGregor elementary schools."[https://www.houstonisd.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=51135&dataid=220863&FileName=051018OA_POST.pdf AGENDA Board of Education Meeting May 10, 2018]." Houston Independent School District. Retrieved on October 12, 2018. F1 p. 86/135.

{{reflist}}

• {{cite news|last1=Greenberg|first1=Mike|title=Project ROW Houses - Neighborhood blight becomes neighborhood hope in Houston's Third Ward|url=http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SAEC&p_theme=saec&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EAFE76C42AA81FA&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM|accessdate=15 March 2016|work=San Antonio Express-News|date=6 August 1995}}
• {{cite news|last1=Gaines|first1=Sallie|title=Shotgun Houses Gave Artist A Prime Target|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1996/03/31/shotgun-houses-gave-artist-a-prime-target/|access-date=15 March 2016|work=Chicago Tribune|date=31 March 1996}}
• {{cite book|last1=Farbstein|first1=Jay|last2=Wener|first2=Richard|last3=Axelrod|first3=Emily|title=Visions of Urban Excellence: 1997 Rudy Bruner Award for Urban Excellence|date=1998|publisher=Bruner Foundation|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-1-890-28602-6|url=http://www.brunerfoundation.org/rba/pdfs/1997/1997_Visions%20of%20Urban%20Excellence.pdf|accessdate=25 September 2014|oclc=608115343}}
• {{cite news|last1=Johnson|first1=Patricia C.|title=Administrator admits stealing from Project Row Houses|url=http://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Administrator-admits-stealing-from-Project-Row-1565668.php|accessdate=15 March 2016|work=Houston Chronicle|date=19 November 2006}}
• Sewing, Joy. "[http://www.chron.com/local/history/culture-scene/article/Project-Row-Houses-melds-art-and-community-in-the-7950310.php Project Row Houses melds art and community in the Third Ward]." Houston Chronicle. Friday, May 27, 2016.

{{Commons category}}

• [http://projectrowhouses.org/ Project Row Houses]
• [http://www.thirdwardtx.com Third Ward TX] – documentary on Project Row Houses

{{Portal|Texas|United States|Visual arts}}

{{coord|29.7320|-95.3652|type:landmark_region:US-TX|display=title}}

{{Third Ward, Houston}}

Category:Houses in Houston

Category:African-American culture

Category:Third Ward, Houston