Artist Rick Lowe to Headline Graduate School of Design Class Day

The founder of Houston’s Project Row Houses is a pioneer in social-practice art.

Rick Lowe

Rick Lowe, a pioneering public artist, will speak at the Harvard Graduate School of Design Class Day on May 27. Lowe, a 2002 Loeb Fellow at the GSD, is best known for his two decades of work with Project Row Houses (PRH). He founded the community arts and culture nonprofit, located in Houston’s northern Third Ward, after he and a group of fellow artists purchased a group of rundown “shotgun” row houses in one of the city’s oldest African-American neighborhoods in 1993. In the decades since, PRH has put art at the center of a transformative community project that includes exhibition, studio, mentoring, and residential programs.

In recognition of his work, Lowe was named a 2014 MacArthur Fellow. He has put his model of arts-based community revitalization into practice in other cities across the country—including redevelopment projects in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles and post-Katrina New Orleans. Originally trained as a painter, Lowe has been an artist-in-residence at Dallas’s Nasher Sculpture Center and a Mel King Community Fellow at MIT.

You might also like

Alumni Cheer on Harvard

At Alumni Day, ringing endorsements of Harvard’s fight

The “Obligation to Heal”

Amid distrust of science, Paula Johnson tells medical and dental graduates to be “citizen-physicians.”

Harvard 2025 Commencement Photo Album

A gallery of photographs from the Commencement celebration for the class of 2025

Most popular

Harvard Layoffs Continue, with More to Come

In the wake of federal government actions, several Harvard schools and institutes are cutting costs.

Trump Administration Threatens Harvard’s Accreditation, Subpoenas Student Records

The federal government mounts pressure amid negotiations with Harvard.

Jodie Foster Honored at Radcliffe Day

The actress and director discussed her film career and her transformative time at Yale.

Explore More From Current Issue

A Justice’s Modest Counsel

Remembering David Souter ’61, LL.B. ’66

Saluting the 2025 Centennial Medalists

Four alumni of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences are honored.