CAMHLAB at Freedmen's Town
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH) and Houston Freedmen’s Town Conservancy (HFTC) are excited to announce Tay Butler and Lovie Olivia as new artists-in-residence at CAMHLAB in Freedmen’s Town located in POST Houston. Both Houston-based artists will produce and display new work in the space beginning March 1 through June 30, 2024.
For this context-specific iteration of the residency program, the artists were selected for projects that highlight, honor, and animate the critical histories and stories of Freedmen’s Town, a neighborhood established in 1865 by over 1,000 formerly enslaved people that is now recognized as Houston’s first Heritage District.
As both Olivia and Butler develop their projects in POST Houston’s X Atrium, audiences are encouraged to visit multiple times over the duration of the period to see changes and iterations. Visitors are able to participate in hands-on opportunities to learn more about each artists’ processes.
In line with HFTC and CAMH’s goals, CAMHLAB at Freedmen’s Town aims to generate research, contextualize, and connect artists and the general public to the stories of Freedmen’s Town through month-long residencies. Each residency will culminate in a public presentation of a project within Freedmen’s Town.
Artists-in-residence will be provided a dedicated work space and will be supported by the HFTC x CAMH and a Freedmen’s Town Research Fellow to realize their projects and make connections throughout the neighborhood. Throughout each residency, the artists will also work alongside historians, archivists, and urban planners to create activations that contribute to robust discussions around local issues of social justice, equity, land, and art.
The first round of CAMHLAB at Freedmen’s Town artists were The Black Man Project, Ann ‘Sole Sister’ Johnson, Billion Tekleab, and Stacey Allen of Nia’s Daughters.
CAMHLAB Artists-in-Residence
UHURU DANCES: Sites of Liberation
CAMHLAB
UHURU DANCES: Sites of Liberation is a site-specific community gathering organized by CAMHLAB artists-in-residence Nia’s Daughters. The gathering will feature a movement workshop and a dance/photography project to commemorate the lives and shared histories of Freedmen’s Town.
STAY FREED: Black Archive, Imagery & Collage Making
CAMHLAB
Tay Butler’s project STAY FREED: Black Archive, Imagery & Collage Making will teach visitors how to access brick and mortar institutions and online platforms for Black imagery, scan their own archives, and center their own creativity through collage making.