Rick Lowe, artist, community activist, and founder of Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas, will present a guest lecture as part of Delta State University’s Year of the Arts Celebration Wednesday, March 31, at 7 p.m. in Jobe Hall Auditorium on the campus.
An informal meeting with the artist is scheduled for Thursday, April 1, at 3 p.m. in the Wright Art Center Gallery on the campus.
Lowe has moved from creating paintings and sculptures dealing with social issues to an art practice that directly engages in the life of the community. What began as a volunteer effort to restore a series of row houses in the historical Third Ward district of Houston turned into Project Row Houses, one of the most remarkable and visionary community art projects in the country located in one of the city’s oldest African-American neighborhoods, Project Row Houses both celebrates the community’s history and is actively involved in shaping its future.
Today, Project Row Houses comprises exhibition spaces, artists’ residencies, after-school programs, a community gallery, a community garden, a park, and a young mothers’ residency program that makes available free housing and mentoring to young women while they complete their education. In recent years, Project Row Houses also has become involved in real estate development in order to protect the community from gentrification and preserve the historic character of the neighborhood.
Lowe is a visionary and a problem-solver, not an administrator. He handed over the day-to-day operations of Project Row Houses to a staff of administrators, but continues to live and work in the community. He continues to serve on the board of directors for Project Row Houses. He has been involved in similar projects in Watts, Los Angeles, and Birmingham, Alabama. He is also one of the organizers of the Transforma Project, which has enlisted the arts in an effort to rebuild the spirit of New Orleans after the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Lowe has received numerous awards and recognitions for his work, including the Rudy Bruner Award in Urban Excellence, the American Institute of Architecture Keystone Award, the Heinz Award in the Humanities, and the Brandywine Lifetime Achievement Award.
Both events are free and open to the public. For more information about the lecture, contact Dr.Michaela Merryday at (662) 846-4722 or e-mail mmerryday@deltastate.edu.
