ORANGE SHOW FOUNDATION
PO Box 230309, Houston, TX 77223 www.orangeshow.org

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Organizations Filed Purposes: The Orange Show Foundation preserves, promotes, and documents visionary art environments, provides opportunities for the expression of personal artistic vision and creates a community where that expression is valued. The Houston Art Car Parade is our most significant event and we maintain two visionary art monuments, The Orange Show and The Beer Can House, and a mosaic-inspired greenspace, Smither Park.

The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art preserves, promotes, and documents visionary art environments, provides opportunities for the expression of personal artistic vision, and creates a community where that expression is valued.

Outreach Program: The Art Car Parade, introduced in 1988, has become a signature Houston event with a live audience of more than 250,000. More than 250 artists parade their wheeled creations for awed onlookers in a celebration of the ubiquitous automobile that turns Houston's streets into an open-air museum. The Houston Art Car Parade has generated press in Der Spiegel, Smithsonian, Vanity Fair, and Autoweek, with extensive feature stories in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Detroit Free Press, and USA Today, along with internationl coverage. It is the oldest and largest art car program and one of the largest public art events in the country, allowing people of every age and from every neighborhood to create and celebrate works of art using the car literally as a vehicle for self-expression. Free Art Car Workshops for all ages are offered in the months leading up to the parade where attendees learn how to create art cars from previous artists. In addition, area schools offer art car classes to create mobile masterpieces and over 30 schools and youth organizations participate in the parade.

Education and Art Experience Program: In the fall of 2017, the Orange Show Foundation offered after-school programming in our under-served communities led by our docents from Texas Southern University who taught students the fundamentals of art and expressing oneself creatively. Our Art Experience education program began in 2009 to introduce supporters to the diversity of artistic expression and visionary art. These trips include visits to unique sites, museums, artist studios, galleries and private home collections throughout the United States. Orange Show Outreach Programs: The Orange Show Foundation offers annual programming such as the Orange Show Pumpkin Halloween and the Easter Orange Hunt, a thirty-year tradition, that are free to the community and offer a safe, family friendly event in the environment of Smither Park and the Orange Show. The annual Blessing of the Orange Show is a cultural experience conducted by Aztec dancers who educate visitors on their traditional ceremony as they bless the Orange Show for the coming year. The Orange Show Monument: In the 1950s, retired postman Jeff McKissack began turning an East End lot into a 3,000 square foot monument to the orange. He created every inch of The Orange Show by hand as a testament to his belief in good nutrition and hard work. Its intricate structure, adorned with gears, tiles, wheels and mannequins, is considered one of the nations most important folk art environments and is recognized on the National Register of Historic Places. The Orange Show Foundation introduces thousands of visitors from Houston and beyond to the Orange Show environment and visionary art each year through tours, workshops, and special events. The Beer Can House: In 2001, The Orange Show Foundation acquired local folk art treasure, The Beer Can House. Decades earlier, John Milkovisch began transforming his home and yard with more than 50,000 flattened beer cans, marbles and pebbles. The Beer Can House is consistently ranked as one of Houstons top attractions and welcomes thousands of visitors from across the world. Private tours are offered throughout the year and have been arranged for senior citizen groups, civic organizations and universities.

Outreach program: Smither Park: A creative urban space that has been developed with the help of artists and friends. Visionary artist and builder Dan Phillips worked alongside Stephanie Smither to design the park in memory of her late husband, John H. Smither. John and Stephanie were long-time supporters and collectors of self-taught art, as well as board members of The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art. Inspired by The Orange Show's philosophy of promoting and sustaining self-taught art, the mosaic-covered park serves as a testimony to the vibrancy and creativity of the city of Houston.

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