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| 2006 photo of Rick Lowe, founder of Project Row Houses, in front of duplexes designed by Rice University students to provide low-income rental homes as part of the project. Photo by Michael Stravato for The New York Times. |
Founder of Project Row Houses given prestigious
award to pursue his dreams
Text | Claudia Feldman for the Houston Chronicle
Published | September 16, 2014, updated September
17, 2014
Rick Lowe,
Rick Lowe's cellphone wouldn't stop ringing. He ignored the calls from area
code 312 and a number he did not recognize.
But
finally, the artist stepped outside the Epicure Cafe on West Gray, put his
cellphone to his ear and received the call of his life
Lowe, the
founder of Project Row Houses in
Houston's Third Ward, has been named a 2014 MacArthur Fellow.
The prestigious award for creativity comes with a $625,000 grant to be paid
during five years and little else - no ceremonial dinners, no speeches, no
plaques. Instead, the MacArthur Foundation
says, the fellowship provides recipients with flexibility to pursue artistic,
intellectual and professional activities without any strings attached.
John
Henneberger of Austin, an affordable-housing advocate, also won one of the 21
awards, commonly known as "genius grants."
A model project
Lowe's
Project Row Houses, which now spans six blocks and includes 71 structures, was
a collection of dilapidated shotgun houses when Lowe envisioned something
entirely different: the revitalization of a historical piece of the Third Ward
and a place where artists, young single mothers, kids needing a safe haven after
school - anybody and everybody - could meet and learn from one another. Twenty
years later, it has served as a model for similar redevelopment projects in
Dallas, New Orleans, Philadelphia, Los Angeles - even South Korea.
"Rick
pioneered a form of art that had no name," executive director Linda
Shearer said. "Now his concept is taught in undergraduate and graduate art
programs. It's called 'creative place making' and 'social practice.' What's
remarkable is that Rick was on this track of socially engaged art and
developing community long before anybody thought about it. He imbued those
shotgun houses with value that people respect and treasure today."
When
President Barack Obama learned about Lowe, Shearer said, he appointed him to
the National Council on the Arts.
"Rick
doesn't call attention to himself," Shearer said, "and he's not an
egomaniac. He's all about being a catalyst and asking, 'How can we transform
our communities through art?' "
A change of plan
Lowe, 53,
was born in rural Russell County in Alabama. He was the eighth of 12 children,
and all of them worked in cotton and peanut fields when they weren't in school.
"We
felt like we were the last sharecroppers in the world," Lowe said.
"That was my upbringing. I grew up mainly with my mother. My dad wasn't
around consistently."
Lowe sums
up the life lessons he learned in two words. "Everybody works."
In high
school Lowe played enough basketball to earn an athletic scholarship to Alabama
State University. But he realized early he wasn't an elite player and
transferred to what was then Columbus College in Columbus, Ga.
He paid
tuition and other bills by working as a bus boy, dishwasher and waiter. It was
a time, Lowe said, "to piece things together and find out how the world
worked."
Lowe took
his first drawing class as a freshman. Teachers praised his work and encouraged
him to become an art major. Nobody, including his mother, asked how he would
earn a living with such an impractical degree.
"What
my mom taught me was to work hard, have a strong ethical component to my work
and live my life right."
Though
Lowe teaches classes at Southern Methodist University in Dallas now, he did not
graduate from college. He was still in school but struggling when a professor told
him, "You're a doer. You should go out into the world and do it."
Lowe moved
to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to spend time with one of his brothers. He worked
in an ice cream storage plant and as a hair dresser.
In 1984,
he moved to Houston "for no particular reason, except that I wanted to be
in large city," he said. "I didn't think I'd last very long, but here
I am 30 years later."
Lowe
remembers it took several years for him to find his niche and artist friends
with whom he felt comfortable. He hop-scotched from Spring Branch to an
artists' warehouse on Commerce Street to still other artists' studios on Feagan
Street near downtown.
By the
late 1980s, Lowe realized he had lost touch with his African-American roots,
and he spent considerable time trying to connect with Houston's black
communities. He took art classes at Texas Southern University. He met black
artists including Bert Long, Bert Samples, Jesse Lott, Floyd Newsum, George
Smith and James Bettison. He also spent many hours visiting with the executive
director of S.H.A.P.E. Community Center, Deloyd Parker.
That, Lowe
said, is when he starting thinking about the intersection of art and community,
art and social justice, art and social services, art and basic human needs.
"All
of us were looking for something," Lowe said, "when I came up with
the idea of reclaiming these little shotgun houses on Holman."
The 22
homes built in the 1930s were practically falling down, and some were occupied
by drug dealers and addicts. If entrepreneurial Houstonians looked at the
shacks and saw town houses, Lowe says his friends gave him the confidence to
move forward with his vision.
A focus in Houston
Henneberger,
59, said he intends to use his grant to help low-income neighborhood advocates
gain more leverage in their struggles for better housing, more equitable public
services and relief from environmental racism. Houston will be a particular
focus, he said.
"Houston
is of special interest because it is the place where we have seen more
effective, democratic community engagement on issues than anyplace else in the
state," he said. In addition, "conditions in the neighborhoods are
among the most unequal of any place in the state that I've ever
encountered."
'Have to be thoughtful'
Lowe
hasn't decided what to do with his infusion of cash. "I have to be
thoughtful about the best way to use the money," he said. "This is
not something I'll play around with and throw away. I do want to have a big
impact. And a lot of the money will go to the Third Ward."
When Lowe
is not working or traveling for work, he shoots basketball at his gym, the 24
Hour Fitness in Midtown.
"Sometimes
it's in the middle of the night, when I can't sleep," Lowe said. "I'm
one of those people."
Lowe also
plays dominoes with the regulars at Project Row Houses. "We have what we
call the humility table, which is a reminder that sometimes you win and
sometimes you lose. Sometimes it's about skill and talent, and sometimes it's
about luck. But whatever happens, you know to check your ego at the
table."
Jazz
musician Jason Moran, a native Houstonian who moved to New York, won a
MacArthur grant in 2010. Poet Edward Hirsch, who taught literature and creative
writing at the University of Houston, earned his MacArthur grant in 1998.
"He
left town after he got his," Lowe said of Hirsch. "I'm not going
anywhere."
Houston Chronicle Staff writer Mike Snyder
contributed to this report.
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