Friday, July 6, 2012

Think Globally Act Locally Links

Robert Boyd

HSPVA mark 2 will cost $80.2 million dollars: That's the figure quoted in the Houston Chronicle. The new location for the High School for Performing and Visual Arts will be downtown at 1300 Capital. (HSPVA is currently at a lovely location in Montrose. I wonder what will happen to it?) The new HSPVA will accommodate more students, but still the cost of the building will be $107,000 per student, versus $40,000 to $60,000 per student at the average new high school in the Houston Independent School District. The additional cost is apparently due to the theater that is being built as a part of the facility and the parking garage it will require. This will be part of a new bond offering which will have to be voted on. If you want to read some rabid tea-party hate, read the comments to this story. I don't think this represents the average voter, by any means, but there are certainly many who believe that HISD is squandering its resources while failing to adequately educate its students--and not all of those people are reactionaries. Still, if you support HSPVA, you will want to support this bond issue when it comes up for a vote. Or you can support HSPVA directly through HSPVA Friends. ["Cost questions hover over schools in HISD bond plan," Ericka Mellon, The Houston Chronicle, July 2, 2012. Via Off the Kuff.]

ArtHouston 2012 Is Nearly Upon Us: Every summer, when Houston's art scene slows to a crawl in the enervating heat of the tropical sun, when even squirrels are too heat-exhausted to scamper, we have two events to try to generate a little energy. First is The Big Show, which we've already covered here, here and here and will keep on covering once we actually see it. The Big Show opens a week from today. Anticipation for it is practically all that keeps me going, artwise. Then on the very next day is ArtHouston. I've expressed doubts about ArtHouston in the past, but usually it's quite exciting to see so many shows open on the same day. But what is up with their website? Maybe it's a work in progress and it will look real slick, but considering that ArtHouston day is a week from Saturday, they better hurry up and fix it if they plan to. [ArtHouston]


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