NMA Parade Flyer

A screening of Laurie MacDonald’s 2001 film Eyeopeners along with her rarely-seen documentary of the 1986 New Music America (NMA) Festival in Houston will be shown in the back patio of Brasil Café: 2604 Dunlavy St. Houston, TX 77098 on October 20 at 7 pm.

The event is part of a collaboration between University of Houston Libraries Special Collections and The Orange Show Center for Visionary Art. The exhibit UNREAL ESTATES: Houston’s Visionary Art Environments will be open to the public at the Flatland Gallery (next door to Brasil Café) during the event.

The documentary is part of the New Music America Collection in the Performing and Visual Arts Research Collection at UH Special Collections.

The 1986 New Music America Festival, which gave rise to the Houston Art Car Parade, comprises a large part of the collection. Donated by the late Michael Galbreth of The Art Guys, the collection features correspondence, posters, programs, photos, and artwork documenting NMA, a peripatetic festival of experimental music. The festival was, at that time, the largest new music celebration in the world. Its origin was New York City, and in subsequent years, the festival traveled to major cities across the US, landing in Houston in 1986.

Mary Manning, university archivist and curator of the Performing Arts Research Collection, will exhibit items from the NMA collection at the Orange Show event.