HOUSING to PUBLIC BUILDINGS & AFFORDABLE HOUSING

PROJECT ROW HOUSES is a clearly example of how to transform a decrepit area into a new community breathing from the roots, arts and community work.

Project Row Houses (PRH) was founded in 1993, in Houston’s Third Ward district, as a result of the vision of local African-American artists who wanted to have a positive, creative presence in their own community. Artist and community activist Rick Lowe spearheaded the pursuit of this vision when he discovered the abandoned, one-and-a-half block site of twenty-two shotgun-style houses in the Third Ward. PRH seeks to transform the view of art from traditional studio practice to a more conceptual base of changing the social environment. From the original twenty-two houses, there are now fifty-five buildings across ten blocks that house artist exhibition spaces, residency houses, studios, arts education facilities, affordable housing for forty households, a residential program for young single mothers, and a ballroom and performance space.

PRH has invented a context where art can create real social change. Intersecting public art and social practice, PRH locates the Third Ward community, a predominantly African-American working class neighborhood, as its canvas in which resident artists play a vital role in activating the community. Central to the vision of PRH is the social role of art as seen in neighborhood revitalization, historic preservation, community service, and youth education.

http://projectrowhouses.org