Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Houston's Artcar Museum small but intense and connected to the world's largest and longest-running Artcar Parade

The Artcar Museum is a private museum of contemporary art located in Houston. It's on Heights Blvd near Washington Blvd. The museum, nicknamed the Garage Mahal, opened in 1988.

The Artcar Museum shows more than vaporous vehicles. Its emphasis in fine arts includes "artists that are rarely seen in other cultural institutions," says the web site. Last week we saw displays by artists working in lucite, encaustic, clay, paper and video.

The Artcar Museum is a below-the-radar sort of place in a city where the art scene has exploded. One of our favorite Houston photographers, Killy Chavez, said, "In all the years I've been in Houston, I've never been to the Artcar Museum, nor to the Artcar Parade."

Houston's Artcar Parade is "The first and largest Art Car Parade in the world," says Wikipedia. It features cars, bicycles, motorcycles, roller-skaters, and many other rolling surrealities.

Houston's Artcar parade debuted on Montrose Blvd in 1986. In 1988 some 40 decorated vehicles were featured during the Houston International Festival.

Today the parade is sponsored by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, which is a story of its own. Held on Allen Parkway, the 2004 parade featured 250 entries observed by a live audience of over 100,000 people. The 2007 parade featured 282 entries, says Wikipedia.

Some of the most elaborate cars in the parade are displayed in the Artcar Museum, a center founded by Ann Harithas, artist and long-time supporter of the Art Car movement, and James Harithas, former director of the Corcoran Museum, Washington, D.C. He is current director of the Station Museum of Houston.

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