The Bayou City Art Festival (formerly the Westheimer Colony Art Festival) is an arts festival held biannually by the Art Colony Association in Houston, Texas. The festival is held in Memorial Park in the spring and in Downtown Houston in the fall.
An arts festival is a festival that can encompass a wide range of art genres including music, dance, film, fine art, literature, poetry etc. and isn't solely focused on "visual arts." Arts festivals may feature a mixed program that include music, literature, comedy, children's entertainment, science, or street theatre, and are typically presented in venues over a period of time ranging from as short as a day or a weekend to a month. Each event within the program is usually separately ticketed.
Texas is the second largest state in the United States by area and population. Located in the South Central region, Texas shares borders with the states of Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the west, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas to the southwest, and has a coastline with the Gulf of Mexico to the southeast.
The Art Colony Association originated in 1971, when it was known as the Westheimer Colony Association. A collective effort of Lower Westheimer businesses formed an arts & crafts gathering as part of a beautification of the neighborhood, where the Westheimer Colony Art Festival was born. The art festival included a juried art exhibit featuring works from artists both local and national, and the proceeds from the art exhibit benefited Houston-based charities, community organizations and arts groups, such as the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. [1]
Lower Westheimer is an area in Houston, Texas, United States. It is centered on Westheimer Road, and is considered to be East of Shepherd, and West of Midtown. Several historic neighborhoods are partially or completely located within the area including Montrose and Hyde Park. Lower Wertheimer is known for its hipster culture, nightlife, arts, and food scene.
A handicraft, sometimes more precisely expressed as artisanal handicraft or handmade, is any of a wide variety of types of work where useful and decorative objects are made completely by hand or by using only simple tools. It is a traditional main sector of craft, and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid materials, paper, plant fibers, etc. One of the world's oldest handicraft is Dhokra; this is a sort of metal casting that has been used in India for over 4,000 years and is still used. Usually the term is applied to traditional techniques of creating items that are both practical and aesthetic.Handicraft industries are those that produces things with hands to meet the needs of the people in their locality.Machines are not used.
Shortly after the art festival began, a collective street fair evolved around its grounds which would later become the Westheimer Street Festival. By the late 1980s, the Westheimer Art Festival began to distance itself from the growing street festival, [2] eventually resulting in a legal dispute in 1992 between the Westheimer Colony Association and the organizers of the street festival over the rights of The Original Westheimer Street Fest Inc. and the community organizers to charge an admission fee. [3]
The Westheimer Street Festival was a community street fair held bi-annually in Houston, Texas, United States from approximately 1971 to 2004. The festival underwent name and management changes afterwards. By 2009 the street festival was absorbed into what is currently now known as the Free Press Summer Fest.
In 1993, the Westheimer Art Festival moved from its Montrose/Neartown venue on Westheimer Road to a Downtown location on Main Street and Calhoun. [4] By 1997, the festival debuted as the Bayou City Art Festival at the Memorial Park location for its spring event, and the Westheimer Colony Association had changed its name to the Art Colony Association. [5]
Montrose is a neighborhood located in west-central Houston, Texas, United States. Montrose is a 7.5 square miles (19 km2) area roughly bounded by Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, South Shepherd Drive to the west, and Taft to Fairview to Bagby to Highway 59 to Main to the east. The area is also referred to as Neartown or Neartown / Montrose.
Montrose is an area located in west-central Houston, Texas, United States and is one of the city's major cultural areas. Montrose is a 7.5 square miles (19 km2) area roughly bounded by Interstate 69/U.S. Highway 59 to the south, Allen Parkway to the north, South Shepherd Drive to the west, and Taft to Fairview to Bagby to Highway 59 to Main to the east. Montrose neighborhoods include Cherryhurst, Courtlandt Place, Hyde Park, Montrose, Vermont Commons, East Montrose, Mandell Place and Winlow Place. Montrose is also less well known by the moniker Neartown, encompassing Superneighborhood #24.
