The Art Car may be something of a niche market in the big, wide world of art, but to its adherents it really means something. You may not see an art car in the Louvre, nor are you likely to see many of them on display in the Met, but art is not something that needs to have the support or even the awareness of a majority of people. Art is art because it creates a reaction, and because people want to look at it. It is arguably even better when people come together to create art, as not only does something get created, but some consensus is reached.

In a city like Houston, there are often problems with gangs, guns, drugs and teenage pregnancy. Too many kids grow up to be in trouble, and too many don’t get the chance to grow up at all. In 1991, a teacher called Rebecca Bass was teaching in a downtown Middle School by the name of Edison Middle, with many of the kids under her tutelage seemingly at risk of falling into that futile pattern which had claimed so many before them.

So Miss Bass put a plan into action. The seventh- and eighth-graders that she taught would collaborate on an art car and enter it in the city’s annual Art Car Parade. The popularity of the project, limited at first, grew week on week as parents saw what was being created, and by the time the work was completed they had the full support of the Ward where they were located. In a fairytale story, when the Parade came along and the time for prizes was at hand, they took first prize in the whole parade and repeated the achievement the next year. Now, gangs still exist in Houston’s Second Ward and kids from Edison still end up in them – but less so, thanks to Rebecca Bass.