Buffalo Bayou is one of five North American sites to host inaugural exhibition
Opens to the Public
Wednesday, February 20, 2019
[A] part by Sin Huelllas Artists: Delilah Montoya and Jimmy Castillo
HOUSTON – January 30, 2019 – Houston’s Buffalo Bayou has been selected as the inaugural site for New Monuments for New Cities, a collaborative public art project organized by the High Line Network, a coalition of visionary North American industrial reuse projects that are transforming underutilized infrastructure into new urban landscapes and redefining what parks can be.
Debuting in Houston on February 20, the public art initiative’s theme is meant to stimulate discussion and community discourse on the evolving nature of monuments and ask questions such as “What does it mean to monumentalize a person, an idea or moment in time?”
In coordination with High Line Art, each High Line Network participant invited five of its city’s artists or artist groups to create proposals in the form of posters for new monuments. The resulting proposals span from traditional monuments, to revised historical statues, to newly imagined methods of public commemoration. There are drawings, photographs, renderings, Wikipedia pages, collages, and bold text-based statements.
Following Houston’s presentation, all 25 artworks will travel to Austin, Chicago and Toronto, culminating in New York on the High Line in September 2019. In Houston, the artwork will be displayed in the form of light boxes integrated into benches beckoning visitors to reflect and enter the discourse on the meaning of monuments. The structures will surround the cherished Spindle by Henry Moore in Buffalo Bayou Park along Allen Parkway at Gillette Street.
Major underwriting for Houston’s exhibition is provided by East River, a Midway development with additional support from the Susan Vaughan Foundation and TXRX.
“We are honored to be among a select group of cities that are exhibiting these thought-provoking artworks,” says Judy Nyquist, BBP Board Member and Public Art Committee Co-chair. “The theme, NewMonuments for New Cities, is so timely as our nation and its citizens are rethinking what form monuments should take today.”
Participating Houston artists are: Regina Agu, Jamal Cyrus, Sin Huellas: Delilah Montoya and Jimmy Castillo, Phillip Pyle, II, and Nick Vaughan and Jake Margolin. Artists selected by the other High Line Network participants include:
- Austin: Nicole Awai, Daniela Cavazos Madrigal, Teruko Nimura and Rachel Alex Crist, Denise Prince, Vincent Valdez
- Chicago: Eric J. García, Tonika Johnson, Chris Pappan, Richard Santiago (TIAGO), Zissou Tasseff-Elenkoff
- Toronto: Susan Blight, Coco Guzman, Life of a Craphead (Amy Lam and Jon McCurley), An Te Liu, Quentin VerCetty
- New York: Judith Bernstein, Guerrilla Girls, Hans Haacke, Paul Ramírez Jonas, Xaviera Simmons
In addition to the New Monuments for New Cities exhibition, Buffalo Bayou Partnership is sponsoring the following complementary programming and events:
Saturday, March 2, 1-2pm
Monuments Monologue: Artists Talk
Meadow surrounding the Henry Moore Spindle sculpture in Buffalo Bayou Park
Allen Parkway at Gillette Street
Wednesday, March 20, 2019, 6:30pm
Message and Meaning: Reconsidering Monuments Today
Panel Discussion with New Monuments for New Cities Artists,
Melanie Kress, Associate Curator, High Line Art and
Moderator, Karen Farber, Executive Director, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts University of Houston
Eldorado Ballroom
2310 Elgin Street, Houston, TX 77004
Saturday, April 6, 10-11 a.m.
Monuments Monologue: Artists Talks
Meadow surrounding the Henry Moore Spindle sculpture in Buffalo Bayou Park
Allen Parkway at Gillette Street
Saturday, April 20, 10-11 a.m.
Monuments Monologue: Artists Talks
Meadow surrounding the Henry Moore Spindle sculpture in Buffalo Bayou Park
Allen Parkway at Gillette Street
Saturday, April 27, 8-10 p.m.
A Monumental Evening: Closing Party
Buffalo Bayou Partnership Silos along Buffalo Bayou’s East Sector
801 N. Nagle Street, off of Navigation, Houston, TX 77003
New Monuments for New Cities Schedule in Other Cities
- Waller Creek, Austin March-May 2019
- The 606, Chicago May-June 2019
- The Bentway, Toronto May-August 2019
- The High Line, New York September-October 2019
About Buffalo Bayou Partnership
Established in 1986, Buffalo Bayou Partnership (BBP) is the Houston nonprofit organization transforming and revitalizing Buffalo Bayou, the city’s most significant natural resource. Thanks to the generous support of foundations, corporations, individuals, and governmental agencies, BBP has raised and leveraged more than $150 million for the redevelopment and stewardship of the waterfront. The organization develops award-winning projects such as the $58 million Buffalo Bayou Park, protects land for future parks, constructs hiking and biking trails, and operates comprehensive clean-up and maintenance programs. BBP also seeks ways to activate Buffalo Bayou through pedestrian, boating, and biking amenities, volunteer activities, permanent and temporary art installations, and wide-ranging tours and events.
About High Line Network
The High Line Network is a group of industrial reuse projects—and the people who help them come to life. As cities become denser and land for traditional parks becomes scarce, citizens are finding creative ways to bring greenspace to their neighborhoods. Projects in the High Line Network transform underutilized infrastructure into new urban landscapes. Redefining what a park can be, these hybrid spaces are also public squares, open-air museums, botanical gardens, social service organizations, walkways, transit corridors, and more.
The High Line Network is presented by Friends of the High Line, the nonprofit organization responsible for the High Line, raising nearly 100% of its annual budget. Owned by the City of New York, the High Line is programmed, maintained, and operated by Friends of the High Line, in partnership with the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation.
The High Line Network is made possible by the founding support of The JPB Foundation.###