Tales from the road

Parade ready: Five new art cars you don't want to miss

By Joel Luks

05.10.13 | 3:00 pm

What is it about art cars that mirror so accurately the attitude of Houston? For better or for worse, we are a sprawling, commuter megalopolis that's dependent on automobiles to savor what' ...

Don't Miss Events

Your weekly guide to Houston: Five (plus) don't-miss events, including art cars and vampires

By Joel Luks

05.08.13 | 2:39 pm

On tap this week are a hula-themed young professionals fundraiser, a yearly tradition of artful vehicles, a home tour that awakens the spirit of yore and the story of a vampire set to music that th ...

CultureMap Exclusive

A zesty wedge of Houston's history: And the 2013 Art Car Parade grand marshals are . . .

By Joel Luks

03.28.13 | 2:34 pm

In recent years, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the quirky nonprofit that puts on the Art Car Parade, has turned to big celebs of yore like Dan Aykroyd, local heroes like Houston Texans ...

keep your eyes peeled

Update: Stolen art car recovered; owner reunited with 1988 pick-up truck dotted with red lips

By Tyler Rudick

06.04.12 | 5:15 pm

UPDATE: Shelley Buschur was reunited with her art car late Monday afternoon. Police found the stolen truck, although the ignition had been damaged in the apparent theft, reports the Houst ...

cliff notes

1987: The year Houston became a more livable, more interesting city because . . .

By Clifford Pugh

05.15.12 | 5:59 am

At the time, 1987 didn't seem like an especially eventful year in Houston's history. Historians could argue that other years made much more of an impact: 1836 (when the Allen ...

Wheels on parade

Funky & fabulous: 25th annual Art Car Parade confirms Houston's good time spirit

By Jeremy Keas

05.13.12 | 10:29 am

The 25th annual Art Car Parade meant a lot of different things to a lot of different people. Jeremy Keas was on the  ...

CultureMap Art & About Video

Building crazy cars — and confidence: High school Art Car Parade project changes lives

By Joel Luks

05.11.12 | 5:20 pm

As a commuter city, Houston has a love affair with cars. You'd have to pry our hands off the steering wheel before we would give up driving, art car maven Rebecca Bass says. "Art cars ...

CultureMap Exclusive

NFL stars to be grand marshals of Art Car Parade: Bulls On Parade (really) & Parker in a giant banana

By Joel Luks

05.07.12 | 2:40 pm

Drum roll please . . .  your 25th Annual Art Car Parade Grand Marshal is . . .  Make that marshals. CultureMap has learned that Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt — one of t ...

In Photos

The wild beginnings of the Art Car Parade: A roller skating photographer documents it all

By Tyler Rudick

05.04.12 | 11:13 am

"The first event in 1986 wasn't really the actual Art Car Parade yet," explained photographer George Hixson. ...

Art Opening Reception: Art Car Parade Retro 1986 Photography by George Hixson

Phoenicia Specialty Foods — Downtown

05.04.12

Rewind to 1986: With wildly creative art cars and the crazy antics of the Urban Animals roller skating gang, this exhibition relives the inspiration for Houston's first art car parade through t