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Draft:DiverseWorks

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DiverseWorks
Map
Established1982
LocationMATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston)
3400 Main, Suite 292
Houston, TX 77002, United States
Coordinates29°44′24″N 95°22′43″W / 29.74000°N 95.37861°W / 29.74000; -95.37861
TypeArt center
DirectorXandra Eden
CuratorAshley DeHoyos Sauder
Public transit access
  Red Line
Ensemble/HCC station
Websitediverseworks.org

DiverseWorks is a nonprofit arts organization based in the Houston Museum District, Houston, Texas, founded in 1982. DiverseWorks produces and presents new multidisciplinary contemporary art through collaborations with local, national and international artists. It currently resides at the MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston) where it shares, with other arts organizations, a gallery and performance spaces, and also presents off-site projects across the city of Houston.

History

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214 Travis (1982–1989)

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DiverseWorks was founded in 1982 by Charles Gallagher, alongside fellow artists Billy Hassell, Doug Laguarta, and Michael Peranteau, and housed within the W. L. Foley Building, a Civil-War Era armory and dry goods store in Houston’s First Ward. Taking inspiration from New York City alternative spaces, such as The Kitchen and the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center (now MoMA PS1), the artists combined their resources to start their own center,[1] and in December 1982, they were granted 501(c)(3) non-profit status.[2] On February 7, 1983, while renovations at 214 Travis were in progress, the inaugural exhibition opened at the Sky Lobby of the Texas Commerce Tower's 60th floor, showcasing Artist Advisory Committee members Ron Boling, Thelma Coles, Piero Fenci, Kathleen Packlick, and Ben Woitena.[3] DiverseWorks quickly became an integral part of the Houston alternative arts scene.[1] In May 1983, despite a flood that resulted in the gallery a foot-deep underwater, the DiverseWorks opened the 214 Travis location to the public with an exhibition of four East Texas artists from their Artist Advisory Committee and a performance by saxophonist Richard Landry.[1]

Over the course of 1982–1983, Gallagher, Hassell, Laguarta along with many other artists including Deborah and Virgil Grotfeldt and Melissa Noble, volunteered their time and talents to create a professional space for exhibitions, video screenings, music, performances, and community forums. The upper floors were renovated to include artists’ studios and in 1984, Doug Laguarta, Beth Secor, James Bettison, Lisa Shoyer, Billy Hassell, and Don Redman became the first Artists-in-Residence.[2] In November 1985, the center opened DiverseBooks, an art bookstore and library that offered a curated selection of art books, small press publications, and artist-made jewelry and accessories.[1][2] Gallagher left DiverseWorks in 1987 to pursue his artistic career.[1] In lieu of a permanent collection, DiverseWorks sought to organize an exhibition program committed to showcasing new and emerging artists, organizing collaborations with and between cultural producers and communities, and advancing progressive art and ideas in Houston and the US. Key exhibitions during these early years included Mel Chin, Robie Conal, the Guerilla Girls, Jesse Lott, Rosalind Solomon, and Dee Wolff with notable performances by Farrell Dyde, Frankie Mann, Pauline Oliveros, and Helen Thorington.[1][4]

Market Square Park

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In 1985, founder Charles Gallagher and director Caroline Huber proposed a redesign of Market Square Park, located across the center, involving artists after learning of plans to redevelop the site. In partnership with the Houston Parks and Recreation Department, DiverseWorks organized a panel of art professionals (William A. Camfield, Marti Mayo, Adolfo V. Nodal, and led by Walter Hopps) to select artists for the project. The five artists — Malou Flato, Paul Hester, Douglas Hollis, James Surls, Richard Turner — produced artworks for the park and worked collaboratively on the design alongside architects, engineers, city officials, and community leaders. Huber and other DiverseWorks staff continued to spearhead the project. The park, whose design originated from the team of artists, opened in 1992 with James Surls' Points of View sculpture as a centerpiece,[5] and today is a central feature of the Main Street-Market Square Historic District.[4][1][6]

1117 East Freeway (1989–2012)

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On February 9, 1989, a severe fire destroyed the original Travis Street location and DiverseWorks found a larger space in Downtown Houston in a 1920s cotton warehouse, also known as the Docks. This new space included gallery and performance areas as well as a new iteration of DiverseBooks that sponsored PhoneWorks, a phone-in poetry-reading service, for many years.[1] The Docks first opened in October 1989, with its first events including a DiverseBooks reading by Laurie Berry and Vikram Chandra, a performance titled We Keep Our Victims Ready by Karen Finley, and an inaugural exhibition in the space titled The Artist's Eye, featuring 18 Houston visual artists.[4] During DiverseWorks’ time at the Docks, they exhibited work and presented performances by hundreds of artists, including The Art Guys, the Blue Man Group, Jello Biafra, Bill Fontana, Pat Graney, Bill T. Jones, Stephen Koplowitz, Hung Liu, Linda Montano, Suzan-Lori Parks, Pomo Afro Homos, William Pope.L, Joyce J. Scott, Urban Bush Women, Cecilia Vicuña, and Kristina Wong.[2][4]

4102 Fannin (2012–2015)

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In November 2012, DiverseWorks moved from the Docks to a temporary warehouse space in the Midtown Cultural Arts District under the direction of its next executive director, Elizabeth Dunbar, as part of plans to relocate to a new facility in development in Midtown. The 5,500 square foot-sized location housed Cleburne's Cafeteria from 1941 to 1969, was used in later years as a manufacturing facility, and provided a large gallery area and flex space. The Fannin location opened with City Council Meeting by Aaron Landsman, with Mallory Catlett, and Jim Findlay. Artists presented at the Fannin location include Tony Feher, Olivia Herring, Liz Magic Laser, Heather & Ivan Morison, and Wu Tsang. During this time, the Diverse Discourse Lecture & Studio Visit Program launched with Naomi Beckwith as the inaugural guest lecturer.[2]

