PRESS RELEASE
The City of Houston Awards $131,600 to Projects Promoting Arts, Tourism and Disaster Resilience
February 14, 2025 -- The City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA) is awarding $131,600 in grants to 13 individuals and nonprofit organizations whose work furthers cultural tourism and resilience throughout the city of Houston. The funds were awarded through City’s Initiative, a competitive grant program administered by Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) and funded by a portion of the city’s Hotel Occupancy Tax. The City’s Initiative application period is open three times annually and grant funding falls into three categories: Art + Neighborhood Cultural Destinations, Art + Disaster Resilience Awareness, and Art + Conference Tourism.
“Houston’s creative community is a vital part of what makes our city dynamic and innovative. By awarding these grants, we’re empowering local artists and organizations to continue shaping a cultural landscape that reflects the diversity and vibrancy of our city.”- Necole S. Irvin, MOCA Director
Image courtesy of Group Acorde and Hopera
The final round of grantees for the City's Initiative 2024 program are:
Listing of Project Descriptions (in alphabetical order)
Ars Lyrica Houston
Ars Lyrica Houston (ALH) will present over 30 performances of Ring in the Peace at The Buffalo Bayou Park Cistern through December 2025 with additional free performances at Arts District venues such as MECA, Sawyer Yards, and the Downtown Houston Tunnels. This multicultural holiday program, curated by Mexican-born mezzo-soprano Cecilia Duarte and Spanish-born percussionist Jesús Pacheco, features music for voice and percussion from the ninth century onward. By pairing ancient music with Houston’s one-of-a-kind venues, Ring in the Peace offers listeners a new, memorable musical experience that fosters reflection and a sense of unity with one’s communities both locally and across the world.
Buffalo Soldiers National Museum
On June 20 and 21 of 2025, from 10 am to 4 pm, Buffalo Soldiers National Museum will present a living history encampment of the US Colored Troops as the keystone to Juneteenth@160. A unique three-day community festival, free and open to the public, Juneteenth@160 is centered in learning and discovery to complement citywide celebrations. The encampment will consist of stations that simulate Union soldiers and community life of the 1860s. The living history will provide insights of the bravery, perseverance, and ability of the Black soldiers, the Emancipation Proclamation, and Juneteenth. It will include contextual elements of freedom, citizenship, and justice that inspire and promote civic engagement.
Chukwunonso Ofili
The Houston Caricature Expo will be held at True Love Studios on April 20, 2025, from 4 pm to 7 pm. This event invites the community to come together for an afternoon of art, fun, and refreshments, where talented caricature artists will draw attendees from all walks of life. It's a vibrant celebration of creativity, that will bring people closer to local artists and offer a unique, interactive art experience in a welcoming environment.
Hispanic Alliance for Performing and Audiovisual Arts
Danzas en Tarima is a project where choreographers and movement creators will challenge their abilities to tell stories within a confined 6x6 foot space. Through their pieces, they will give voice to issues that deeply affect the Latino and immigrant communities in the United States. Each artist will explore a topic they feel most connected to. This event will take place on May 23, 24, and 25, 2025 at the Carol Theater, the newest performance space dedicated to the Latino community in southwest Houston.
Jakari Sherman
At a notable moment in Houston’s history, Our Road Home: Exploring Freedom as a Way of Life is a three-part project taking place in Freedmen’s Town, Houston’s First free black community, to commemorate its establishment and the 160th anniversary of emancipation. The project will take place from May to July 2025 and will include a public discussion, the premiere of a new site-specific multidisciplinary dance work, and a dance workshop series.
Loren Holmes
This performance will explore the environmental impact of waste in our neighborhoods and the transformative power of collective action. Through movement and storytelling, dancers will depict the cycle of pollution and neglect, followed by the renewal and hope that emerge when communities unite to clean and restore their environment. Set against the backdrop of a dump site in 5th Ward, this piece will serve as both a call to action and a celebration of the resilience of our neighborhoods and the earth. This project is set to take place May 3rd, 2025, at 6pm and November 8th, 2025, at 6pm.
Margaux Crump
As a triad of complementary community events: an art exhibition, boat tour, and guided bayou ecology walk in the spring of 2025, Mother Bayou will provide a much-needed opportunity to empower everyday Houstonians to cultivate more meaningful relationships with the dynamic, yet often-overlooked waters that shape and animate our city. This collaborative project by visual artists Margaux Crump and Jake Eshelman wonders what might be possible when we collectively reimagine Houston's bayou system as a sacred, fertile community space that nurtures the biodiversity, vitality, and unfolding story of our city.
