SPRAWL Speaker Series
October 18, 2013 – January 9, 2014
at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
(HOUSTON, TX) September 13, 2013 — Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC) is pleased to present the SPRAWL Speaker Series, featuring prominent individuals from city, county, academic, architectural, and urban planning backgrounds who explore issues related to urban development. The series takes place during HCCC’s major fall exhibition, SPRAWL (on view October 4, 2013 – January 19, 2014), which includes 16 national artists whose works deal with the urban landscape. The six speaking events are free and open to the public; all take place at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft, 4848 Main Street.
Like the exhibition, the speaker series addresses three main topics, “Infrastructure of Expansion,” “Survey, Plan, Build,” and “Aftereffects,” which loosely define the phases of urban growth. SPRAWL co-curators, Susie J. Silbert and Anna Walker, commented, “The topic of sprawl can be a lightening rod—depending on who you talk to, it can evoke visions of cookie-cutter houses and inefficient city planning or inspire discussions on freedom of choice and affordable housing. We wanted to harness that complexity to create an exhibition that looks at the totality of sprawl—the good, bad, and the ugly.” To supplement the art works in the show, the speaking events are designed to create a cross-disciplinary dialogue to address the complex issues raised by the exhibition and generate further public discussion.
The SPRAWL Speaker Series was made possible in part through the City’s Initiative Grant Program of the Houston Arts Alliance.
Full details, including speaker biographies and any last-minute updates, can be found at https://crafthouston.org/sprawl-speaker-series/. Information on the SPRAWL exhibition can be found here: https://crafthouston.org/exhibition/sprawl/.
SPRAWL Speaker Series Schedule
Infrastructure of Expansion
October 18, 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Ed Emmett
Harris County Judge
October 24, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Thomas Colbert
Associate Professor at the Gerald D. Hines
College of Architecture, University of Houston
Susan Rogers
Director of the Community Design Resource Center and
Assistant Professor at the University of Houston’s College of Architecture
Survey, Plan, Build
November 6, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Brian Crimmins
City of Houston Planning & Development Chief of Staff
November 7, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Houston Urban Development & Improvement Panel
David Crossley
President of Houston Tomorrow
Peter Brown
Director of BetterHouston
Diane Schenke
President of Greater East End District
Aftereffects
December 17, 6:00 – 7:00 PM
Sara Zewde
M. L. A. Candidate, Harvard University Graduate School of Design
January 9, 7:00 – 8:00 PM
Carrie Schneider
Houston Artist
SPRAWL October 4, 2013 — January 19, 2014 In the Main Gallery
Opening Reception
Friday, October 4, 5:30 – 8:00 PM
5:30 PM – Artist Talk by Tybre Newcomer (The Maker’s Archive) 5
:45 PM – Curators’ Talk by Susie J. Silbert and Anna Walker (SPRAWL)
Open Studios by Current Resident Artists (to follow artist talks)MEDIA CONTACT
Mary Headrick
Communications Director
mheadrick@crafthouston.org
Houston Center for Contemporary Craft
713.529.4848 x107
