Pete Gershon

Peter Gershon is coordinator of the Core Residency Program at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts and former editor and publisher of Signal to Noise from 1997 to 2013.

Publications

Collision: The Contemporary Art Scene in Houston, 1972-1985

In this expansive and vigorous survey of the Houston art scene of the 1970s and 1980s, author Pete Gershon describes the city’s emergence as a locus for the arts, fueled by a boom in oil prices and by the arrival of several catalyzing figures, including museum director James Harithas and sculptor James Surls. Harithas was a fierce champion for Texan artists during his tenure as the director of the Contemporary Arts Museum–Houston (CAM). He put Texas artists on the map, but his renegade style proved too confrontational for the museum’s benefactors, and after four years, he wore out his welcome.