Activities and Services

Community

We document the Houston story by gathering the individual stories of people who make up our collective community. We are seeking referrals of people with interesting and important stories to tell. And we are targeting specific communities, with often underrepresented voices, to tell their stories at designated sites. This is not an oral history project for a specific organization, neighborhood or profession; It is a document of an entire city and the origins of its people. All stories are welcome. From our initial projects, various themes and storylines will develop, raising the value of every voice in the archive.

We help Houstonians document their own stories and family histories. Through class instruction and mobile technology stations, we help individuals preserve their personal collections as digital archives, and describe or narrate the story of their families or their own lives.

We produce features about interesting aspects of life in Houston, from morning commutes to late night music, and all things in between. These are told through the voices, as well as recovered and preserved documents of the people who experienced the lifestyle or made things happen in Houston’s ever-changing cultural landscape. These projects are meant to pique the curiosity of people around the world They are circulated through radio and forms of modern electronic media.

We offer classes in digital storytelling, photography, publishing, achieves and other evolving digital arts and technologies. These are offered by professional media creators at nominal costs.

We provide educational and historic resources from extensive archives through the development of specific projects, exhibits and electronic media programs. While much of the materials are available by consultation, our plans are to make libraries of catalogued materials available for public use.

We organize workshops and conferences on media literacy and accessibility issues, as well as educational uses of digital storytelling and other digital technologies.

We screen documentary films and host talks by professional media creators.

Youth

We provide college interns to schools and afterschool programs to facilitate beneficial digital storytelling projects. We establish opportunities for youth to present their projects for peers and large audiences in festival settings. The youth voices are frequently heard on radio and television, and occasionally youth have the opportunity to appear on media programs.

We provide instructional and curriculum based resources for teachers.

Media

Houston Institute for Culture is frequently asked by national and local media to provide expert knowledge and resources, such as community contacts, video footage, educational and archival materials, etc., about timely and interesting topics. Through the archives of the Digital Story Resource Center we are able to provide resources for media more effectively and proactively.