25 Artists Propose New Monuments in Houston, Part of a Traveling Public Art Exhibition

Submitted by Carmen Graciela Díaz on April 29, 2019

“Imagine a monument for today, for your city, for your community.” That's the question “New Monuments for New Cities,” a public art project, asked local artists when encouraging them to create proposals (in the form of posters) for new monuments. Houston, Austin, Chicago, Toronto, and New York City will produce an exhibition of the resulting 25 artworks specific to their site, as ArtNews reports.

This is the inaugural project of the High Line Network Joint Art Initiative, that renders a public art exhibition that will travel across the United States and Canada throughout 2019 (February-October).

As the article explains, "this project is timely, aiming to explore directly what contemporary monuments are now, from the perspective of artists living and working in Houston, Austin, Chicago, Toronto, and New York."

Its first stop is Houston, in partnership with Buffalo Bayou Partnership, a nonprofit organization transforming and revitalizing Buffalo Bayou, a 53-mile river running through Houston to the Gulf of Mexico that is the city’s most significant natural resource. The proposals are now emblazoned on standing monuments in the city’s Buffalo Bayou Park, where they will remain through April 30.