What is The Orange Show and What does it have to do with Art Cars?
The Orange Show is a monumental work of folk art located in Houston's East End.It was constructed single-handedly by the late Jefferson Davis McKissack, a Houston postal worker, over the course of more than two decades.
McKissack built the 3,000-square-foot environment out of concrete, brick, steel and found objects as a shrine to the orange, which he considered the ultimate source of good health.
The Orange Show is a unique example of visionary architecture (sometimes called naive or "outsider" art), and includes a pond, stage, museum, gift shop, and a series of ornate decks and balconies.
The Orange Show Foundation is a nonprofit organization formed in 1980, after McKissack's death, to preserve the monument. It has become a center for the study of visionary environments and a place where people come to encounter and celebrate the creative process.
Throughout the year, The Orange Show Foundation preserves, documents and encourages the extraordinary artistic expressions of ordinary people. The annual Art Car Weekend is one of the most successful and fulfilling ways in which the foundation does this.
Art cars are often deeply personal expressions of the urge to transform routine objects into something magical; they are folk-art environments on wheels. Like The Orange Show itself, the Art Car Weekend honors the artist in each of us and allows people to experience the impulse that drove McKissack to bring his private vision to life.
Funding for The Orange Show Foundation is provided by the Texas Commission for the Arts, the City of Houston through the Cultural Arts Council of Houston and Harris County, the Brown Foundation, Houston Endowment and generous individuals.
Hundreds of volunteers help the The Orange Show Foundation serve an audience of more than 300,000 annually.