podcast by Aman

Rick Lowe, a landscape painter from Alabama, moved to Houston in 1985 and created politically charged installations. In 1993, he bought 22 dilapidated row houses in downtown Houston with a group of artists to revitalize the Third Ward. The project aimed to provide a safe space for artists and single mothers, commemorate the history of the neighborhood, and address social issues. Lowe emphasized the symbolic importance of art rather than its physical size. The project benefited the community by involving them in the creation of art, preserving historic spaces, and addressing social issues. Rick Lowe was born in Alabama. He was trained as a landscape painter, attending Columbus College in Georgia, before moving to Houston in 1985. There, he created politically charged installations and studied with a muralist and painter, John Biggers, at Texas Southern University. In 1993, he gathered a group of local artists to see how they could use art to revitalize the Third Ward. Inspired by the artist Joseph Buie's idea of a social sculpture, Lowe and the group of artists bought 22 dilapidated row houses that lined a street in downtown Houston. This project began in the 1900s and involved the artists in the community to bring beauty slash art into the struggling neighborhood. He wanted to provide a safe space for artists and single mothers, and to commemorate the history of Houston's Third Ward, known for Emancipation Park, which was bought in 1870 by free slaves to celebrate the end of slavery. A quote he said was, they want to make an important painting so they can make a big painting, but you can make a big painting and it won't be any more important than a small one, because the symbolic value of the painting can outweigh the physical size of the painting. Likewise, with community work, we get lost if we bow to pressure from other kinds of placemaking, the one concerned with scale, and we strive for size instead of thinking about the work's symbolic importance. This project benefited public humanity because the overall purpose was to involve the community of the creation of art, commemorate free slaves who bought nearby land, provide housing and services for the community, preserve historic spaces, bring art into the neighborhood, and address social issues like prison reform.