2010 Art Car Parade

Last week I told you about our trip to the ArtCar Museum (map) in Houston.  It was then that I discovered that there is also an Art Car Parade, and today I attended that parade.  It was nothing short of spectacular: 300 cars drove a 2-mile loop of the Allen Parkway while 250,000 spectators cheered on the artists and their work.  Participants and spectators alike wore outrageous costumes and enjoyed a beautiful, early-summer day in Houston.

The Art Car Parade is organized by the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art.  The parade’s first official year was in 1988, but we find that the idea took root four years earlier, in 1984.  That year, local artist Jackie Harris took to a donated 1967 Ford station wagon with $800 worth of paint and plastic fruit and created the “Fruitmobile”, which was then auctioned off to raise money for the Orange Show Foundation.  That same year, Houston’s Lawndale Art Center featured art cars in an exhibit curated by future Art Car Museum founder Ann Harithas.  The next four years saw the “art car phenomenon” in the city grow by leaps and bounds until the official parade was launched in 1988, and today it includes cars, motorcycles, bicycles, unicycles, skateboards, scooters, rollerskaters, and rollerbladers.  Some cars are just for fun, others have a political, social or patriotic message.  We saw cars advocating medical marijuana and others bemoaning the recent spill in the Gulf.  Some cars were done as an homage – like the one done in a Jackson Pollock-style – and still others were painstaking restorations of a classic style.  We took a total of 1600 photographs and here are just a few of  my favorites.  I hope that if you find yourself in Houston during this annual celebration you will grab an extra memory card for your camera and attend.

The Art Car Parade is held in Houston annually; bookmark the Orange Show website to stay updated on the parade as well as other contemporary art events and projects happening in Houston.  Parking is available at the Heritage Clay Street parking garage at 1200 Bagby St. (map) or you can take the light rail to the Main Street Square station and walk to the parade route.  Parking is $10; the light rail is $1.25 per person, per one-way ride.  There is music, food, drink, and restroom facilities available along the length of the parade route.

Grand Marshall Dan Aykroyd and Houston Mayor Annise Parker

Alicia, our guide from the Art Car Museum and her husband, John

Hippopotamus car: I saw this car drive down my street, partly inspiring our trip to the museum