The Community Artists' Collective is a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

exhibition space based in

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

USA The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

, focused on exhibiting work by

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

artists and creating more opportunities for children and adults to explore the arts.

History

The Collective was founded in 1987 by artist Michelle Barnes and

Texas Southern University Texas Southern University (Texas Southern or TSU) is a Public university, public Historically black colleges and universities, historically Black university in Houston. The university is a member school of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund an ...

professor Dr. Sarah Trotty as an exhibition space for professional African American artists in Houston, especially African American women artists. It has become a platform for emerging artists that also provides educational workshops for children and adults in collaboration with organizations such as Project Row Houses and SHAPE Community Center. Prior to founding the Collective, Barnes in 1983 founded the Barnes-Blackman Gallery in partnership with

The Ensemble Theatre The Ensemble Theatre, located in the heart of Midtown, Houston, midtown at 3535 Main Street in Houston, Texas, is the largest African-American professional theatre company in the United States that produces plays in-house and owns its own facili ...

with art shown part-time in the theater's lobby prior to each performance. Its purpose was to bring "the African-American community into the arts at every level, from making art to administering programs." Barnes and Trotty were also founding board members of the African American Heritage Museum led by Dr. Robert Galloway that began in February 1988 and opened later that year. Located in a small space of approximately 800 square feet at 2101 Crawford Street in downtown Houston, the museum's first exhibition featured work by

students curated by former professor and sculptor Carroll Simms. The Barnes-Blackman Gallery moved to the Collective's first location at 1501 Elgin near La Branch in November 1989, with the first show taking place on February 11, 1990 in conjunction with Houston Fotofest. There was no heat and no working toilets in the building that had been vacant for years before being leased by Barnes, so she was able to negotiate a lower rent in exchange for renovating the building. By 1995, the Collective included various facilities in addition to its exhibition space such as a library, classroom space, photography darkroom, and a frame shop. In 2005 the organization held a "Fun Razing" benefit party to celebrate the demolition of the old building with plans to replace it with a $22 million, 100,000 square foot building with 8,500 square feet for the Collective. The Collective is a founding member of the Third Ward Community Cloth Cooperative, which was established in 1992. It relocated to the Midtown Art Center Tea Room at 1413 Holman at La Branch for a period of time from around 2008 until 2014. The Collective was located at 4101 San Jacinto from 2015 to 2024. It is currently located at 4111 Fannin Street.

Programs

The Collective has provided youth programming such as an eight-week summer program which allowed students to show and sell their artwork. It has worked with various community organizations and the City of Houston to help youth use art to develop career goals. Through after school and summer programs, Saturday classes, and workshops in art forms such as videography, ceramics, dance, literature, painting, and photography. These sessions are led by TSU art students, artists-in-residence, professional artists, and Barnes herself.

Jubilee Quilt Circle

Weekly on Thursdays and Fridays, the Collective hosts the Jubilee Quilt Circle where participants can learn and practice skills related to

quilting Quilting is the process of joining a minimum of three layers of textile, fabric together either through stitching manually using a Sewing needle, needle and yarn, thread, or mechanically with a sewing machine or specialised longarm quilting ...

and

crochet Crochet (; ) is a process of creating textiles by using a crochet hook to interlock loops of yarn, thread (yarn), thread, or strands of other materials. The name is derived from the French term ''crochet'', which means 'hook'. Hooks can be made ...

. The Collective held its first Quilt Raffle in 1991 to benefit its youth programming, raffling off a quilt created by Blackshear Elementary and Ryan Middle School students in the after school program.

Artists

* Ann Johnson * Gail P. Mallory * Lee Carrier * Shani Crowe * Earlie Hudnall, Jr. * Annette Lawrence * Robert Hodge * Tierney Malone * David McGee * Ricardo Osmondo Francis * Jean Lacey * Michael Ray Charles

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 29.7347, -95.3797, type:landmark_region:US-TX, display=title Buildings and structures in Houston Tourist attractions in Houston Culture of Houston Arts centers in Texas Contemporary art galleries in the United States African-American arts organizations Art museums and galleries in Texas Arts organizations established in 1987 Organizations based in Houston 1987 establishments in Texas Artist groups and collectives