Quirky cultural landmark gets $500K grant to kick-start restoration
The Orange Show Monument, a handmade structure in East End, took 23 years to complete. The late artist and postal worker Jefferson Davis McKissack began single-handedly constructing the architecture work in 1956 and completed it in 1979. By 2006, the 3,000-squarefoot, folk-art environment was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Today, the monument needs a face-lift to restore the piece to its former glory. Thanks to a $500,000 Save America’s Treasures matching grant, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art has announced a $1 million restoration campaign.
“It’s one of the most important pieces of idiosyncratic architecture in the U.S. and sparked our larger mission to believe in and celebrate the artist in everyone,” says executive director Tommy Ralph Pace. “From activating the monument, which is essentially two stages, we’ve been bringing performers for 40 years to this community venue.”
McKissack’s final product resembles a maze, complete with an oasis, wishing well, pond, museum, gift shop and several viewing decks. He built the monument from gears, tiles, wagon wheels, mannequins, tractor seats and statuettes. Following his death in 1980, a nonprofit was established to preserve the site. Wellknown arts patrons and collectors Marilyn Oshman, Dominique de Menil and Nina Cullinan helped lay the foundation for OSCVA.
“It’s the reason why we have the Art Car Show today,” Pace adds. “Many cities have art museums, very few have these visionary art environments. We’ve been excited to be in the East End for the past 40 years providing the joy only creativity can spark.”
The organization has since grown to include the Beer Can House, a bungalow covered by more than 50,000 flattened beer cans, and mosaic-filled Smither Park. OSCVA’s annual Art Car Parade welcomes roughly 250,000 visitors each year and is one of the city’s largest, free cultural events.
Competition for the six-figure matching grant was stiff. The National Park Service partnered with the National Endowment for the
Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute for Museum and Library Services to fund 80 projects in 32 states, plus the District of Columbia. In total, $24.3 million was awarded.
Pace’s goal is to complete the monument’s restoration within a 24-month period, while keeping the doors open.
“There’s cyclical maintenance. We were built in a city without zoning laws in the 1950s. Jeff McKissack’s original permit was for a hair salon, so there’s no foundation,” he explains. “As Houston’s clay soil expands and contracts with the rainwater and humidity, everything shifts. There were slight improvements previously when we buttressed the walls with concrete. This main restoration is to get the monument to its main condition.”