Changing of the Guard at The Orange Show

The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art will soon be conducting a nationwide search for a new Executive Director, as Susanne Theis will be leaving August 31st to become the new Programming Director of Discovery Green, which opens in early 2008. Susanne has been with The Orange Show for more than 20 years. Under her guidance, The Orange Show has garnered international recognition for the world's largest and oldest Art Car Parade and each of it's folk art sites, The Orange Show Monument and the Beer Can House (which has been under renovation, thanks to efforts by The Orange Show and the volunteers who helped make it happen). In fact, this year marks the most successful Art Car weekend, ever - a feat which Susanne, The Orange Show and all Houstonians, for that matter, should be extremely proud of. Her departure will be a loss to the effort, but, the effort has made strides in the right direction and The Orange Show is well poised to continue.

“Susanne has been instrumental in the direction and growth of The Orange Show over the years,” said Marilyn Oshman, founder and chairman of the organization. “We are, of course, reluctant to see her leave, but she has left us in a great position of strength as we continue to grow and fulfill our mission of celebrating the artist in everyone.”

These sentiments are echoed by Board president, Jackie O’Keefe Wallace. “We’ve just completed our most successful Art Car weekend ever and are finalizing plans for our Fall gala as well as an early 2008 Beer Can house exhibition.” She added, “We are excited about a national search to replace Susanne. The Orange Show has grown to the stature that the board feels we have a window of opportunity to attract the attention of some of the nation’s most noted folk artist experts to lead us in the future.”

Please join Houstonist in wishing Susanne Theis every success as she embarks on a new career venture with Discovery Green, a multi-use park. She has been integral in placing some of Houston's uniquest folk art and found art endeavor's on the global radar. We would also like to take this opportunity to remind you to pay a visit to both sites, during exhibition hours, which you can find here. Thank you for bringing "found art" and funky-individualism to the surface in Houston, I mean no disrespect to some other sites providing "what's to do", but, Houston has some fantabulously cool things to offer.

The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art exists to preserve works of extraordinary imagination and celebrate the artist in everyone. The Orange Show is supported by major grants from the City of Houston through the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/ Harris Count and The Texas Commission on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Brown Foundation, the Cullen Foundation, Houston Endowment, the Wortham Foundation, Inc., private contributions, in-kind support and volunteer assistance. For more information, visit www.orangeshow.org.

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