Project Row Houses

ISSUE AREA: PLACE

City: Houston, TX
Arts - Neighborhood Development - Urban

Contact:
Rick Lowe
Founding Director
Project Row Houses
2500 Holman, PO Box 1011
Houston, TX 77251-1011
(713) 526-7662
rlowe@projectrowhouses.org

Date Published: October 2006

Project Row Houses is a neighborhood-based arts and cultural organization, with programs that combine arts and cultural education, historic preservation, and community development. Its mission is to create community through the celebration of art and African-American history and culture. Since 1993, Project Row Houses has worked to restore and renovate a neighborhood of shotgun-style houses in Houston’s Third Ward, and transform the area that celebrates the arts and African American culture.

Throughout the greater part of the 1900’s, the Third Ward area had been a strong community, rich in African American culture. Following the Civil Rights Act of 1964, however, and throughout the seventies, the Third Ward of Houston lost nearly 60% of its population. Those who could afford to leave the area and seek better housing did, which resulted in the loss of an estimated 80% of the area’s 1960 population.

Project Row Houses was established in 1993 on a site of 22 abandoned shotgun homes to connect the work of artists with the revitalization of the third ward community. A group of African American artists wanted to create a space for the community to share their work and ideas. PRH’s founder Rick Lowe first discovered the shotgun houses, and had the vision to bring the row-house centered art of Dr. John Biggers to life. Dr. John Biggers was a Houston artist who featured row houses in many of his paintings to emphasize their social and cultural significance. Initially, the plan was that each artist would create an installation in one of the houses. However, the substandard state of the abandoned houses complicated this vision, and it became evident that the houses would need to be repaired and recuperated before any artistic work could begin. This minor roadblock was a major influence on the current revitalization mission of the organization.

With the help of DiverseWorks, an alternative arts space in Houston, the group secured a National Endowment for the Arts public art grant in 1992. In their first year, with a budget of only $35,000 dollars, even more in in-kind donations, and immense volunteer help, the group was able to renovate the exterior of all 22 houses. Through an initiative called the House Challenge, ten sponsors contributed $3,000 dollars each for materials, and with their own volunteers, each rehabilitated one of the shotgun houses. Amoco Corporation and others recuperated the remaining 12 houses through volunteer workers and in-kind donations. From these beginnings, the organization has grown into a comprehensive community development group, with programs focused in the arts and culture, education, and historic and community preservation and revitalization. Project Row Houses pushes artists to consider themselves as vital contributors to visioning, building, and management of community development projects, rather than simply contributors to the aesthetic of the finished product.

While still expanding, the campus currently includes 13 units of low-income housing, two of which are artist residencies, and two commercial buildings. Today’s inhabitants remain primarily African American, with a small amount of Hispanics and Whites. The average age of the housing units in the area is fifty, qualifying the area as a historic district. Today, Project Row Houses has three main project areas: the Artists’ Projects, the Young Mother’s Residential Program, and the Education Projects. Project Row House’s core program is their Public Art program. According to PRH’s website, the Artists’ Projects commission artists to "transform the row houses into places in which art and its surrounding community communicate in powerful and meaningful ways."

Through their public art programming, PRH involves artists in issues of neighborhood revitalization, historic preservation, community service, and youth education. Through the Artists Project, seven artists each create installation art in one of the row houses. The artists come every six months, and by working on-site, interact with members of the neighborhood, which allows for dialogue across ethnic, cultural, and social boundaries about issues concerning the neighborhood. Teen-aged interns assist the artists and act as tour guides. The artists also conduct after-school and weekend workshops. Tours are given through the row home sites, attracting many people throughout Houston of various cultural, ethnic and social backgrounds.

Since 1996, the Young Mother’s Residential Program has been held in a renovated row home, and it is a transition center for young mothers, providing and educating them with tools so they can empower themselves and move on in their lives. Through the program, the mothers stay for one-year periods under the guidance of a mentor. The mothers and their children are provided with free housing while they work part time or go to school; all mothers also participate in programming sponsored by Project Row House including counseling, job skills training, and parenting programs.

The mission of PRH’s education programs is to use the creative process to encourage children to develop thinking and problem solving skills. Its After-School/Summer Art Education Program involves over fifty area children, ages 5-13, and engages the creative process and arts instruction to help develop academic skills. The program is taught by renowned Houston artists and teachers, who instruct the children in skills ranging from music and visual arts to gardening and dance.

Another educational program, Art Life Practices, involves teenage students in the development of Capriccio Park, a neighborhood development located a mile from PRH’s central site. The teenagers spend Saturdays at this site, where they help to construct a sculpture park, and are encouraged to use their creative skills to contribute to the project. Art Life practices helps these students to develop valuable skills in team work, planning, organization, and other important life skills, while involving them in community and cultural development. Project Row Houses also runs an infant care program, a parenting course, and a garden for kids to learn how to grow and market their own produce.

The imminent threat of gentrification in recent years has redirected PRH’s focus into the area of community development. While still holding arts and cultural efforts at the core of their values and mission, Project Row Houses has sought to expand their efforts in the Third Ward into land acquisition and development, to ensure that the Third Ward’s history and culture remain intact, unlike so many of the neighboring areas that have been leveled as a result of gentrification. The Row House Community Development Corporation grew out of Project Row Houses in order to address these concerns and efforts. One of PRH’s first major projects through this effort began with their receipt of the Eldorado Ballroom in 1999, as well as the two blocks contained within the property.

The Eldorado property was gifted to Project Row Houses by an individual donor, who provided Project Row Houses with a 99-year lease of the property. The Eldorado Ballroom, in the heart of the Third Ward, was once a very popular venue for upscale blues and jazz shows, including B.B. King. The renovation of the building was completed last May, and PRH, in collaboration with the Houston Blues Society, presents free monthly music series at the Ballroom. PRH has also renovated two shotgun houses on Eldorado land, and developed an artist-in-residence house on the property. Through the acquisition of this land, PRH has been able to expand their community revitalization and arts efforts, and preserve an area that might otherwise become subject to gentrification. In 2004, Project Row Houses was one of twelve organizations nationwide to receive a $150,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to continue their community transformation efforts. PRH will use these funds to continue and expand their programming, as well as the work of the Row House Community Development Corporation.

In addition to its grant from the Ford Foundation, Project Row Houses receives support from several public and private organizations, including the Warhol Foundation, the Houston Foundation, the Cultural Arts Council of Houston, and JP Morgan Chase. Through its arts, culture, and community development efforts over the past decade, Project Row Houses has helped to revitalize a struggling section of Houston, reconnect it with its African American culture and history, and protect its future against the imminent threat of gentrification.

Resources:

www.projectrowhouses.org