Concept Neighborhood, a Houston real estate investment, development, and management company, has announced that a new studio and gallery space will be opening in The Plant in Second Ward, in the city’s East End.
Aerial map of Aurora Picture Show’s new location in Concept Neighborhood’s The Plant/Second Ward. Image courtesy of Public Content
Earlier this year, Aurora Picture Show announced that it would relocate its headquarters to The Plant, and now Emergent & Co., a newly formed collective of creatives, has signed a lease for a 4,300-square-foot space within the complex (located at 201 Roberts St.). The space will include a creative studio, gallery, speakeasy, and recording/podcast studios.
Though there have been few commercial galleries based in the East End, the neighborhood does have a history of fostering creative talent. Many artists have lived in the area; the Commerce Street Artists Warehouse was a famous live-work space for many artists from its founding in 1985 until its closure in 2010, and further east, the Lawndale artist warehouse (which became the nonprofit Lawndale, now located in the Museum District) was founded as an annex for University of Houston students. Other now-closed art spaces in the neighborhood have included The Axiom and The Chicano Arts Gallery, among others. More recently, BOX13 Artspace has operated in a former sewing machine factory and showroom in the East End since 2008, and Houston transplant Paul Middendorf ran galleryHOMELAND and then Space HL in various locations in the neighborhood from 2012 until 2020.
201 Roberts St. Houston. Photo: Shannon O’Hara.
In a press release, Jeff Kaplan, managing partner of Concept Neighborhood, remarked, “Houston has long been a sleeper cell city for creatives, and we’ve experienced a recent influx of artists across all disciplines relocating from traditional markets such as New York and Los Angeles. Our city offers a lower cost of living compared to other big U.S. markets, and The Plant in Second Ward has historically served as a hub for the creative community. Organizations such as Emergent & Co. establishing roots in the East End Houston Cultural District is a testament to the appeal of our neighborhood.”
Emergent was founded earlier this year by Houston-based artists Taylor “Tay Powers” Barner, Emmanuel Alia, and Will York III. The collective will offer studio spaces and other resources in an effort to serve as an incubator for local artists.
Emergent’s inaugural exhibition, Remember the Moment, is organized in collaboration with the MAG (Modern Art Gallery), Deborah Colton Gallery, and Outpost NYC. The exhibition opens to the public on Friday, October 27 and features works by photographers William John Kennedy and Suzanne Paul; some of the photos that will be on view depict Andy Warhol, Jean Michel Basquiat, and Madonna during the early stages of their careers.
