CAMHLAB Press Release
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston and Radom Capital announce curatorial and programming partnership to support artists-in-residence at new development Montrose Collective
HOUSTON, TX (January 3, 2022)—Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) and Radom Capital are excited to announce a new partnership that will directly support artists through an innovative residency embedded within the Montrose Collective development. A project of Radom Capital, Montrose Collective brings together 25 unique merchants, chefs, and wellness concepts to Houston in addition to multiple creative office tenants and the future home of the Freed-Montrose Neighborhood Library. As part of the creative vision for Montrose Collective, Radom Capital invited CAMH to expand its ongoing artist-in-residence program, CAMHLAB, which grants Houston-based contemporary artists in all media the space and support to develop new works and engage the public. The four artists and artist collectives selected for this inaugural iteration of CAMHLAB at Montrose Collective are Eepi Chaad, Two Star Symphony, Frame Dance, and Dana Caldera. The partnership seeks to celebrate the energy and dynamism of Montrose as an artistic neighborhood, and provides a unique platform for artist-driven experiences within a civic-scale development.
CAMH launched the CAMHLAB initiative in the Fall of 2020 in response to the ongoing effects of COVID-19 on artists in Houston, particularly the loss of performance and rehearsal space. Through both short-term and long-term residencies, CAMHLAB aims to safely connect artists and audiences, and to support the realization of new and timely works. These projects come at a time when artists are looking to connect, to gather safely, and share their work with the public. CAMH and Montrose Collective’s partnership provides a new opportunity for unexpected creative experiences and community engagement. CAMHLAB artist-in-residence Eepi Chaad says, “We are living through wild times and the world is a strange place these days. CAMHLAB is making space for artists to process and interpret. Each residency is like a capsule of a moment during an extraordinary period of acceleration in the human timeline.”
Steve Radom, managing principal of Radom Capital, shares, “We created Montrose Collective as an expressive addition to Montrose, Houston’s most culture-rich, inclusive, and soulful neighborhood. Walking though Montrose inspires curiosity, wonder, and discovery. In the spirit of our neighborhood, we are honored to announce our curatorial and programming partnership with CAMH at the newly created CAMHLAB within Montrose Collective. CAMHLAB x MC is a light-filled gallery providing neighbors and visitors with access to an exciting and eclectic lineup of local artists curated by CAMH. The gallery is family-friendly and always free to the public. We hope you will come visit and support our local artists!”
“CAMH is thrilled to partner with Montrose Collective and Radom Capital to expand the CAMHLAB residency program,” said CAMH Executive Director Hesse McGraw. “This is an opportunity for artists to move not just beyond the walls of the Museum, but to directly share their creative process with the public. We are excited to support these exceptional artists-in-residence and look forward to welcoming visitors to Montrose Collective—a public space that trusts artists!”
The program at Montrose Collective commenced in mid-December with artist Eepi Chaad’s project, Soft Space, an installation that celebrates the soft surfaces we associate with our homes. Much like a home, the space changes with each visitor’s energy. Visitors are invited to learn about surface design, take part in the process of making, and engage with the transformed space created out of the textile squares we are all familiar with–handkerchiefs, bandanas, scarfs, afghans, throws, and security blankets. Soft Space provides a safe and welcoming space for visitors to create, heal, and connect with one another through a communal project.
During the months of February and March, the artist collective Two Star Symphony will utilize the space to create new performance and sound works. The group is often inspired by the movement of dancers, silent film, and other visual mediums. Named one of the 15 Reasons to Visit Houston by the Houston Visitors and Convention Bureau, Two Star Symphony will offer regular open studio hours to genuinely connect with their audience and make their process visible. Future plans include a collaboration with puppeteer Afsaneh Aayani and composing new scores to short films from the seminal box set of early avant-garde American film, Unseen Cinema.
The third group of artists-in-residence—Frame Dance—will present a project titled, The Family Mantra, an installation-based participatory performance that explores generational psychological shifts in the Houston community. The group aims to create an environment that will invite interaction with marbles, toy tops, pathways on the floor, pipe cleaner dolls to manipulate, and puppets. Frame Dance will host family dance parties with the goal of building bonding and creative expression. The Frame Dance MultiGen Ensemble—an all ages/all abilities group—will activate the space as well as their professional dance company. One of Frame Dance’s first performances took place at CAMH nearly ten years ago. Frame Dance believes that movement is a powerful pathway for healing. This residency will allow many families in Houston to express, share, and connect with each other in healthy and joyful ways.
The final project in this inaugural round of Montrose Collective CAMHLAB residencies comes from artist Dana Caldera and is titled From Paper to Fabric. With this project, Caldera will expand on her layered, collage-based artwork by removing the constraints of a traditional stretched canvas, wooden board, or paper backing to explore the intersection of quilt and collage. An important component of this work is a community sewing circle event, which aims to offer a place for community, organizing for political or social causes, and education that is open to everyone. Caldera’s residency embraces the artist/caretaker role in order to model a family-friendly environment that welcomes children and ensures they are safely included in all events.
Visit CAMH.ORG/CAMHLAB for more information regarding these artists, their process, and in-person and/or virtual programs for each of these CAMHLAB projects over the next several weeks.
About Contemporary Arts Museum Houston
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) presents extraordinary, thought-provoking arts programming and exhibitions to educate and inspire audiences nationally and internationally. Established in 1948, CAMH is one of the oldest non-collecting contemporary art museums in the country, and is internationally known for presenting pivotal and landmark work by artists recognized as the most important of the 20th and 21st centuries. CAMH’s mandate is to be present, to connect artists and audiences through the urgent issues of our time, and to adventurously promote the catalytic possibilities of contemporary art. CAMH’s programming, both in and beyond the Museum, is presented free to the public, and advocates for artists’ essential role in society.
About CAMHLAB
CAMHLAB is an ongoing artist-in-residence initiative that gives the Museum to artists and supports them working within, and in partnership with, CAMH to develop new work and ideas. Through both short-term residencies and long-term collaborations with artists, CAMHLAB offers critical and early-stage direct support of artists’ process and production of new work. CAMHLAB residencies seek to directly connect artists and audiences through unexpected and unforgettable experiences of contemporary art.
About Radom Capital
Radom Capital is a diversified, award-winning real estate development and investment firm based in Houston, Texas. Radom Capital aspires to combine community, culture, and commerce in all of their projects. Their work is differentiated by enduring spaces, long-term relationships, and solving complex real estate problems in an effort to catalyze economic revitalization and growth in each of the communities they work in.
About Montrose Collective
Montrose has been the artistic heartbeat of Houston for the last century and Montrose Collective has been created to embrace that energy and inclusiveness. With several public seating vignettes, it invites its neighbors to be embraced by lush patio landscaping woven throughout the center of the project. Montrose Collective brings together 25 unique merchants, chefs and wellness concepts to Houston, in addition to multiple creative office tenants and the future home of the Freed-Montrose Neighborhood Library.
