On Wednesday, Aug. 14, the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD) community was devastated by the news of the unexpected passing of Art Professor Floyd Newsum. He taught at UHD for 48 years, touching thousands of lives as an exceptional art teacher, mentor, colleague, friend, and tremendous supporter of the university beyond the classroom and into almost every aspect of the greater community.
UHD is hosting an event in remembrance of his life and legacy, and the entire UHD community and beyond is invited to this very special tribute from 4-5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 8, in UHD’s Wilhelmina Cullen Robertson Auditorium, with a reception to follow. Guests may park in Visitors Parking, 201 Girard Street.
An endowed scholarship, the Floyd Newsum Visionary Artist and Humanitarian Scholarship, with a focus on art and social justice has already been established. The scholarship will be available to students pursuing Art or Social Work degrees.
During his tenure at UHD, Professor Newsum created a wide range of work as a major local artist with a profound impact on the national contemporary visual arts scene. His work is part of permanent collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
His numerous public art commissions include two Houston Metro Light Rail Station art designs, seven sculptures for Houston’s Main Street Square Station, four paintings in the UHD Commerce Street Building, a suspended sculpture for the lobby of the Acres Home Multi-Service Center in Houston, a relief sculpture in the Cathedral Atrium at Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church in Houston and five suspended sculptures for the lobby of the Hazel Harvey Peace Building in Fort Worth, Texas. His work has been displayed in more than 100 exhibitions across the United States, including the University of Maryland College Park, Taft Museum in Cincinnati, the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.
Professor Newsum was one of seven visionary African American artists who founded Project Row Houses (PRH) in the Third Ward in 1993. PRH is the nationally known nonprofit organization originally comprised of 22 Row Houses that “succeeds as a social sculpture when Black art, culture, and community are protected, promoted, elevated, and celebrated in new and vibrant ways.” Professor Newsum’s dedication to community engagement remained a central part of his personal mission throughout his career.
From May through October 2023, Professor Newsum received his first large-scale retrospective, “Evolution of Sight,” at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art in Madison, Wisconsin. The exhibition was organized by guest curators Dr. Lauren Cross, Gail-Oxford Associate Curator of American Decorative Arts at The Huntington in San Marino, California, and Mark Cervenka, UHD Professor of Art and O’Kane Gallery Director.
Born in Memphis, Tennessee, Professor Newsum graduated from Memphis College of Art with a BFA in 1973 and from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with an MFA in 1975. He joined the UHD faculty in 1976, and over the years taught a variety of courses, including drawing, painting, printmaking and art appreciation, among others, in addition to coordinating the studio sections for UHD’s Art Department. In 2003 and 2017, Professor Newsum received UHD’s Scholarship/Creativity Award in recognition of his contributions to visual art across a variety of media and thematic investigations.