Indiegogo is committed to accessibility. If you have difficulty using our site, please contact support@indiegogo.com for assistance or view our accessibility notice by clicking here

This campaign is closed

Gertrude Barnstone, ''Ay Qué Vida!''

Gertrude Barnstone: "¡Ay Qué Vida!" Artist, Actress, Activist, Welder. Her life in Houston, Texas.

You may also be interested in

Closed
Closed
Closed
Closed
Closed

Gertrude Barnstone, ''Ay Qué Vida!''

Gertrude Barnstone, ''Ay Qué Vida!''

Gertrude Barnstone, ''Ay Qué Vida!''

Gertrude Barnstone, ''Ay Qué Vida!''

Gertrude Barnstone, ''Ay Qué Vida!''

Gertrude Barnstone: "¡Ay Qué Vida!" Artist, Actress, Activist, Welder. Her life in Houston, Texas.

Gertrude Barnstone: "¡Ay Qué Vida!" Artist, Actress, Activist, Welder. Her life in Houston, Texas.

Gertrude Barnstone: "¡Ay Qué Vida!" Artist, Actress, Activist, Welder. Her life in Houston, Texas.

Gertrude Barnstone: "¡Ay Qué Vida!" Artist, Actress, Activist, Welder. Her life in Houston, Texas.

Olive Hershey
Olive Hershey
Olive Hershey
Olive Hershey
1 Campaign |
Houston, United States
$11,301 USD 16 backers
80% of $14,000 Flexible Goal Flexible Goal
Gertrude Barnstone, her story,   "Ay Que Vida"


( Gertrude Barnstone gates, Houston ,Texas. 1999--2014 )


Since 2010 I have been working on a book about my friend, Gertrude Barnstone, a legendary Houston artist and activist. It is important that I complete publication of the book, Ay, Que Vida in this, her 90th year. I am asking for your to help complete printing and binding this book (approx 100 pages with color photographs). 


When her mother instructed Houston artist and activist Gertrude Levy Barnstone (now 90) never to marry or have children, the blue-eyed six-year-old promised herself that, dammit, she’d do it all. “You’re going to be an artist,” Mrs. Levy told her daughter. “Put down that broom." And, for the last 89-odd years Barnstone has been busy making good on her promise. The arts were booming in Post-Depression Houston.  New museums, theaters and orchestras were sprouting as fast as oil companies. Gertrude attended Houston public schools, took classes at the art school of the Museum of Fine Arts, and graduated from Rice University in three years.


(Gertrude Barnstone in Rashomon, Alley Theater, Houston, Texas, ca. 1959)

A stunning dancer, actress and painter, Gertrude continued to draw, paint, sculpt and act in local theater after marrying Howard Barnstone, a rising Houston architect fresh out of Yale. The Barnstones befriended contemporary artists, attended museum and gallery openings and contributed to the founding of the Contemporary Arts Museum. Among their friends were sophisticated  art patrons and collectors, including John and Dominique de Menil, Charles Barnes and Marguerite Johnston, Clare and Sam Sprunt. 

Barnstone was always an activist. She volunteered at Poe School when her three children attended. Occasionally  she shifted her focus from art to politics. In 1963, angered by the conservative Houston School Board’s attack on its lone African-American member, she ran at large for a place on the Houston School Board  which had been blocking integration for a full 10 years after the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed Separate but Equal in the 1950s. Howard Barnstone supported Gertrude’s School Board campaign, as he had supported her art. “He never wanted a stay-at-home wife,” she says now. She ran at large, wore out eight pairs of shoes and won by 30,000 votes.  While on the School Board, Gertrude cajoled, argued and pushed the stubborn conservative bloc toward full integration. 

Her marriage to Howard Barnstone ended in divorce in 1969. Through the sturm und drang  Gertrude preserved her smile and kept her footing. She enrolled in welding classes and went to work for a company making skylights. Since 1965 Gertrude has been supporting herself by making vivid and lyrical sculpture, much of it architectural. Her garden gates, chairs, railings and screens have enlivened Houston’s landscape. But it’s her spirit, passionate, forceful, and above all indomitable that she’s given us. Once I asked her why she went into politics in the first place. 

“I looked at myself in the mirror and decided I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t run,” she said. 



Olive Hershey, author, publisher of "Gertrude Barnstone: Ay Que Vida"


Looking for more information? Check the project FAQ
Need more information
Let us know if you think this campaign contains prohibited content.

Choose your Perk

Early bird

$60 USD
A signed copy of the book: "¡Ay, Que Vida!".
Estimated Shipping
February 2016
5 claimed
Ships to United States of America

"Twofer"

$120 USD
a signed copy of "¡Ay Que Vida!" PLUS a copy sent to your favorite school library
Estimated Shipping
February 2016
4 claimed
Ships to United States of America
Tags for this project

You may also be interested in

Up Caret