CONTENTS
A BRIEF HISTORY
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
INITIATIVES FOR 2005
FUTURE GOALS
A BRIEF HISTORY
Today, the Houston Institute for Culture is a thriving organization that benefits from tremendous human energy and commitment of volunteers to provide great enrichment to the city of Houston and a mission of promoting cultural literacy to the nation and the world. Its story began with simple programs and, like many organizations born in the 1990s, the benefit of new communications technology.
The Houston Institute for Culture developed from a series of programs, including educational travel, and community affairs and international radio programs, that its founder, Mark Lacy, organized beginning in the early 1990s. Those programs resulted in a variety of research activities that continue today.
The travel series provided opportunities for students (and those on a student budget) to experience the Chiricahua Apache homeland in southeast Arizona, and visit the remote Copper Canyon region of Mexico, inhabited by traditional Tarahumara Indians. Our early educational adventures offered travelers the opportunity to discover mysteries in New Mexico, including the ancient Puebloan sites in Chaco Canyon, the Shrine of the Stone Lions near Santa Fe, and historic traditions, like the Pilgrimage to Chimayo and Fiesta de San Lorenzo.
Radio programs on KTRU, Rice University Radio, promoted interest in traditional and international events in Houston, from trail ride associations in the Rodeo Parade to Chinese New Year and Caribbean Carnival. The popular community affairs shows also featured unique cultural activities in the rural areas of southeast Texas and southwest Louisiana, including Czech and German celebrations, and Cajun Mardi Gras.
A Virtual Organization - The advent of the Internet in the mid 1990s provided the perfect medium to offer the public more information about these unique travel destinations and educational radio topics. In 1997, a website was started on Geocities, a company building on-line communities through the Internet. The website quickly grew from a one-page listing of trips, with do-it-yourself advice for travelers and event listings, to hundreds of pages of information, research, and on-line books and guides. A domain name, cultural-crossroads.com, was established on September 26, 1998 to represent the ideals of cultural exchange and diverse interests.
On October 3, 1998, the Houston Institute for Culture was formally named and by serving a neglected side of Houston culture -- promoting interest in Houston's diverse communities, cultural history and eclectic arts -- the newly formed organization quickly outgrew the free server space provided by Geocities.
Cultural Literacy Mission - As public and media interests narrowed during the 1990s (even community radio was endangered in Houston), and local community needs grew, Houston Institute for Culture established its mission to promote cultural literacy and diverse interests. The institution began offering educational programs on cultural and social topics in 1999, and offered its first international cultural arts program on June 6, 2000, bringing Namita Bodaji from Bombay, India to perform in Houston. Educational events presented Native American and Spanish history using research based on our travel programs (sometimes taking us onto the seas to test the elements), like the journey of Cabezas de Vaca, the earliest European observer in southeast Texas.
Houston Institute for Culture incorporated in Texas on August 20, 2002. We applied for 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status as an educational organization in August 2003 and received approval in little more than a month, September 8, 2003.
Today, the human energy invested in our effort is more than just inspired curiosity and personal satisfaction for volunteers; The Houston Institute for Culture mission is important to the city of Houston and the services we provide are utilized nationally and internationally.
• Hundreds of people attend Houston Institute for Culture organized and sponsored events each year.We are determined to grow with the need for greater cultural understanding in the world, and meet the need for more educational opportunities and forums for community voices in Houston. Community interest in our programs and services is increasing rapidly. The most revealing gage of our success to date is that public demand for our mission (See Additional Information) has grown well beyond our means. With more needs to be met, we will work toward larger goals and greater responsiveness to the community.
• Thousands of visitors each day access tens of thousands of files - books, feature articles, research materials, and community resource information - managed and provided on our Internet site, www.houstonculture.org.
• We provide educational resources for students, researchers, and media to promote greater cultural awareness.
• We provide volunteer assistance, media resources, and equipment, to many organizations in Houston.
• We are developing more activities to meet increasing educational and charitable needs in Texas and Mexico.
• We are initiating additional research efforts and planning more effective uses of our current resources.
• In our most ambitious initiative, we are organizing an educational camp for children that will be a model of mentorship.
