Collective Creative Actions

Located in Houston's Third Ward--a historic African-American neighborhood--Project Row Houses (PRH) is a community platform that enriches lives through art with an emphasis on cultural identity and its impact on the urban landscape. Since its inception in 1993, PRH has fostered a positive, creative environment in the community by infusing it with art and creativity and creating sustainable opportunities for artists, mothers, entrepreneurs, and residents. Today the PRH site encompasses five city blocks and houses thirty-nine structures that serve as home base to a variety of community-enriching initiatives, art programs, and neighborhood development activities.

Collective Creative Actions: Project Row Houses at 25 highlights the history of the Third Ward neighborhood, PRH's role in its development over the past quarter-century, and the idea of social art practice from the perspective of PRH's five pillars: art and creativity; education; social safety net; good and relevant architecture; and economic sustainability. It also includes scholarly essays; a selection of impactful moments that have shaped the organization's work; documentation of the hundreds of people who have participated in PRH programs; and numerous photographs. The book shows how the PRH model for art and social engagement not only applies to Houston, but can be adopted by diverse communities everywhere.

Contributors: Ryan N. Dennis, Nonya Grenader, Sandra Jackson-Dumont, George Lipsitz, Michael McFadden, Assata-Nicole Richards, Danny Samuels