Houston Lifestyles & Homes magazine Mar 2009: Houston Arts Alliance Presents Civic Duty: Building Art, Building Houston

The Houston Arts Alliance will present a two-part series of exhibits examining processes and methods used to create civic art in Houston until March 6 at space 125gallery. The first of the series is entitled Civic duty: Building Art, Building Houston, and will showcase the different artistic processes that lead to some of Houston ’s cultural treasures ranging from Hobby Airport to Kashmere Gardens to the revitalized water treatment facility near Lake Houston.

The installation of these new public artworks in Houston neighborhoods is the culmination of a long process that begins with the allocation of funding from the city ’s “percent for art” ordinance and the selection of the artist through a request for qualifications.

This is a group exhibition of nine contracted proposals for civic artworks integrated into the operations and neighborhoods of Houston. The exhibition focuses on the connection between artists commissioned through the HAA Civic ARt+ Design program and City of Houston department leadership.

Each of the artists was commissioned to produce original and site-specific permanent civic arts projects in Houston locations. The exhibit will include renderings and material samples of newly installed projects and commissions currently in fabrication, underscoring the range of approaches contemporary artists used to create original artworks in municipal contexts.

left: A rendering of Beads by North Carolina-based artists Jim Hirschfield and Sonya Ishii will be one of two additional Beads columns to be installed in the IAH Airport International Terminal at 2800 North Terminal Road. right: A rendering of Doughty Do by Houston artist Sharon Englestein is a field installation of 38 cast aluminum horses and two dogs being created for the building entryway of the Mounted Police/ Animal Services Facility at 5005 Little York Road.