Animating the Third Ward | Arts InSight

Students and Faculty from the University of Houston School of Art and the UH School of Architecture and Design collaborated with community leaders in Houston’s historic Third Ward neighborhood in a project that highlighted the neighborhood’s rich past. In the project, called Animating History, students created large, teardrop-shaped “pins” and stationed them on vacant lots where landmarks once stood.

The Third Ward was once a thriving center of African American commerce and residential life but the neighborhood struggled to maintain its identity through many challenges in the last decades of the 20^th century. As investors increasingly eye the area for development, residents want to be sure that the cultural heritage of the neighborhood is not lost. This project drew attention to that cultural legacy.