Photo: Project Row Houses

Rick Lowe is the founder of Project Row Houses, an arts and cultural organization located in Houston’s historically significant and culturally charged Third Ward neighborhood. Developed as an “…art work that both engages the community… and celebrates African-American history and culture,” the New York Times recently said PRH “may be the most impressive and visionary public art project in the country.”

Project Row Houses was established in 1993 on a site of 22 abandoned shotgun houses (c. 1930) to connect the work of artists with the revitalization of the community. Ten of the twenty-two row houses are dedicated to art, photography, and literary projects, which are installed on a rotating six-month basis. When a group of artists is commissioned, each is given a house to transform in ways that speak to the history and cultural issues relevant to the African-American community. Located in seven houses adjacent to those dedicated to art, The Young Mothers Residential Program provides transitional housing and services for young mothers and their children, and the after-School Arts Education program works intensely with 55 neighborhood children between the ages of 5 to 13 years old.

After a decade of successfully generating programs that combine arts and cultural education, historic preservation, and community development, the future of the Third Ward is threatened by gentrification. To preserve and protect the irreplaceable historic and cultural legacy of the community, PRH spawned a sister organization, the Row House Community Development Corporation. Together the two organizations are expanding the original campus which now includes 13 units of low-income housing, two of which are long-term artists residencies and two commercial buildings, one of which houses the historic Eldorado Ballroom, an artist-initiated bike co-op, and an artist residency/gallery space.

As an artist, Lowe has participated in exhibitions and programs internationally, and has worked as guest artist on a number of community projects nationally. Lowe collaborated with arts consultant Jessica Cusick on the Arts Plan for the Rem Koolhaus designed Seattle Public Library, worked with California based artists Suzanne Lacy and curator Mary Jane Jacobs on the Borough Project for Spleto Festival 2003, in Charleston, South Carolina, and was lead artist on the Delray Beach Cultural Loop, Delray Beach, Florida.

Lowe was the year 2000 recipient of the American Institute of Architecture Keystone Award, and in 2002 he was awarded the Heinz Award in the arts and humanities. Lowe was a Loeb Fellow at Harvard University from September 2001-June 2002, and in 2006 received the Brandywine Lifetime Achievement Award.

www.projectrowhouses.org

Project Row Houses includes more than twenty once abandoned shotgun houses in Houston’s Third Ward. Previous Next Close	Resident Artist Esther Mahlunga from Mabhoko, South Africa, painting a mural for the Project Row Houses Campus. Previous Next Close	The After-School Arts Education program curriculum includes visual arts, music, Afro-Brazilian dance, drumming, gardening, ceramics, and homework tutorials. Previous Next Close	The Young Mothers Residential Program provides transitional housing and services for young mothers and their children. Previous Next Close
Project Row Houses, before, during and after renovation. Photo: Project Row Houses	Resident Artist Esther Mahlunga. Photo: Project Row Houses	After-School Arts Education program. Photo: Project Row Houses	Members of the Young Mothers Residential Program. Photo: Project Row Houses