Take Part in the Houston Art Car Parade, Texas

Welcome to Houston, Texas where you will get a chance to view and also partake in a festival that draws nearly 250000 people from around the world every year. Called the Houston Art Car Parade, the event is an opportunity for budding and aspiring artists to showcase their artistic talents, though in a different way.

Celebrated on a weekend, the event is conducted for the sole purpose of propagating various forms of art and the significance they plays in our otherwise normal lives. All kind of art styles are welcomed ranging from folk to contemporary; and creative thinking is awarded with recognition and awards.

Origin:- The first Art Car Parade was held as a part of the Houston International Festival in the year 1986 after which the event became a tradition that grew to be celebrated every year. The parade was initiated by The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art which wanted to spread the goodness of art among people.

The first parade saw a total of 40 artistically redesigned cars that drove through the Montrose Boulevard while a crowd of about 2000 people watched the procession. In the consecutive years, the venue was shifted to Allen Parkway where it is conducted to this day.

The festival attracts artists from around the USA and even some from other countries. Over the years, there have been entries from as far as Florida, Calif, Sacramento and even some from Netherlands. Conducted on May 9, the recently concluded 22nd Art Car Parade saw a total of 280 art cars from 23 states that coursed the streets filled with nearly 250000 spectators.

What is an Art Car? People have actually wondered as to how to make an art car. It is not necessary for you to build an artistic car from scratch; all you need to do is redesign or add some creative touches on top of your already existing automobile.

And it doesn’t necessarily have to be a car; even roller skates, bicycles, trucks, buses, jeeps, motor bikes, and all types of motorized vehicles (even golf carts and lawn mowers) are allowed as entrants as long as they are imaginatively decorated to demonstrate some kind of theme.

How to make an art car? Now you may wonder how to go about making an art apparition out of your car? Well, we leave that entirely up to your imagination and creativity. Here are some pointers if you need them.

You can take the soft approach of just repainting the automobile in different colors of your taste or decorate it with papers, ribbons and balloons which are easy to remove afterwards. Glue is a useful tool if you want to paste certain materials like feathers, flowers, pictures, papers, or even shiny stones and other such objects.

The more creative you become; the more ideas that come popping into your mind. Why not drive around with the exoskeleton of the vehicle leaving the frame behind? Or if you feel extra ambitious about your project, go ahead and build a whole new frame for the vehicle making it look completely different than what it used to be.

Some of the more popular designs from the recently concluded fair include the Crapper Car which comes with an inbuilt toilet for unforeseen emergencies during road trips, the Slithering Snake, a car whose frame had been redesigned to form a large copperhead snake, a 12 foot chicken on wheels and a massive 21 foot frame resembling a jet.

Awards and Recognition:-

The parade is a recognized public event and is open for all to participate. There is no serious competition as the purpose of the entire parade is to spread the importance of art among the people present. If you have a creatively designed automobile, you are free to join the parade.

Although fierce competition is discouraged among the participants, small recognitions are given in order to appreciate the effort put in by the artists to redesign their automobiles. These small awards also tend to boost the morale of existing participants and urge new participants to join in future parades.

Judges who comprise of important people from the automobile, art and entertainment sectors scrutinize all the vehicles that take part in the parade. The ones which are extremely innovative and eye catching get suitable awards and the panel makes sure that almost all of the vehicles get some kind of award or recognition. All these cash prizes amount to a total of nearly $10,000 which is sponsored by The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art and other organizations that fund the event.