WHAT'S NEW THIS WEEK?

Two hundred fifty miles of renovated trails and fifty new parks is a LOT to visualize! But that's what two of Houston's major business organizations proposed recently. The Greater Houston Partnership and the Quality of Life Coalition are busy promoting an ambitious master plan to develop land along 10 of Harris County’s major bayous, creating an enormous system of “linear parks.” The cost for the "Houston Bayou Greenway Initiative" would reach at least $500 million and would become the biggest parks initiative in Houston's history. The plan would enhance Houston's greatest asset -- our waterways -- while pumping jobs into our community and creating a coalition of organizations working together to increase usable green space and use of our bayous. Supporting orgs include the Bayou Preservation Association (who designed the master plan with the Parks Department), Buffalo Bayou Partnership, Legacy Land Trust, Cypress Creek Flood Control Coalition, Greens Bayou Corridor Coalition, and the Katy Prairie Conservancy. The developers of this project plan to lobby the plan before Council next month. For more information on this project, click here.

It's hot in H-town so I hope you'll find something cool to do -- like visiting museums on their free days. Have fun!

HEATIN’ UP THE SPACE RACE

Rice Gallery is screening the 2007 film “Sputnik Mania” this Thursday, August 5 at 7pm at Rice University’s Sewall Hall 301 (down the hallway from Rice Gallery). In his film based on Paul Dickson’s bestselling book, Sputnik: The Shock of the Century, documentary filmmaker David Hoffman uses archival footage and newsreels to tell the story of America’s dramatic response to the USSR’s 1957 launch of Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit Earth. Sputnik was launched into space on October 4, 1957 by the Soviet Union and was the first in a series of satellites collectively known as the Sputnik program. This unanticipated announcement of Sputnik 1's success precipitated the Sputnik crisis in the United States and ignited the “Space Race” within the Cold War. This Sputnik documentary is being screened in conjunction with the Gallery’s summer window exhibition, Andrea Dezsö’s “Sometimes in My Dreams I Fly.”

The screening is free and open to the public; popcorn will be provided.

LET’S DO JUMPING JACKS FOR JUMPING-JACK DOLLS

This Saturday, August 7, from 11am-3pm, the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft presents “Hands-On Houston,” a free, craft-activity open house on the first Saturday of every month. This month, you can join the Texas Association of Original Doll Artists (TAODA) to create a jumping-jack paper doll designed by artist Joyce Patterson. TAODA will provide the pre-cut pieces ready for participants to glue colorful paper clothes and a face onto a poster-board base. A variety of trims and embellishments, along with colored pencils and pens, will be provided for decorating the dolls. TAODA volunteers will assist in punching holes, adding brads and stringing the completed dolls. Before or after the activity, get inspired by the current exhibitions: “Dolls Now” (art dolls by TAODA artists), “The Paper Runway” (paper clothing), and “Naked” (all-white porcelain objects). The craft project is suitable for all ages.

Houston Center for Contemporary Craft is located at 4848 Main Street in the Museum District.

THIS WEEK'S ATTRACTION...THE MEETING HOUSE SKYSPACE. For more attractions, go to www.gishcreative.com/attractions.htm.

I’m happy to let you know that the Live Oak Friends Meeting, Quaker has announced that regular viewings of James Turrell's Skyspace began last Friday, July 30. The Meeting House and Skyspace, located in the Heights at 1318 West 26th Street, will open every Friday one hour before sunset for prayer, meditation, and viewing of the Skyspace. The Skyspace is an integral element of the Live Oak Friends Meetinghouse. Though it resembles a skylight, it is more than a hole in the roof: it allows the viewer to experience, as creator James Turrell said: "a light that inhabits space, so that you feel light to be physically present." Turrell primarily uses light and space in his artwork and he prefers that his viewers linger on his work. The Museum of Fine Arts’ tunnel space was his creation and his work, “Acton,” at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, consists of a room that appears to have a blank canvas on display, but the "canvas" is actually a rectangular hole in the wall, lit to look otherwise. Security guards are known to come up to unsuspecting visitors and say "Touch it! Touch it!" Turrell’s parents were Quakers, so it’s fitting he created the Skyspace. James Turrell, Leslie K. Elkins Architecture, Atlantech Systems, and W. S. Bellows Construction reengineered and rebuilt the moveable roof component to the Skyspace.

All are welcome to the Friday viewings, as long as they can enjoy the quiet reflection. Private group viewings can be arranged by contacting the meeting scheduler at friendjann@hotmail.com.

TOUR OF HOMES BUILT BY PHOENIX COMMOTION IN HUNTSVILLE

This Saturday, August 7, at 2:30pm, Phoenix Commotion is hosting a tour of their recycled-materials houses in Huntsville, beginning at the "Bone House." Founder and creator Dan Phillips will give a brief lecture on the different philosophies applied to the building of these unique homes. Guests will be allowed to view all parts of the Bone House: its studio, living quarters, and green house. All guests are then given a driving map and are led in caravan style on a driving tour of the other homes. Short stops will be made at three locations to allow photos to be taken and the tour ends at a home where guests can ask questions and view an addition that is still in the finishing stages. Guests are encouraged to visit the Wynne Home Arts Center before the tour, which is open on Saturdays from 10am-2pm in the summer. Currently showing through September 2010 is an innovative, museum quality, self-taught art exhibit (materials include bottle caps, broom heads, clay, wire, wood) from the Stephanie Smither collection. Phoenix Commotion Design Team artist Paula McCullough is currently featured in the gift shop, along with other Huntsville artists. The Wynne Home located at 1428 11th Street, across the street from Arby's. Children must be at least 8 years old to attend the Phoenix Commotion home tour due to the possible dangers of some of the properties (steep embankments, open construction sites, etc.).

Sarah Gish
Gish Creative
1940-A Fountainview, PMB 116
Houston, Texas 77057
phone/fax: 713.482.7065

email: sarah@gishcreative.com
web: www.gishcreative.com
and: www.thesummerbook.com
and: www.saveourlandmarks.org

© 2010 Sarah Gish

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