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THE ORANGE SHOW MONUMENT IS CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR RESTORATION THROUGH 2025

ORANGE SHOW MONUMENT

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The Orange Show Monument is a visionary art environment - a monumental work of handmade architecture - located just off the Gulf Freeway in Houston's East End. It was built single handedly by a retired mail carrier named Jeff Davis McKissack (1902-1980) who worked on the site at 2401 Munger from 1956 until May 1979 when he finally opened to the public to communicate the message that good health and hard work were the keys to a long, happy live. 

This labyrinthine 3,000 square foot unreal estate is composed of material McKissack discovered on the roadside and in antique stores: decorative tile, ornamental fencing, garden statuary, tractor seats, and most prominently, dozens of metal buggy wheels which mimic the appearance of the segmented orange. A flock of colorful, hand-cut metal birds perch throughout, and a collection of elevated whirligigs spin with the breeze. Two stages with amphitheater seating host concerts, poetry readings, and other performances. Every piece of the Orange Show Monument was hand-placed and hand-painted by McKissack.

The Orange Show monument is on the National Register for Historic Places and is currently the subject of a major restoration project funded by the National Park Service's "Save America's Treasures" grant program. The Orange Show is considered to be one of the most important artist built environments in the United States.

VISIT THE ORANGE SHOW

THE ORANGE SHOW IS CURRENTLY CLOSED FOR RESTORATION.

The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, with assistance from a Save America's Treasures grant, is currently restoring the historic Orange Show Monument and it is closed to the public. 

While we are not offering tours of the inside of the Orange Show Monument, you may still view the site from the outside by visiting 2441 Munger St., Houston, TX 77023.

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Visit
Group Tours
GROUP TOURS & FIELD TRIPS

At this time, we are not accepting any requests for Group Tours of Field Trips to the Orange Show Monument, as it is undergoing restoration. 

 

Smither Park is located next door and makes a great place to bring students or groups interested in seeing the beautiful mosaic art created by over 200 artists. Fill out the form below for information about tours of Smither Park.

Thanks for your interest in field trips & group tours of The Orange Show! We will respond shortly!

ORANGE SHOW CONSERVATION CORPS
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For nearly fifty years, the Orange Show has been a cherished point of inspiration for our city’s creative community.

 

Constantly exposed to the Gulf Coast’s harsh climate, the monument has survived only because of the efforts of countless staff members, community artists, and volunteers spread across the generations. You too can be a part of this ongoing adventure into conservation techniques and the history of the Orange Show itself.  

The Orange Show Conservation Corps is a conservator-guided, artist-facilitated, and volunteer-powered cyclical maintenance program and community social practice. The conservation plan is developed under the guidance of Briscoe Architectural Restoration of San Ygnacio and executed year-round under the leadership and supervision of OSCVA staff and designated artist facilitators who instruct in selection and use of materials and best practices. Programming occasionally features guest conservators and artists connected to the Orange Show’s previous preservation efforts.

If you are interested in joining the Conservation Corps for any of the upcoming Volunteer Days, please see the schedule below to register.

Upcoming Conservation Corps Volunteer Days

Click on a date below to register to attend

Saturday, December 7, 2024 - 10am-12pm

Saturday, January 4, 2025 - 10am-12pm

Conservation
History
HISTORY OF THE ORANGE SHOW

"Everything you see is based on my creativity. You could take a hundred thousand architects and a hundred thousand engineers and all of them together couldn't conceive of a show like this." Jeff McKissack

Houston mail carrier Jeff McKissack created The Orange Show to illustrate his belief that longevity results from hard work and good nutrition. Working in isolation from 1956 until his death in 1980, McKissack used common building materials and found objects — decorative tile, ornamental fencing, garden statuary, tractor seats, buggy wheels — to transform a vacant lot just off the then-recently-completed Gulf Freeway into an architectural maze of walkways, balconies, stages, and exhibits decorated with mosaic tile murals and a flock of brightly painted birds hand-cut from scrap metal. He called it the "ninth wonder of the world" and charged visitors a dollar's admission when it opened to the public on May 9, 1979. McKissack anticipated the Orange Show would attract over 100,000 visitors each year. 

In McKissack's youth he'd been delighted by the steamboats that landed at his native Fort Gaines, Georgia. As a young man during the Great Depression, he'd trucked citrus fruit and vegetables through the south. McKissack said he "associated" the benefits of steam power and a healthy diet as he self-published "How You Can Live 100 Years... And Still Be Spry," his treatise on what to eat, how to exercise, and where to take your vacations (Hot Springs, Arkansas, where McKissack advised the reader to bathe in the radioactive waters as a cure-all). Later he reflected this message through murals on the walls of the Orange Show, with slogans like "Be Strong, Go Orange" and "Be Smart! Drink Fresh Orange Juice" spelled out in colorful tile. Hearts are visible everywhere. 

For years before its formal opening, McKissack's project attracted the attention of nearby University of Houston students and a few significant art world insiders, who'd sometimes bring a visiting dignitary like Red Grooms or Willem de Kooning to meet with this visionary builder. No matter who you were, McKissack enjoyed giving detailed tours where he demonstrated the steam engine and explained where every tile and buggy wheel was acquired. 

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Jeff McKissack with Marilyn Oshman

After McKissack died in January 1980, art patron Marilyn Oshman formed a non-profit foundation to purchase, preserve, and program The Orange Show. The circle of 21 original donors included philanthropists Dominique de Menil and Nina Cullinan, ZZ Top's Billy Gibbons, attorney David Berg, and East End funerary director Tommy Schlitzberger. In 1982, the site reopened to the public following a restoration effort supervised by architect Barry Moore, and newly hired staff began to integrate The Orange Show into Houston's cultural life through a series of programs including concerts, poetry readings, workshops, film screenings, and outrageous signature events like the Barbie Doll Fashion Show. Over the years, the Orange Show's stages have hosted intimate performances by Beach House, the Dirty Projectors, Ntozake Shange, Culturcide, Joe Ely, Dengue Fever, Bonnie "Prince" Billy, Bert Jansch, Robert Ellis, the Suffers, Yasmin Williams, R.L. Boyce, and Joanna Newsom, who called the Orange Show her "favorite venue in the whole wide world."

In 1984, The Orange Show Foundation commissioned artist Jackie Harris to create the Fruitmobile, a decorated 1967 Ford Country Squire station wagon that has become the Orange Show's rolling alter ego in a city dominated by cars and highways. It prefigured the Houston Art Car Parade, established by local artists in 1986 in conjunction with the New Music America Festival and administered by the Orange Show's staff since 1988. In the years since, the parade has grown to become the city's biggest free cultural event with over 300,000 spectators cheering on over 250 cars from around the country.  

 

Today t​he Orange Show Center for Visionary Art also maintains and programs the Beer Can House at 222 Malone; nearby Smither Park; and the Orange Show World HQ, a decommissioned 1953 poured concrete truck depot located on a five-acre lot directly behind the Orange Show monument and Smither Park. 

Almost fifty years after his passing, Jeff's creation and vision remain at the center of a developing campus and the inspiration behind a programming philosophy that favors the creative use of castoff materials and approaches art as a community rather than as a commodity. Through all of its programming, the Orange Show Center seeks to celebrate the artist in everyone and transform lives through creative self expression. 

Photo Tour
PHOTO TOUR OF THE ORANGE SHOW
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