Rick Lowe, the Nasher Sculpture Center’s first artist-in-residence, has won a $625,000 MacArthur Foundation fellowship – the so-called “genius” grant.
Lowe combines art with social policy, and is best known as the founder of Project Row Houses in Houston’s Third Ward, which transformed 71 dilapidated shotgun houses into a revitalized historical district.
In Dallas, he was commissioned as part of the Nasher’s 10th anniversary celebration. The Nasher Xchange, as it was called, involved 10 public-art installations and sculptures all around Dallas. Lowe called his project Trans.lation, and spent a year developing a series of markets, art galleries and workshops in the immigrant Vickery Meadow neighborhood.
The MacArthur money, awarded for creativity, was given to 21 fellows, including John Henneberger of Austin, who is an affordable housing advocate. The money will be parceled out over five years – with no strings attached and no ceremonial awards dinner.
Coincidentally, the Vickery Meadow Local Market, a partnership involving White Rock Local Market, Vickery Meadow Improvement District and Half Price Books, opens this Sunday.
More from Art&Seek
- Rick Lowe To Be Nasher's First Artist-In-Residence
- Vickery Meadow: When A Neighborhood Becomes An Art Project
