Ben Maltz Gallery

Artist and community activist Rick Lowe is the Visual Artist-in-Residence for the Spring 2010

semester at Otis College of Art and Design. Lowe, who founded Project Row Houses - considered the

most impressive and visionary public art project in the country - will work with Otis students to help them

understand artists’ larger roles and potential contribution within a community. Lowe’s nine-week

residency at Otis starts in January with a public lecture titled Towards Social Sculpture: A Conversation

with Rick Lowe.

Rick Lowe founded Project Row Houses in 1993 as a nonprofit arts organization in Houston that believes

art - and the community it creates - can be the foundation for revitalizing depressed inner-city

neighborhoods. In 2006, he spearheaded Transforma Projects in New Orleans to help rebuild the city

after hurricane Katrina. Lowe has participated in exhibitions and programs nationally and internationally

and has received many honors including the 2006 Brandywine Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2002

Heinz Award, and the 2000 American Institute of Architecture Keystone Award.

This artist-in-residence program is made possible by the Nimoy Foundation, which has acknowledged

Otis for its leadership in artist residency programs. The Nimoy Foundation was established in 2003 by

Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy to recognize, encourage and support the work of contemporary

visual artists. To date, the Foundation has granted $2.5 million to a total of 40 organizations nationwide

and underwritten more than 500 artists’ projects.