MUSIQA
MUSIQA will commission new music from Houston composer Theo Chandler to celebrate and explore the Vietnamese community’s historical and ongoing impact on Midtown. This neighborhood was the first Vietnamese business district in Houston but was dramatically reshaped by gentrification and migration during the 2000s. Chandler’s composition for voice and string trio will be inspired and informed by interviews with members of the Vietnamese community still residing in the area, will feature collaboration with local civic groups, and will conclude with a performance on the evening of December 13, 2025 at Lawndale Art Center in Midtown.
Nia's Daughter Movement Collective
Shine Your Light Artistic Offerings inspired by Motherhood will be a combination of creative wellness offerings such as movement classes, a new performance entitled Shine Your Light and tours of art exhibitions with Motherhood themes for community members and tourists alike who will be in Houston for Shades of Blue's Maternal Mental Health Summit in July 2025.
Recipe for Success Foundation
This project will culminate in a public presentation of two community-based large murals celebrating the traditional foodways of the Sunnyside community. These permanent installations will be placed at the intersection of Scott and Airport Streets, at the entrance to Hope Farms. The murals will be publicly unveiled in a day-long celebration of Earth Day at Hope Farms on May 3, 2025. Community residents and visitors will participate in artistic and culinary activities that celebrate the power of food to build a more resilient community. Highlighting food traditions shared over generations and grassroots involvement in the local food system.
Ryn Delpapa
Art for Climate Resilience combines creative expression and food justice to empower Houston’s Third Ward in addressing climate risks such as flooding, hurricanes, and food insecurity. Led by interdisciplinary and public-health-informed artist Ryn Delpapa, the project will engage residents in co-designed workshops that blend artmaking with practical skills in gardening and disaster preparedness. Participants will create two art artifacts: Climate Art Kits and a Food & Climate Literacy Booklet to build community resilience. The culminating public exhibition will showcase this collaborative work alongside Delpapa’s interdisciplinary climate justice collection, highlighting the powerful intersection of art, environmental justice, and community adaptation.
Skyler Smith
WET:LAND is a multidisciplinary project—a physical art installation, designed landscape system, lecture series, and documentary short film—that demystifies the important role of wetlands for climate adaptation and resilience in Greater Houston. Centered around the physical installation on display at POST HTX’s Art Club Exhibition, the lecture series, which features four local wetland experts, will take place throughout March and April of 2025. The film, which involves the lecturers, will premiere in August 2025. At the core of WET:LAND sits the intention to co-create re-imagined understandings of the Houston-wetland relationship.
Tarami Readus
Get ready to move, groove, and be inspired in Legacy, the evolution of Houston’s African American culture. This production will feature several Houston musicians, and artists, and a host of community members that have been engaged in the project over the past year, where they have been learning traditional African rhythms and applying them to today's culture and society. This interactive musical showcase will be held on December 13th, 2025, at the historic Deluxe Theater, located on 3330 Lyons Avenue, Houston, TX 77020.
The 2025 City Initiative, Round 1 applications will open this March 24th and close on April 22nd, 2025.
Find out more information on past grantees and stay up to date with currently funded projects and news related to grants by signing up for the Houston Arts Alliance Newsletter.
About the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs (MOCA)
The City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs guides the City’s cultural investments with policies and initiatives that expand access to arts and cultural programs in the community, attract visitors and leverage private investment. Learn more at www.houstontx.gov/culturalaffairs and follow us on Facebook & Instagram @HoustonMOCA.
About Houston Arts Alliance
Houston Arts Alliance (HAA) is a local arts and culture organization whose principal work is to implement the City of Houston’s vision, values, and goals for its arts grantmaking and civic art investments. HAA’s work is conducted through contracts with the City of Houston, overseen by the Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs. HAA also executes privately funded special projects to meet the needs of the arts community, such as disaster preparation, research on the state of the arts in Houston, and temporary public art projects that energize neighborhoods. In short, HAA helps artists and nonprofits be bold, productive, and strong. To learn more about HAA, visit www.houstonartsalliance.com and follow us on Facebook & Instagram @HoustonArtsAlliance.