Board Stiff
In what has to be an unprecedented move for any municipality, the various arts bureaucracies of Houston have elected to reduce and streamline themselves by turning 3 disparate organizations into a single entity. We note that PRH founding director Rick Lowe and Paul J. Matthews of the Buffalo Soldiers National Museum are 2 of the 29 arts leaders to serve on the inaugural board of the new Houston Arts Alliance (HAA). The HAA is composed of what was previously the Cultural Arts Council Houston/Harris County, the Municipal Art Commission, and the Civic Art Committee.
According to the Alliance, the new organization will "fund, advocate, preserve, and promote the arts in the Houston and Harris county region." The area includes over 500 arts organizations and 12,000 artists. The Alliance will further be responsible for acquisitions, conservation, and preservation of the City of Houston's public art collection now numbering some 400 pieces.
PRH, a city of Houston arts fixture, recently exhibited the work of Rashida Bumbray, Ingrid Pollard, and Charles Huntley Nelson among others in its prestigious Third Ward site-specific installation program. The new Alliance will be overseeing approximately $8.25 million in allocations to artists an arts organizations.
16 November 2006