Join HCCC for a series of six speaking events designed to provide a forum for Houston’s rich dialogue on urban development. Held in conjunction with the SPRAWL exhibition this fall, the series features a variety of notable individuals from city, county, academic, architecture, and urban planning backgrounds.
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. To supplement the art works in the show, the series aims to create a cross-disciplinary dialogue to address the complex issues raised by the exhibition and generate public discussion.
Judge Edward M. Emmett
Harris County Judge
Judge Ed Emmett has served as Harris County Judge since 2007. He was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1979 to 1987, where he was Chairman of the Committee on Energy, a member of the Transportation Committee, and represented the state on numerous national committees relating to energy and transportation policy. In 1989, President George H. W. Bush nominated Emmett as a commissioner at the Interstate Commerce Commission, where he served on the commission by a unanimous vote from the United States Senate for three years. Among many other activities, Judge Emmett is Director of Harris County’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, Chairman of the Houston-Galveston Area Council, and Chairman of the HGAC Transportation Policy Council. In 1971, he received a B.A. in economics from Rice University, followed by a Masters in public affairs from the University of Texas-Austin in 1974.
Click here to see the full event schedule and speaker biographies. All events take place at Houston Center for Contemporary Craft and are free and open to the public.
The SPRAWL Speaker Series was made possible in part through the City’s Initiative Grant Program of the Houston Arts Alliance.
Above: Dylan Beck, “Cardiac.” 2009. Bisque porcelain, vinyl. Photo by Dylan Beck.
