January 25, 2018: This post has been updated to reflect a change in newspaper rack locations.
Project Row Houses (PRH) is excited to announce the second iteration of our commission-based program Project/Site. Project/Site is a public art initiative conceived by Curator and Programs Director Ryan N. Dennis in which PRH interrogates the urban landscape of Third Ward by working with artists who explore the history and culture of the neighborhood while expanding their artistic practice outside of the studio and into the social context.
For the 2018 iteration, PRH has commissioned two issues of What’s the New News by artist and organizer Nathaniel Donnett. What’s The New News is a collaboration amongst creatives and the community that speaks to the importance of the neighborhood, artists, writers, and literacy. Through this project, Donnett seeks to interrupt the everyday with the everyday by asking the community to rethink how objects, art, and information are involved in their daily lives.
“At the core of PRH is the belief that art does more than create; it ignites dialogue and allows us to see the world in a new way,” said Dennis. “We’re ecstatic to have Nathaniel leading the second commission of Project/Site because he consistently asks his audience to reconsider their view of art and its role in their lives.”
Artists selected by Donnett will transform newspaper racks into public art to be placed at important valued landmarks in the Third Ward community. Issues of What’s The New News available in the racks will take the form of articles, experimental writing, raps, and poetry, penned by creatives active in the Third Ward and Houston arts community.
Participating writers include Julia Brown, Ciaràn Finlayson, Lindsay Gary, John Pluecker, Dr. Andrea Roberts, Jean Sebastien, Charisse Pearlina Weston, and Carol Zou. Donnett will also collaborate with artists Ashura Bayyan, Jeanette Degollado, Brian Ellison, Phillip Pyle II, and Monica Villarreal to construct the newspaper racks.
We hope you will join us at PRH for the release of these issues on Saturday, January 27, 2018 and March 24, 2018 at Noon where Donnett will lead a walking tour of the newsstand locations with the writers and artists.
What’s The New News is presented with generous support from the Surdna Foundation.
Issues of What’s the New News are available at the following locations:
Project Row Houses
2521 Holman Street
Doshi House
3419 Emancipation Avenue
S.H.A.P.E. Community Center
3815 Live Oak Street
Crumbville TX
2316 Elgin Street
Third Ward Multi-Service Center
3611 Ennis Street
About Nathaniel Donnett
Nathaniel Donnett lives and works in Houston, Texas and studied at Texas Southern University. Donnett is the founder of the website “Not That But This”. He is the recipient of two Idea Fund/Andy Warhol Foundation Grants in 2015 and 2011, two Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grants in 2017 and 2011, a 2015 Houston Downtown Vehicular Wayfinding Signs Project public art commission, a 2014 Harpo Foundation Grant, , and a 2010 Artadia Award. He’s exhibited at The Ulrich Museum in Wichita, Kansas, The American Museum in Washington, DC, The Kemper Contemporary Arts Museum in Kansas City, MO, The Theresa Hotel in Harlem, NY, the Harvey B Gantt Art Center for African American Arts and Culture in Charlotte, NC, The Mattatuck Museum in Waterbury, CT, in Houston, Texas at The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Project Row Houses, and Texas Southern University Museum, The New Museum, New York, NY, The National Museum and The Modern Museum of Peru in Lima, Peru.
