COMMUNOGRAPH is a multi-platform art project, initiated and organized by Ashley Hunt. Hunt was originally invited to make a map of the Third Ward neighborhood that surrounds Project Row Houses in Houston, and through initial conversations with community members and questions about what it even means to make a map today, the project expanded into a framework for community-based research, featuring five parallel activities.
Hunt developed the title, “Communograph,” combining “community” (communo-) with “writing” (-graph) so as to ground this research in “a writing of community from the perspective of the community itself.”
In this way, each research activity serves as a platform for community members to enter into conversation, thinking and authorship in different ways, with the aim of building local questions, knowledge, audience and interpretation in ways that will, in the end, serve as an atlas for community members and institutions.
Communograph & Round 35 Events
- October 2, 3PM: Artist Talk – Mel Chin “the NAME of the PLACE is I LIKE it like THAT”: Maps in My Art
- October 12, 7PM: Communograph Artist Talk – Rick Lowe & Ashley Hunt
- October 13, 7PM: Artist/Community Talk
- October 15, 4PM: Round 35 Opening Reception
- November 16, 7PM: Artist Talk: Mierle Ukeles
- November 19, 10AM: Third Ward Walking Tour
- November 19, 12:30PM: Lunch with Art & Community Leaders
- December 3, 2PM: Bus Tour: Architecture & Community
- Ongoing: Sidwalk Talks – Two Thursdays every month, held in front of the PRH “Communograph House” 2500 Block of Holman
Sidewalk Talks
- October 27, 4:30PM: Youth Speak, hosted by artist Journey Allen
- November 17, 6PM: Natural Healing with Dr. Barbara Ellis, hosted by artist Lisa E. Harris
- December 1, 6PM: Historic Archiving through Art and Performance, hosted by artist Michael K. Taylor
- December 15, 6PM: Making a Dollar Out of 15 Cents
- January 12, 6PM: Entrepreneurship in the Third Ward with key speakers Michelle Barnes and Jackie Miller of the Community Artists’ Collective and hosted by artist Regina Agu
- January 26, 6PM: Parks, green spaces, and abandoned spaces in the Third Ward: Our green spaces, our health, a talk presented by Dr. Wendell Taylor and JD Green, hosted by artist Rebecca Novak
- February 9, 6PM: Compositions of Comparisons and Contrasts with key speakers Malcolm Sumisu, Robert Hodge, Hamdiya Ali, Journey Allen and hosted by artist Ifeanyi Okoro II
- February 23, 6PM: What’s Going On: educational opportunities for our children, a discussion hosted by Sister Hamdiya
Communograph Areas of Focus
A Communograph House, an exhibition of research-based artworks by artists: Regina Agu, Lisa Harris, journeyi, Michael Khalil Taylor, Rebecca Novak, and Ifeanyi “Res” Okoroii; the exhibition is organized collaboratively between the artists and the project’s organizers, project manager Kenyatta A.C. Hinkle and Ashley Hunt;
The Communograph Public Program Series, which will feature artist talks by Mel Chin, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, a conversation between Rick Lowe and Ashley Hunt, and architectural and photography tours of the Third Ward, led by Stephen Fox and Ray Carrington; this series was curated by Bree Edwards and Ashley Clemmer-Hoffman in conversation with Ashley Hunt, through a partnership between the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts and Project Row Houses;
Sidewalk Talks, a neighborhood conversation series taking place in front of the Communograph House twice a month, organized by the artists from the Communograph House and members of the surrounding community;
A participatory mapping and stories of the Third Ward project, which is open to participation by all members of the public and visitors to Project Row Houses, constructed by students of Cheryl Beckett’s Graphic Design class at the University of Houston’s School of Art;
An interactive website (www.communograph.org), which offers information on the project while acting as an archive for the research built during the project, designed by the students of Beckham Dossett’s Graphic Communications and Web Design class at the University of Houston’s School of Art.