CURRENT ACTIVITIES
| Cultural Advocacy |
We use many avenues to promote interest in local artists and cultural organizations, as well as thought-provoking lectures and media arts, including: Features - Volunteers and community members contribute articles and editorials on cultural and social subjects. Calendar - We list calendar events and provide the listings by newsletter and radio to promote interest in cultural and social activity primarily in Houston. Cultural Directory - We list arts and advocacy organizations to increase public contact and support for arts and diversity in Houston. Newsletter - The regular email newsletter promotes interest in Houston events, current issues, as well as our educational activities. Research - We make research available on line when possible and constantly work to increase this effort and build greater support in the future. Volunteerism - We promote volunteer participation for organizations in Houston, including Houston Institute for Culture, and make organizations aware of sources for volunteers. Additionally we study volunteer trends. |
| Community Response |
As an organization with tremendous visibility, we have a high volume and frequency of contact with the community. Through email, phone calls, and mail service, we respond to a wide variety of requests and inquiries; and the Internet allows us to take a proactive approach to promote awareness of cultural activities and social issues. While above we have described information geared toward mass audiences, responding to individual inquiries is a major part of our effort. We receive about 100 emails per day, which could be categorized as: Houston culture and arts community connections; local and regional tourism information requests; student requests for help with research or permission; requests for permission to use our materials for education or media; local volunteers; international volunteers and Mexico support; Texas and Mexico culture and arts community connections; questions or requests seeking advice related to cultural issues in business meetings or social situations; resource listings; requests seeking cultural conflict resolution services; referrals for legal aid (usually from non-English speakers); requests for research assistance from local and state offices; actual distress (not spam or Internet hoaxes); and more. We respond to a tremendous amount of requests for specialized or hard-to-find information. And we receive email in many different languages. We are often only in a position to make referrals and we are not always able to act promptly on the most difficult requests or inquiries that are well outside our subjects (i.e. need for legal help). We make every effort to respond, however, with helpful information, because the requests have often fallen through the cracks of major Houston city or tourism agencies. |
| Regional Tourism |
Much of our effort promotes regional tourism by raising awareness of a broad range of Houston organizations, and aspects of the city's diversity and cultural history. While we rarely receive requests for information on the Galleria, or Space Center Houston, requests for information on the city and region's lesser-known points of interest (traditional activities, eclectic arts, progressive forums, etc.) often come from international tourists and business travelers. Even during the city's most highly publicized event, 2004 Superbowl XXXVIII held in Houston, many travelers were in contact with us to find out about events or places to visit outside of the normal or obvious tourist activities. They wanted to know about distinctive independent businesses, local art and music scenes, and the things local people enjoy. |
| Cultural Experts |
We are often asked to provide information on the subjects we research and the interests we promote. The best example of this is during the traditional Mexican observance of El dia de los muertos, when educators and journalists contact us to use our resources and get answers to provide to their students and readers. We have similar success in other areas, but we plan to make media, organizers and educators aware of more Houston experts. See |
| Media Resources |
We help Houston artists, community advocates, and non-profit organizations with their media contacts by: providing their information to media; offering advice about working with media; including their press releases with ours; or, providing media contact information for specific uses. |
| Awards and Honors |
By committee, we nominate and determine honors for those who raise awareness of cultural issues through their efforts and promote interests in music and film. The Cultural Advocate of the Year is a person or persons who stand out as a symbol of cultural awareness for their actions or the dialogue they produced. We have only once honored the Cultural Advocate of the Year in an event, but it is considered an award to create public awareness more than a personal honor. Film and Recording Honors. To promote broad interest in music and film, we honor the most outstanding releases of the year in the following categories: Film; Documentary; Regional Recording; Americana Recording; International Recording; and, we will add Made for TV in 2005. Gifts for the Holiday Season. To further develop interest in independent local and international arts and organizations, as well as ideals of peace, we create an annual on-line guide to Gifts for the Holiday Season (maintained from Chanukah, Christmas and Kwanzaa through Lunar New Year). |
| We organize and sponsor conferences and forums on a wide range of topics, from community interests to global media issues. See Accomplishments below. | |
| Cultural Arts Events |
We are normally active in hosting and sponsoring cultural arts programs during the year, though this year we cosponsored only one and didn't directly organize any; we worked extensively on conferences and the planning for Camp Dos Cabezas (next item). We continued to promote cultural arts events in the city through radio, media efforts, and our newsletter. |
