Theaster Gates:  Freedmen’s Town Pavilion (working title) 

Production | Acquisition Grant

In 2022, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy (HFTC), and lead artist Theaster Gates embarked upon a multi-year partnership, Rebirth in Action, to promote Houston’s Freedmen’s Town as a monument of the Black community, agency, and heritage. Established in 1865 as the child of Juneteenth, Houston Freedmen’s Town was built by newly freed Black people who formed a vibrant community anchored by hand-laid brick streets and now spans a 40-block area west of downtown Houston. The partnership integrates artists alongside planned street reconstruction and infrastructure upgrades to tell the story of freedom and amplify the preexisting dignity of Houston’s Freedmen’s Town.

Rebirth in Action has three phases: 1) Community Engagement and Arts Programming, 2) Brick Preservation and Street Design, and 3) Brick Street Restoration and Community Celebration.

During Phase Two, the partnership will catalog and preserve 20,000+ historic bricks and temporarily house those bricks within Freedmen’s Town Pavilion (working title)—a structure conceived and designed by Gates—to provide public viewing and engagement within Freedmen’s Town. Located on land owned by Mount Horeb Missionary Baptist Church, the pavilion will be a sacred space that will temporarily care for, secure, and host the Freedmen’s Town Bricks until Phase Three construction and their eventual return to the historic streets of Andrews and Wilson. Following their return, the pavilion will be gifted to the community as a space for gathering and public use.

For more information, visit: https://camh.org/partnerships/rebirth-in-action/