Michelle Barnes
Michelle Barnes (born 1958 in Austin, Texas) is an artist, curator, educator, and arts administrator based in Houston. She works with sculptural materials including fibers and papier-mâché, and is the co-founder and executive director of the Community Artists’ Collective.
Early life
Barnes was born in Austin and moved to Houston at age 4. She grew up in a creative family, in which art was a part of her upbringing. At an early age, her father taught her mosaics and furniture building and her mother taught her to sew. By the age of 13, she had won awards for sewing. As a student at Jack Yates High School, she participated in fashion shows and learned dressmaking before graduating in 1996. She took her first traditional art classes as a student at the University of Houston.[1][2]
Career
Barnes is based in Houston, where she is the executive director of the Community Artists’ Collective, a nonprofit arts organization that she founded with arts professor Dr. Sarah Trotty.[3]
Barnes has long been engaged in education, first working at Sharpstown High School in the Houston Independent School District, then at the Kinkaid School for eight years. For 30 years, she taught art at SHAPE Community Center as a volunteer.[2]
She founded the Barnes-Blackman Gallery in 1983 in collaboration with The Ensemble Theatre. This initiative showed art on a part-time basis in the theater's lobby, with Barnes installing each exhibit prior to that evening’s play and removing them shortly after the performance.[1][3] In 1988, Barnes became a founding board member of the African American Heritage Museum. The small museum, which opened later that year, was located in downtown Houston at 2101 Crawford Street.[4]
Community Artists' Collective
In 1985, Barnes joined with her college schoolmate and fellow artist Dr. Sarah Trotty to create the Community Artists’ Collective to provide exhibition space for emerging African American artists, and African American women artists in particular.[3][5][6] The organization also offers programming to introduce children and adults to various forms of art such as pottery, painting, quilting, and photography.
She found the first location for the Collective in 1989 at the intersection of La Branch and Elgin streets in Houston.[6][7] With no toilets and no heat, the building had long been vacant which allowed her to negotiate a lower rent. She worked with her husband to renovate the space, and the Collective held its inaugural exhibition in 1990 in this space as a part of Houston Fotofest. The exhibition featuring photos by a South African magazine with the opening coinciding with Nelson Mandela's release from prison.[3]
Today, the organization continues its work at its present location at 4101 San Jacinto Street in Houston focusing on exhibiting work by emerging artists, education, and entrepreneurship as a means of community development.
Awards
Barnes was honored for her professional achievements as a YWCA Woman of the Year in 1993.[7][8] In 2009, she was honored at The State of Art by African Americans by the South Texas Cluster of The Links and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston African American Art Advisory Association.[9]
References
- ^ a b Sewing, Joy (October 5, 2015). "Style profile: Artist Michelle Barnes blends art and style". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
- ^ a b Hughes, Kim (September 15, 2005). "Artist's patience brings its rewards - Barnes helps kids learn with hospital's exhibit". Houston Chronicle.
- ^ a b c d Johnson, Patricia C. (April 20, 1997). "The collective conscious/Group celebrates 10 years of supporting black artists in myriad ways". Houston Chronicle. p. 10.
- ^ Johnson, Patricia C. (September 4, 1988). "Museum to focus on black culture in Southwest". Houston Chronicle. p. 16.
- ^ Nickerson, Ryan (January 13, 2022). "Community Artists' Collective presents- "Wisdom and Hope"". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 2024-03-22.
- ^ a b Karkabi, B. (January 27, 1994). "Let's do lunch with ...Michelle Barnes". Houston Chronicle. p. 4.
- ^ a b "Michelle Barnes". Houston Chronicle. June 27, 1993. p. 9.
- ^ "Outstanding achievers laudedYWCA honors 15 local women". Houston Chronicle. June 18, 1993. p. 4.
- ^ Britt, Douglas (April 1, 2009). "Event salutes Houston art-world stars". Houston Chronicle. p. 2.