Athens, Ga. – The Georgia Museum of Art presents Andrew Garrison as part of the Southern Arts Federation’s Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers in the M. Smith Griffith Auditorium on Oct. 17 at 7 p.m. Following a screening of his film, Third Ward TX, Garrison will engage the audience in a discussion about the film and his work as a filmmaker.
In Third Ward TX, Garrison documents the economic and creative redemption of a traditionally African-American neighborhood in decline, through the efforts of a group of local artists, residents and volunteers. In the early 1990s, a step ahead of city demolition crews, a group of African-American artists took over a block of abandoned, condemned, row houses in Houston’s Third Ward. They wanted to start a dialogue on conditions in the neighborhood by bringing attention to this crime-infested area. The artists set in motion an unprecedented model for community renewal and personal transformation. Their venture, named “Project Row Houses,” has created a neighborhood that is no longer a symbol of poverty and hopelessness, but is now an international beacon of strength and imagination.
Garrison is an independent filmmaker whose documentaries deal with issues of community, culture and poverty. Garrison is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim and Rockefeller Foundations, the NEA, and the American Film Institute. As a producer/director/editor, his films have been broadcast on PBS and screened in international festivals such as Sundance, the New York Film Festival, the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Berlin Children’s Film Festival. For more than 12 years, Garrison worked with the pioneering documentary film group, Appalshop, in the mountains of eastern Kentucky. Today, he lives in Austin, Texas, where he teaches film production at the University of Texas.
The Southern Circuit Tour of Independent Filmmakers is a program of the Southern Arts Federation, a not-for-profit regional art organization working throughout the South since 1975. Southern Arts Federation is supported by funding and programming partnerships with the National Endowment for the Arts and the state arts agencies of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Southern Circuit is sponsored by the UGA Parents and Families Association.
Partial support for the exhibitions and programs at the Georgia Museum of Art is provided by the Georgia Council for the Arts through appropriations of the Georgia General Assembly. The council is a partner agency of the National Endowment for the Arts. Individuals, foundations and corporations provide additional museum support through their gifts to the Arch Foundation and the University of Georgia foundation. The Georgia Museum of Art is located in the Performing and Visual Arts Complex on the East Campus of the University of Georgia. The address is 90 Carlton Street, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, 30602. Hours are Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m., Wednesday from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m., Sunday from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. and closed Mondays. Museum shop hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4:45 p.m., Sunday from 1 p.m. until 4:45 p.m. and Wednesday from 10 a.m. until 8:45 p.m.
