The art practice most akin to what Gates is doing, and to which he often refers, is Project Row Houses. In 1993, Rick Lowe and several other African-American artists renovated a string of abandoned shotgun-style homes in Houston’s Third Ward, turning them into artist residences, setting up community-arts programming and later opening transitional housing for single mothers. They based the enterprise on the German artist Joseph Beuys’s concept of social sculpture, the idea that a work of art could be a practical social action
John Fenn on 07 Apr 14"Confluence Project is a collaborative effort of Pacific Northwest tribes, renowned artist Maya Lin, civic groups from Washington and Oregon and other artists, architects and landscape designers. The project stretches more than 300 miles from where the Columbia River flows into the Pacific Ocean, to Clarkston, WA, with sites in both Oregon and Washington. Each of its seven sites features an art installation by Ms. Lin that interprets the area's ecology and history, encouraging the visitor to reflect on how the surroundings have changed over time. Each references a passage from the Lewis and Clark journals."
