Houstonians have cultivated a profound appreciation for the public art program at Discovery Green. Since launching in 2008, the Conservancy has exhibited 26 temporary large-scale public art installations, presenting each as a gift to our community free of charge. Millions of visitors have encountered these transformative works, making Discovery Green a key player in the cultural life of our city.
For many of our youngest visitors, the park’s public installations serve as their inaugural encounter with the art world. Yet these works transcend mere observation—they beckon interaction, invite discovery of new technologies, and kindle the flame of possibility. While museum walls whisper, “don’t touch,” Discovery Green’s ethos proclaims: “Come explore!”
The Conservancy’s commitment to presenting Houston’s diversity of arts, talents, and traditions lies at the very heart of our mission. However, as we sought to continue offering the innovative and interactive public art that Houstonians have come to cherish, we recognized that fulfilling this mission authentically would require a fundamental reimagining of our commissioning process.
ON VIEW: Chroma Collective by Karen Navarro through November 2, 2025
For years, our temporary installations brought us into collaboration with accomplished artists from Canada, Mexico, Europe, and other regions with well-established public art practices. Houston’s own artists, particularly those from underrepresented communities, possessed extraordinary talent and vision, but faced systemic barriers in accessing the resources and experience necessary for large-scale public works. The progression was clear: We need to nurture the artistic voices that call Houston home.
Art Lab emerged as our groundbreaking response to this imperative. Through intensive mentorship and hands-on experience, this program provides Houston artists with the practical skills essential for capital-intensive public art projects. Developed in partnership with our co-creators and curators at Weingarten Art Group, our vision crystallized around several core principles:
• Sustaining the connection between Houstonians and thought-provoking artworks while creating meaningful opportunities for talented artists in our own community
• Fostering a more just and equitable landscape in the public art realm, with the intention of developing a scalable model for others
• Reinforcing Houston’s reputation as a pioneering community for highly interactive temporary public art
• Elevating the voices, ideas, and visions of regional artists onto the national public art stage
When I joined Discovery Green Conservancy as Park President in 2023, I was eager to collaborate with Susanne Theis and immerse myself in Discovery Green’s programming legacy. What I discovered was both sobering and inspiring: the fund that traditionally supported the artistic programming was exhausted. This challenge demanded innovation. The Discovery Green Conservancy team stepped up to meet that challenge. We needed to pioneer new pathways for funding these vital projects. Against considerable odds, Art Lab received full funding from a national foundation in its inaugural year. Such immediate and comprehensive support for a program of this magnitude is virtually unprecedented, signaling that our vision struck a chord in the philanthropic community.
The opportunity to present both exceptional public art and meaningful mentorship represents an ongoing commitment that threads through my own professional journey. Much as the previous park president, Barry Mandel, had served as my mentor for twenty years, I now embrace the privilege of fostering the next generation of public artists. Personally, Art Lab has emerged as one of the most exhilarating projects of my professional life.
Art Lab stands as the most ambitious program the Discovery Green Conservancy has undertaken since the founding of our Public Art initiative. In Art Lab’s first year, 63 Houston artists applied to become inaugural Art Lab Fellows, validating our conviction that local artists hunger for opportunities to create works of this scale and impact.
From an extraordinary pool of deserving candidates, the committee selected two inaugural Art Lab Fellows: Karen Navarro, a photographer who transforms a two-dimensional artform into three-dimensional sculpture, and Gerardo Rosales, whose folkloric paintings celebrate inclusion and cultural heritage.
These artists collaborated with the remarkable Jen Lewin, an internationally acclaimed artist-engineer based in Brooklyn. Lewin has masterfully channeled her architectural background into a highly technical medium, fabricating large-scale, interactive public sculptures that foster community interaction and play. By uniting nature and technology, she transcends traditional media to create multi-dimensional human experiences that breathe vibrancy into public spaces. Recently selected to create the 2024 central Burning Man Pavilion and effigy, Lewin served as the lead mentor for Discovery Green’s Art Lab, bringing unparalleled expertise to this groundbreaking mentorship program designed to support underrepresented local artists.
Lewin mentored the inaugural ART LAB fellows while working on Atlas, an installation of 24 oversized moths suspended from the canopy of oak trees over the Brown Promenade from November 2024 to February 2025. Over 550,000 people visited Discovery Green during this period. These curious visitors discovered that the pieces were not merely beautiful, but responsive – shifting in sound and lighting effects as audiences moved through the space.
The impact of such moments of surprise and joy defies quantification. Encountering the unexpected awakens us to new possibilities and opens our eyes to others. This represents Discovery Green’s treasured role within our city – a place where people can remember the world’s inherent beauty, feel the joy of human connection, and develop the civic pride that exposure to Houston’s culture engenders.
As the program’s first cycle reaches completion, Discovery Green proudly presents Karen Navarro’s Chroma Collective, a project she developed through the program with mentorship from Discovery Green, Jen Lewin, Weingarten Art Group, and the Houston-based architecture and design firm Metalab.
The artist’s role is to express the universal through their specific personal viewpoint and experiences. Similarly, Discovery Green serves to create common meaning and nurture our community’s culture through the lens of individual experiences. The Conservancy believes that when everyone is invited to participate – whether as park visitor, artist, staff member, board member, or vendor – this process flourishes, and Discovery Green’s mission finds its fullest expression.
We invite you to join us.
Art Lab is just one of the hundred of events and attractions that Discovery Green produces year round. Free events that showcase diversity, culture, music, art and so much more, reflecting the values of our city. These events are made possible by the generous donations of of people like you. Through your efforts Discovery Green can continue to provide a beautiful oasis in the heart of downtown Houston where memories are made.