In May 2015, DiverseWorks became W.A.G.E. Certified by Working Artists and the Greater Economy (W.A.G.E.), joining several other arts institutions across the US in meeting a sector-wide minimum standard for compensation and guidelines for artistic labor.[7]

3400 Main, MATCH (2015–present)

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In June 2015, DiverseWorks appointed Xandra Eden as its next executive director, and in December of that same year, DiverseWorks moved into the MATCH (Midtown Arts and Theater Center Houston), a multi-tenant facility where DiverseWorks has offices and access to a gallery and state-of-the-art theater spaces. The first show in MATCH, What Shall We Do Next?, included works by Danielle Dean, Kristin Lucas, Julien Prévieux, and the artist collective Versace Versace Versace (Loriel Beltran, Domingo Castillo, Aramis Gutierrez, and Jonathan Gonzalez).[8]

Artists presented at the MATCH location include Jocelyn Cottencin & Emmanuelle Huynh, Li(sa E.) Harris, Kate Gilmore and Heather Rowe, Autumn Knight, taisha paggett, Sheila Pepe, Sondra Perry, and Nick Vaughan & Jake Margolin.[2] In 2018, Diverseworks initiated Project Freeway and its year-long fellowship program for those living or working in the Greater Houston area. Project Freeway methods became a practice that helped DiverseWorks develop off-site projects with artists Virginia Grise, Jasmine Hearn, and Jefferson Pinder.  

In 2023, DiverseWorks celebrated its 40th anniversary and James Surls' 80th birthday with an outdoor sculpture exhibition, A Gift from the Bower, at the Locke Surls Center for Art and Nature in Cleveland, Texas.[2]

Programs

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The Idea Fund

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Established in 2007, the Idea Fund is a re-granting program administered by DiverseWorks in partnership with Aurora Picture Show and Project Row Houses and funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. The Idea Fund grant supports artist-generated or artist-centered projects that demonstrate innovative, experimental, participatory, or guerrilla artistic practices. These projects must operate primarily within, or have a strong connection to the visual arts.[9][10] The Idea Fund is one of 32 Warhol Foundation Regional Regranting Programs developed and facilitated by arts organizations across the United States that recognizes and supports independently organized, public-facing, and artist-centered activity that charts new creative territory in local and regional art scenes.[11] Past artists supported by the Idea Fund include JooYoung Choi, Sol Diaz-Peña, Ayanna Jolivet McCloud, Angelo Madsen Minax, Wura-Natasha Ogunji, Robert Pruitt, Carrie Schneider, Sindhu Thirumalaisamy, Nestor Topchy, Two Dykes and a Knife (Lovie Olivia & Preetika Rajgariah), and Mich Stevenson.[10]

Started in 1985, the New Forms Regional Initiative Grants program was a predecessor to the Idea Fund. Supported by the Inter-Arts Program of the National Endowment of the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and later in 1991 the Andy Warhol Foundation, the NFRIG supported artists such as Johannes Birringer, David Zamora Casas, Michael Galbreth, Deborah Hay, Jerry Hunt, Ken Little, Rick Lowe, Vicki Meek, Meridel Rubenstein, and Regina Vater.[4]

Leadership

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Executive Directors[4]

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  • Charles Gallagher (1982–1987)
  • Caroline Huber (1984–1993)
  • Michael Peranteau (1985–1995)
  • Emily Todd (1995–1999)
  • Sara Kellner (1999–2006)
  • Diane Barber (2006–2011)
  • Sixto Wagan (2006–2011)
  • Elizabeth Dunbar (2012–2015)
  • Xandra Eden (2015–present)

Curators/Artistic Directors[12]

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  • Michael Peranteau (1984–1995)
  • Caroline Huber (1985–1993)
  • Loris Bradley (1993–2006)
  • Susie Kalil (1996–1997)
  • Sixto Wagan (2006–2013)
  • Diane Barber (1997–2011)
  • Rachel Cook (2012–2017)
  • Xandra Eden (2015–present)
  • Ashley DeHoyos Sauder (2018–present)

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Kendall Curlee, “Diverseworks,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed 2024-08-13, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/diverseworks.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "WHO WE ARE - DiverseWorks". 2023-07-31. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  3. ^ Davenport, Bill (2013-02-08). "DiverseWorks is thirty! Houston Art Space Keeps on Keepin' On". Glasstire. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  4. ^ a b c d e f DiverseWorks Artspace; McBride, Elizabeth; Thomas, Lorenzo (1993). DiverseWorks artspace: 1983-93. Houston, Tex.: DiverseWorks.
  5. ^ "Points of View, (sculpture)". siris-artinventories.si.edu. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  6. ^ Devadanam, Steven (2020-09-03). "Downtown Houston's historic urban park celebrates grand reopening". CultureMap Houston. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  7. ^ Newton, Paula (2015-05-20). "DiverseWorks Signs Up for Fair Pay to Artists". Glasstire. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  8. ^ Glentzer, Molly (2015-11-03). "DiverseWorks will move to the MATCH in December". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  9. ^ "WHAT WE DO - DiverseWorks". 2023-07-31. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  10. ^ a b "About". The Idea Fund. Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  11. ^ "Regional Regranting – The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts". Retrieved 2024-09-13.
  12. ^ Gershon, Pete (2022). "DiverseWorks". In Gershon, Pete (ed.). Impractical Spaces: Houston. Impractical Spaces / Hyde Park House 002. pp. 92–101.
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