Cadillac celebrates the Texas Spirit of the Reginald Adams, Creator of Houston’s Ubiquitous Mosaics
If you live in Houston, you’ve seen them – boldly colorful mosaic murals, paintings and sculptures in public places. Reginald Adams is the artist responsible for creating them, and is a firm believer that “art belongs in the hands and in view of the public.” Adams is co-founder of the nonprofit community arts organization MOCAH – the Museum of Cultural Arts, Houston. He says, “Art to me is creativity…I love to use creativity to empower young people. It feels great to be an artist, but even more so to be able to give back to a city that I love so much.”
Peripatetic Upbringing Ignites Passion for Art
Adams’ family moved frequently as a boy, but one constant was his love of drawing. “I’ve been drawing as long as I’ve been able to hold a pencil. You couldn’t really punish me by sending me to my room. As long as there was a piece of paper, and I had a pencil, I was okay.” Although a cruel kindergarten teacher threatened to derail his artistic passion by ridiculing and destroying his work in front of the class, Adams was re-inspired to pursue an artistic path during a family trip to the Grand Canyon. Later, he attended business school at Texas A&M but felt he needed a break, and started teaching art to children, working at community centers and after-school programs. He also worked with Rick Lowe at Project Row Houses in Houston, where he gained hands-on experience designing and implementing art installations, as well as meeting fellow artist and future wife, Rhonda. The pair won a trip to Europe as a prize for a costume party, where they visited Barcelona and were inspired by Antonio Gaudi’s wild mosaics. When they returned to Houston, they began laying plans for the creation of MOCAH, with a vision to create “an arts institution without walls, an organization that will go to the people who are unable to come to it.” Still inspired by Gaudi’s mosaics, Adams began a series of mosaic-based public art projects.
Is It Art If No One Sees It?
While teaching in after-school programs, Adams had been surprised to find that many of his students had never been to a museum, art studio or gallery – lack of exposure and access to the arts was one of the largest cultural voids in the inner city. Though Houston has many museums, galleries and arts spaces, large populations of children and their families do not visit these inspirational and cultural destinations. Reginald and Rhonda sought to found an arts organization that would focus on filling this void and then strategize to create outreach programs to serve these targeted audiences. Says Reginald: “Over the last 12 years we’ve created over 120 public arts projects across the city.”
Everyone Deserves Access to Art
Adams fundamentally believes that everyone deserves access and exposure to the arts and strives to engage the general public in the design and production of his public art projects. These projects have been co-created with the involvement of over 15,000 area youth, 90 international, national and local artists and hundreds of community stakeholders. Adams says, “The Museum of Cultural Arts Houston is Houston’s leading developer of community-based public art and cultural programming. Students and community members involved in the MOCAH experience play a vital role in the reclamation and preservation of their own community. The infusion of art, history and culture stimulates community pride, stewardship and neighborhood revitalization.”
Art as a Tool for Social Awareness
“As a nonprofit art organization we are dedicated to the mission of using art and creativity as tools for social awareness and community development. We are committed to engaging the public in the design, development, production and celebration of site-specific public art projects and programs. We believe that public art can transform civic spaces into cultural and artistic destinations. Public art is at its best when the artwork reflects the culture and heritage of the people, communities or spaces that is serves.”
Champion For Affordable Housing
Adams is also the president of the Land Assemblage Redevelopment Authority (LARA), a nonprofit corporation that acquires chronically tax delinquent properties throughout Houston, transforming them into new, high quality, affordable housing. As president of LARA, Reginald helped guide the organization to become the largest nonprofit property owner in the city of Houston, with over 1,000 lots ready for development. Over 250 affordable homes have been built through LARA over the past 4 years.
