Project Row Houses Director Eureka Gilkey to Present Lecture on April 9 in Little Rock

Photo courtesy of Project Row Houses

An aerial view of the Third Ward neighborhood in Houston, Texas.

LITTLE ROCK – Eureka Gilkey will present a lecture at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, at the Arkansas Arts Center, at 501 E. 9th St., in Little Rock. The lecture, titled "Collective Creative Actions: Project Row Houses at 25," will follow a 5:30 p.m. reception.

This lecture is part of the Architecture and Design Network's 2019-2020 June Freeman Lecture Series.

Gilkey is executive director of Project Row Houses, a nonprofit organization in Houston, Texas, that is dedicated to empowering people and enriching the Third Ward community through engagement, art and direct action. Project Row Houses was founded 25 years ago with a mission to be the catalyst for the transformation of community through the celebration of art and African-American history and culture.

This lecture will cover the rich history of Project Row Houses and how the nonprofit became an international model for artists and communities to address their needs for historic preservation and community enrichment. Project Row Houses is a unique experiment in activating the intersections between art, enrichment and preservation. 

Project Row Houses' work with the Third Ward community began in 1993, when seven visionary African-American artists recognized real potential in a block and a half of derelict shotgun houses at the corner of Holman and Live Oak streets. Where others saw poverty, these artists saw a future site for positive, creative and transformative experiences in the Third Ward. They began to explore how they could be a resource to the community and how art might be an engine for social transformation.

With the founders engaged with a community of creative thinkers and the neighbors around them, Project Row Houses quickly began to shift the understanding of art from traditional studio practice to a more conceptual base of transforming the social environment. While they were artists, they were also advocates.

Over the next 25 years, the organization brought together groups and pooled resources to materialize sustainable opportunities for artists, young mothers, small businesses and Third Ward residents, helping to cultivate independent change agents by supporting people and their ideas so that they have tools and capacity to do the same for others.

The 2019-2020 June Freeman Lecture Series is sponsored by the Architecture and Design Network with support from the Arkansas Arts Center, the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, the Central Arkansas section of the Arkansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects and community members.

The lecture is free and open to the public, and no reservations are needed.

For more information, contact Laura Hendrix at 501-840-6171 or lhendrix@polkstanleywilcox.com.