Mission: To help filmmakers, script writers, authors, and other local creative talent create better and more innovative ways to teach both children and adults about history, science, literature, and the world.
Programs: Neighbor to neighbor oral history project - records the memories and experiences of longtime houstonians from every walk of life and preserves them through donation to the houston public library's houston metropolitan research center and the woodson research center at rice university.
historic schools of harris county book project involving the creation of a comprehensive multi-volume history that tells the complete human and sociological story of pre-1950 schools that became launching pads for generations of productive houstonians.
presented an annual houston history road rally which engages the public in local history by having them solve clues that will lead them to local historic landmarks.
presented the houston history book fair & symposium in which dozens of authors of local history speak to the public about their work. This is in partnership with houston public library.
continued production on home front: texas in world war ii, a documentary that covers all aspects of life in texas during the early and mid-1940s.
worked on stand up story, a documentary that tells the story of the comedy workshop, the first stand up comedy club in this region of the country.
developed and have been in ongoing production for the birth of texas documentary series which will be eight feature length videos that together tell the story of texas from spanish exploration to statehood in 1845. Work was done on four remaining titles in 2013.
continued work on the ham slices of history, an ongoing series of two minute video pieces that each tell the story of a person, place or event in the history of southeast texas.
continued working with texas school districts and non-profits to assist in teaching texas history or to help chronicle their own past.
ham contributed to a book project called houston baseball: the early years, 1861-1961, a comprehensive history of baseball in the houston-galveston area prior to the major leagues. The project was done in partnership with the houston chapter of the society for american baseball research and published by bright sky press. Copies were donated to the majority of harris county college and high school libraries and to all branches of the houston and harris county library systems.
Donor & Volunteer Advisory
This organization's nonprofit status may have been revoked or it may have merged with another
organization or ceased operations.
sjxn
Professional with expertise in this field
05/11/2011
Rating: 5
05/11/2011
As a professional archivist and trained local historian, I believe that Houston Arts and Media is the most exciting local history organization in the country. They do it right. As the county archivist, I know Mike Vance to be a thorough and engaged researcher. His experience as a writer and film maker makes the “products” of his research interesting and just plain fun.
It is difficult to know the history of Houston and Harris County. Change comes rapidly here, often overnight and without notice. With few physical reminders of the past, there is little encouragement to explore how we got to be who and what we are. HAM makes people want to care about the history of their neighborhoods, their city, their county, and their state. Isn’t this what it’s all about?