| Youth Education Camp |
We dedicated significant time this year to the planning stage (site visits, curriculum development, research, focus groups, etc.) to prepare for the pilot program of Camp Dos Cabezas in May 2005. See |
| Educational Programs |
We give educational presentations for schools and community centers on the topics we research, and on the experiences we have gained as travelers and observers to historic events. This year we were able to give presentations on: conditions on the U.S.-Mexico border; cultural traditions in our region; the Tarahumara of Copper Canyon; prehistoric cultures of the Colorado Plateau; local interests in the globalization process; the culture of expression (the relationship of police and protestors in Houston, Austin, and New York City); and more. We offer many similar presentations on radio as well. |
| Support for Programs |
We try to help organizations in their efforts to produce events by offering equipment and services. The goal is to reduce costly outside services for small organizations to allow them to program more activities. We are still somewhat limited in what we can do, but we keep expanding our capability. Currently the best effort we can provide is microphones and sound equipment for small events (such as discussion groups and forums), and recording for broadcast use. For us, this suits our goal to be self sufficient and cost effective as well. |
| Digital Media Access |
For programmers, whether organizing live events or radio broadcasts, we offer material from a 5,000 CD library of regional and international recordings. We plan to make the material more widely available to programmers, as well as students and researchers, but this will require better cataloging, greater office access and staff resources, and a plan to migrate large amounts of digital material. We additionally have limited access to videos and films for educational use, with the same goal of expanding making the material more available. |
| Educational Resources |
Material we provide on line serves as a great educational resource for high school and university students. This includes state histories of Mexico, the journal of Cabeza de Vaca, immigration acts, timelines of regional history, and more. The latest resource we are developing is an on-line library of the inaugural addresses of all American presidents. We receive many requests from students for permission to use the materials, and our website statistics reveal that a high percentage of users of our website are from public schools and universities. In addition to the educational materials we provide on line, and the educational presentations we give using our research materials, we also feature a virtual classroom, where we periodically offer a form of distance learning using on-line reading materials and topical discussions for anyone who is interested. |
| Research Projects |
We are currently successful with documentary projects related to Mexico, but neglecting projects related to Louisiana and other parts of our region. And we have several new projects underway in Houston, though it is too early to gage our progress. From these efforts we produce educational presentations and features. |
| Service Projects |
Along with our efforts to study modern issues in Mexico, we began collecting donations of toothbrushes, shoes and stuffed animals to provide to people through mission groups working on the border, primarily in the Lower Rio Grande Valley. We have since given additional stuffed animals to the "Christmas in the Colonias" project of Texas A&M University's Center for Housing and Urban Development. Efforts are underway to provide more necessities to colonias near Eagle Pass and Del Rio. |
| Educational Travel |
We have not seen a strong rebound in the numbers of interested travelers in the years since September 11, 2001 (more likely due to economic reasons than travel concerns), but we continue to offer great educational adventures to places like Mexico, New Mexico and Utah. We hope to add more educational trips to cities like New York and Washington DC, but these have been difficult to promote due to higher costs and more complicated travel. (There are two factors: Our audience is mostly students and people on more restrictive budgets, and we are not able to constantly promote the travel activities.) We usually choose our destinations for their historic value and cultural programs, such as the Navajo Nation Fair and Smithsonian Folklife Festival, where we are able to support great efforts and provide travelers with rewarding experiences. We have also combined our cultural and social documentary workshops into some of our educational travel programs. |
| Student Internships |
We rely heavily on student volunteers with limited time, but we often have a student who works on an extensive project, such as a month-long survey, that deserves additional credit. For several students we have been able to provide internships resulting in class credit in topics related to our subjects of interest. We face growing needs for interns to work on providing educational opportunities (like Camp Dos Cabezas), translating Spanish and English, as well as in areas related to developing and managing non-profit programs. |
| Studies and Surveys |
We have surveyed volunteerism in Houston, as well as leisure interests (i.e. not work-related or school-related). We plan to continue these studies and expand to include issues related to gentrification and ownership in communities. |
ACCOMPLISHMENTS
CONFERENCES
We organized and sponsored three unique conferences in Houston: an April conference on globalization; a June conference on photography in education; and a November conference on color concepts.
The Impact of Globalization: We cosponsored a conference on globalization issues with the Houston Peace and Justice Center. We held a film series at the Rice Media Center in advance of the conference to develop awareness and interest in the issues that were explored at the conference. The films and conference were extremely successful.
