Message from the Director
Welcome to the Center for Art & Social Engagement! CASE focuses on creative practice in communities and the impact those practices have on people and systems. We work with artists, students, neighborhood residents, faculty, and culture leaders to develop artistic projects and programs that respond to our communities’ creative potential. By amplifying art and creative actions that transform the possibility of daily life, we enable our students and our citizens to imagine new futures for our city.
CASE connects the University of Houston and the Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts to its neighborhood and Houston’s cultural richness. We facilitate the empowerment of diverse voices and celebrate their lived experiences through art and creative research.
Equitable partnerships are central to the way we work. Our collaboration with Project Row Houses to support the KGMCA – PRH Fellows and the Summer Studios Program is a prime example of how we leverage University resources to support our community. We continue to build partnerships within the University and across the nation to better support students, artists, and organizations to create a more just and equitable society.
CASE advocates for innovative evaluation and long-term investments in creative potential. We do not define success by the outcomes of a single project but by a series of sustained engagements that connect creativity, place, and possibility. We also learn with and from our communities by facilitating collective processes and active learning environments that connect creative research to place and lived-histories. Our programming and priorities build the case for transformational, community-based practice that better inform academics, policy-makers, and cultural leaders.
