Monday, August 27, 2007

See Ya Jimmy!



Competent administrator, aspiring photographer and installation troubleshooter Jimmy Castillo is leaving the Lawndale Arts Center for greener pastures (and paychecks) with the Houston Arts Alliance. He will be sorely missed down on Main Street where he saw the transition between Chelby King (now also at HAA), interim director William Betts and now Christine West, formerly of the Galveston Arts Center.

From the bureaucratic ashes of the CACHH (Cultural Arts Coalition of Houston and Harris County; what a mouthfull) the HAA will try to harness the monies coming out of that 1% tax the city has been getting from the hospitality industry. Even though organizations have been around since the turn of the century, no one really knows what these guys do for the city besides run the redundant website artshound.com. Ideas? More public art, more adventurous public art and even temporary or revolving outdoor sculpture. Will they do it? They have a good shot since hiring outsider Jonathan Glus from the Pasadena Office of Cultural Affairs to try and make the HAA more visible. Just no floats made out of flowers, please.

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jimmy is amazing! He and the rest of the Lawndale staff were so extremely supportive to me and my collaborative group (Mitchell Center for the Arts Collaboration and the Arts course) last Spring when we worked on an installation on the 3rd Floor. He never complained, and was always eager to help us out in any way.