Healing Communities Through Public Art

On Saturday, June 7, 2003, from 9am-1pm, the Museum Of Cultural Arts, Houston (MOCAH) along with the Greater Fifth Ward Weed & Seed (5WWS) Initiative will kickoff Project GROW, a mural painting event at Swiney Park Community Center, located 2812 Cline, in celebration of “Community Outreach Month”. Project GROW, is part of a yearlong effort to help elevate the awareness of the 5^th Ward community of a local contaminated waste site, Many Diversified Interests (MDI) superfund site. During this weekend event, MOCAH and the 5^th Ward Weed & Seed Initiative (5WWS) will mobilize volunteers, business people, neighbors, friends, and local elected and civic leaders in a month of neighborhood change and awareness. Professional artists, local youth, community residents and volunteers from throughout the city will be onsite to assist in the painting of a 4’ x 50’ mural. Music, food and beverages will be provided and this event is free and open to the public.

The MDI site occupies a 36-acre tract of land located at 3617 Baer Street in 5^th Ward, one of Houston’s oldest and poorest African-American neighborhoods. The superfund site is located in the heart of this historic community and is ¼ mile south of Interstate Highway 10, and two miles east of downtown Houston. Bruce Elementary School, with a student body of over 475, is located less than 50 feet from the MDI site. The site poses the greatest threat to the hundreds of students that walk by this hazardous waste site daily. Through this project, MOCAH will collaborate with 5WWS to use creative writing and visual art as mediums to teach the youth participants about the risks and adverse effects of hazardous waste and environmental pollution.

During a series of six-week long art residencies, creative writers and visual artists will work with 20 youth participants, from six sites within the 5^th Ward to produce writings and mini-murals on 4’ x 8’ plywood panels. Collectively, the panels will create a 1,920-foot long mural portraying children’s concerns, thoughts, and visions for a cleaner and healthier community. The sites targeted include Bruce, Henderson and Crawford Elementary Schools, the Julia C. Hester House, E.O. Smith Middle School and Phillis Wheatley High School. Each site will produce 20 painted panels and 20 panels with words, phrases, or poems inspiring the viewers to be aware and to take care of their environment. Guest speakers from environmental groups such as the Environmental Protection Agency, Mothers for Clean Air and Natural Legacy will be invited to discuss with the students the causes and effects of environmental pollution. This project began in May 2003 and will be completed spring 2004 .

Upon completion of the project, all of the panels will be installed along the perimeter of the chain link fenced MDI site. Once all of the panels have been installed, the community and city at-large will be invited to join with students, their families and area residents in the dedication of the Project GROW. The dedication will involve an exhibition of the students’ designs and writings; archival information about the MDI site; photo-documentation of the students at work and most importantly the murals themselves.

The Greater Fifth Ward Weed & Seed Initiative, now in its 2^nd year, is a strategy that brings together federal, state, and local crime-fighting agencies, social service providers, representatives of the public and private sectors, business owners, and neighborhood residents under the shared goal of weeding out crime while seeding in social services and community revitalization. MOCAH, a current recipient of an $18,500 grant from the 5WWS Initiative is working with Weed & Seed safe havens in the 5^th Ward to provide innovative public art projects as tools for community development and youth empowerment.

This project is made possible by grants and in-kind contributions from the Mayor’s Anti-gang Office, 5^th Ward Weed & Seed Initiative, Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation, Intrust USA Ltd., Oxford Alternative Investment Corporation, Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County, Phogg Foundation, Mother’s For Clean Air, Environmental Institute of Houston-University of Clear Lake and Monarch Paint Company.

For more information regarding the public art project contact Reginald Adams, Executive Director at 713.864.2780 or send email to reginald@mocah.org. To view additional MOCAH public art projects visit: www.mocah.org/ArtworkZ.htm or www.mocah.org/ArtworkZ/MDIProjectGROW.htm