15 NOSTALGIC PHOTOS FROM HOUSTON'S CIVIC ART ARCHIVE

This post was originally published on Houston Arts Blog, the blog of Houston Arts Alliance (HAA).  As you all may or may not be aware, I was the Communications + Outreach Coordinator at HAA from August 2014 to March 2017. Check out what I found in the civic art image archive. All of the photos are courtesy of Houston Arts Alliance.

I love finding buried treasure. 

Over the last month I've spent afternoons sorting through the 15,000+ images archived within our Civic Art + Design folders. It's been educational to say the least!

The images mainly document the different life "phases" of art works belonging to the City of Houston collection. For over a decade now, Houston Arts Alliance has recorded their works through conceptualization, fabrication, installation, acquisition and condition/conservation phases.

The other day I was sorting through a folder simply titled "Pre-2009" and came across a ton of film photography (and various scanned slides) that documented Houston through a lens I had never seen before. Below are a few.

Last month Contemporary Arts Museum Houston Executive Director Bill Arning made an excellent point in Art in America: Houston Love Eccentrics. Once I read his article, I knew I had to share a 1986 image of a man hanging a poster. 

The poster reads "Houston's present-day eccentric flavor has its origins in the No-Tsu-Oh Parade, held downtown for several years during the 1910s." The photo features a man and woman with two others dressed as crawfish.

Bill's right. It seems like our eccentricity hasn't faded away after all these years. Be sure to click each of the photos to get the full perspective. I hope you enjoy these just as much as I do!