Full Article by Paula Newton
Since 1993, Project Row Houses (PRH) has been presenting its groundbreaking and sustainable combination of art, activism, and community (inspired by the curious and brilliant combo of American artist John Biggers and the German artist Josef Beuys). Now, Public Art Director Ryan N. Dennis has conceived a new commissioned-based program called Project/Site, working with artists who explore the history and culture of the neighborhood while expanding their practices beyond the studio, into the streets. This has happened before in the Third Ward, both within and without the support of PRH, but if this truly turns out to be an ongoing program, it is set in a community very rich in history and culture.
The inaugural commission of Project/Site will see Houston-based art collective Otabenga Jones & Associates realize OJBKFM Radio, a temporary outdoor community radio station broadcasted from the back of 1959 pink Cadillac Coupe de Ville originally commissioned by Creative Time in 2014. The mobile station will energize the Dowling Street Corridor. Once the booming and beating heart of Third Ward, Dowling Street was the concourse of successful businesses and social clubs, Black Nationalists and pan-Africanists, churches, and community centers.