Additionally, we presented two workshops on localism (local issues in media, business and culture) at the conference, and produced broadcast-quality audio and video recordings of conference sessions to reach further audiences through radio and libraries. The keynote addresses were distributed nationally.
Technical Symposium on Photography: We cosponsored a national conference on photography in education held at the University of Houston. We initiated principles that the conference should promote interest in local culture and support local business. The benefit to artists, presenters and local businesses was more than $30,000.
The conference featured a keynote event spotlighting our 2004 Cultural Advocates of the Year, Roger Wood and James Fraher, who wrote and photographed the book Down in Houston: Bayou City Blues. We received a proclamation from the Mayor's office and hired a local Zydeco band from Third Ward for the welcome reception.
Additional presenters reflected our interest in cultural issues, including: National Geographic Photographer Michael Lewis; Peggy Kelsey, founder of the Afghan Women's Project; Visual anthropologist Jerome Crowder, who works with indigenous cultures in Peru; Suzanne Salvo, a commercial photographer with experience in African and Middle Eastern countries; and Downs Matthews, co-founder of Polar Bears International.
Nearly all meals were provided by locally owned restaurants in Houston and Galveston, and lodging was provided for conference quests by Grant's Palm Court Inn, a well kept and historic, family-owned motel on Main near the Old Spanish Trail. The weeklong conference offered national guests an add-on workshop at Katy's Forbidden Gardens (Chinese archaeological theme park) and a tour of San Antonio.
The Color Conference: We organized an interdisciplinary conference on concepts of color, co-sponsored by the Department of Modern and Classical Languages at the University of St. Thomas.
"The Color Conference: An investigation of social values, identity, aesthetics, and the psychology of color" featured diverse presenters, such as artist Reginald Adams and professor Debra Andrist considering social change in Morocco and Houston; media producer Patricia Gras and art critic Fernando Castro-Ramírez considering ideologies of color through media; and psychologist Michele Bonilla and medical doctor Nan Linke considering the physiological effects of color.
[ http://www.houstonculture.org/color ]
EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
We continue to utilize our resources in educational events and presentations for Houston schools, Koinonia Community Center, University of Houston, Houston Public Library, and Houston REI store locations. In addition to recent presentations on the U.S.-Mexico border, we have continued to present such topics as traditions of Mexico (El Dia de los Muertos, La China Poblana, etc.), Native American history, African American history, Spanish exploration, the Colorado Plateau, and regional traditions and immigrant population histories.
The widest exposure of our resources continues to be national interest in the traditions of Mexico. Our research materials on the Day of the Dead have been used in schools from California to New Jersey, and in bilingual education courses in Illinois. We have been contacted to provide expert opinions and educational resources for schools and newspapers in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas and states in Mexico. Our feature writing and photographs, and even traditional recipes we have collected in Mexico, have been included in newspapers and arts magazines in Orange County, California and Waco, Texas, and in the San Antonio Express News Conexion Magazine.
In addition to educational events, we dedicated our efforts to planning Camp Dos Cabezas. See
INTERNET RESOURCES
We produced some of our most useful and timely on-line resources during the past year.
Spanish America: We included new articles by Michelle Ong covering Spain's colonial influence in Texas and other states, with timelines for use with the Virtual Classroom functions. The new materials made tremendous gains in readership in November, as President Bush announced the creation of El Camino Real National Historic Trail. With the new national park unit, resources on Spanish America will be increasingly valuable in promoting interest in Houston and southeast Texas. As a result, we will participate in tourism and academic conferences related to the new national park, and offer Virtual Classroom subjects on Spanish exploration and colonialism.
[ http://www.houstonculture.org/spanish ]
The History of Mexico: With increased interest in Mexico, one of our main contributors, John Schmal, an author who has written books on Mexican genealogy and indigenous history, is producing a state-by-state history of Mexico. As many people in the United States trace their family roots in Mexico, this approach to Mexican history will be valuable, along with Schmal's articles on genealogical research in Mexico.
[ http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/states.html ]
The Borderline: As we research issues related to the U.S.-Mexico border - immigration, poverty, health, and economic conditions - we are building a resource to be used by educators and health care providers. In addition to information from government agencies and academic researchers, the section will offer personal stories and information about living conditions in colonias based on our interviews.
[ http://www.houstonculture.org/border ]
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HOUSTON INSTITUTE FOR CULTURE SEARCH info@houstonculture.org