Over the past few years, Houston’s art buffs have witnessed the rapid growth of the creative scene in the Fifth Ward, but the 160-year-old neighborhood has always been a cultural hub. The renovated historic DeLuxe Theater became a popular destination for local performing, cinematic, and visual arts, and a home base for DeLuxe Kids in Harmony, a program that provides music lessons to children in the nearby community. The annual Lyons Avenue Renaissance Festival, now in its 13th year, provides work for more than 300 performers while also funding over 60 other arts events scheduled throughout Fifth Ward. Mobile Art Space for the Artists (MASA) makes its home here, too, thanks to founder and long-term resident Tony Paraná.

Since the establishment of the 5^th Ward Cultural Arts District four years ago, a distinction that allows the area to receive city and state funding, there has been a more concerted effort to expand programming and opportunities that nurture hyperlocal creativity while attracting more tourist dollars to the neighborhood. It’s currently one of the only designated art districts in the state with a predominantly Black and Latin American population.

“I wanted to make sure that the culture district was rooted in the community before we really started to put a focus on bringing guests into the community as tourists, right?” says Harrison Guy, director of arts and culture at the 5^th Ward Cultural Arts District. “…Now that we've established that we are all about Fifth Ward, all of our projects and programs are rooted in the community.”

Saint Arnold Brewing Company is still an important cornerstone of Fifth Ward life, too, of course. The brewery has spent the past three decades establishing itself as a visible supporter of creative and cultural events across the city, primarily by donating drinks and hosting local musicians. Paraná founded MASA, which predates the district by a few years, to enable Fifth Ward artists to show and sell their work without paying rental fees or partnering with a gallery. There, creative residents take turns serving as curators; outside, a plaque from the late House Representative Sheila Jackson Lee commemorates the venue’s contributions to local arts.

For Paraná, opening an art space in an old shipping container fosters a sense of pride among residents and encourages them to shop nearby when supporting the arts. “People from the neighborhood have to value the quality of art from the neighborhood, right?” he says, noting that Fifth Ward residents would prefer to purchase as locally as possible before considering artists from elsewhere.

Paraná and MASA art director Randy Wrosiv believe the 5^th Ward Arts District has been a net positive for the community, particularly by increasing the visibility of neighborhood artists and providing jobs to them. Though the venue was already established by the time the district was made official, Paraná says that increased interest in Fifth Ward’s vibrant and historical creative scene “basically gave us a push that we needed, which is exposure. That's what every artist needs.” MASA is invited to and involved in community meetings, often arriving with a long list of artists available to participate in proposed projects.

“It seems like things are moving fast, but the advocacy for people in the arts community is also moving fast, with us trying to preserve history and put things in place that can champion our story into the future,” Wrosiv says. “…I feel like we're on the frontier of Fifth Ward, having such a tight-knit art community, where you know the names of the great artists that come from there.” He cites the late found-object sculptor Jesse Lott, whose studio once stood on Lyons Avenue.

In addition to Fifth Ward’s historic arts offerings, the neighborhood is home to other attractions: Meow Wolf; Station Theater's latest location for improv and sketch comedy; and Beat the Bomb, an immersive gaming experience. It’s become the site of a blues festival and Black Theatre Week, which launched in September 2023, presenting works by Black playwrights and offering the resources they need to share their visions with the world. It's also a staging ground for collaborations with the Black Cinema Club and Houston Cinema Arts Society that go beyond screenings—Fifth Ward filmmakers have access to vital networking, equipment, and other resources to advance their careers.

“This is our year to really step out there and to really market the 5^th Ward Cultural Arts District to people. It's one of the very few [arts districts]…that is African American–based in the state. And so, we're excited about that,” Guy says. “This is our year where you're going to see us branching out to do more, inviting people to come into the community to experience all of the wonderful amenities that we have.”

Plans for the cultural arts district—one of seven in the Houston area—began after DeLuxe Theater’s renovation was completed in 2015. The Fifth Ward Community Redevelopment Corporation brought Guy on board to develop strategies balancing economic growth in the arts with the need to keep housing in the area affordable for longtime residents. When building out neighborhood arts economies, the risk of gentrification is a critical concern. People, understandably, don’t want to be priced out of their homes, especially those that have been in their families for generations. “This gentrification thing can be very loaded, because you have to have a multipronged approach to it. There's a nostalgia, there's a fear, and then there's the developers, who are in it to make money,” Guy says.

According to the most recent data from the City of Houston and the US Census Bureau, released in 2023, the median household income in Fifth Ward is $39,893. By contrast, the median household income in Houston was $62,894. To help prevent this disparity from widening, the 5^th Ward Cultural Arts District owns 13 cottages behind DeLuxe Theater, all specifically earmarked for affordable housing. Three of these are available to artists with residencies at nearby institutions, while the other 10 are available to Fifth Ward locals.

The district also takes pains to forge close relationships with any organizations and developers hoping to move into the neighborhood alongside the existing creative infrastructure. For example, Meow Wolf held town halls for Fifth Ward residents, facilitated by Guy and his team, to gather feedback on how to operate the business as responsible stewards of local history, culture, and economy. These meetings spanned two full years before Meow Wolf opened, with community members and district employees helping them craft Houston-specific messaging. The company also recruited locally too; the same folks who showed up to express their thoughts and concerns at town halls were later hired and unionized (though unionization at Meow Wolf’s Grapevine location continues to face challenges). Others received free admission to the immersive art venue; Guy notes that some of the merchandise sold in Meow Wolf’s gift shop directly funds the 5^th Ward Cultural Arts District.

And though, like MASA, Saint Arnold Brewing predates the district, Guy says it can serve as a model for how local businesses can become beloved community stalwarts rather than interlopers who establish change that only benefits developers. “We communicate all the time. They collaborate [on] things with us," Guy says. "We help them with some of their programming, they help us, and so we try to be community-driven in the way that we approach these things. And I think that helps us to at least know where everyone is, that people hear directly from the community what their concerns are.”

Wrosiv, who originally hails from Fifth Ward, believes that food insecurity and sidewalk access are more pressing issues than bringing in more tourists through the arts. Meow Wolf opened in a part of Fifth Ward away from the traditionally Black churches and residential areas, which now receive phone calls from developers trying to snatch up the land, or are otherwise threatened by eminent domain. Home Depot, Ross Dress for Less, and other national chains get built where he says “the type of stores that [residents] need to nourish their [bodies]” ought to go instead.

The district uses this feedback when working on its own projects, like the upcoming Mini Music Museum. Although there isn’t an official opening date yet, the district is repurposing an old church rather than opting for new development, conserving Fifth Ward history and keeping it away from developers’ liberally swinging wrecking balls.

Because there is no Houston music history without Fifth Ward music history, the music museum’s exhibits will focus exclusively on musicians with ties to the neighborhood: Clifton Chenier, “the Father of Zydeco” who lived in Fifth Ward in the 1960s; Don Robey, founder of legendary R&B and gospel label Peacock Records; Big Mama Thornton, without whom rock and roll would have never existed; the Laws siblings, including flautist Hubert, singers Debra, Eloise, and Johnnie, and saxophonist Ronnie; and Rap-a-Lot founder James Prince. Rooting the museum’s cornerstones in the neighborhood rather than the city as a whole helps ensure important stories are not lost as the arts world changes.

“It's a very old building that we're trying to bring online with this idea,” Guy says. “…We're super excited to hopefully get [the Mini Music Museum] across the finish line this year, to really just pay homage to the greats of this community who contributed to the world musically.”