WELCOME TO AURORA PICTURE SHOW
Aurora Picture Show is a Houston-based non-profit media arts center dedicated to expanding the cinematic experience and promoting the understanding and appreciation of moving image art. Throughout the year, Aurora presents innovative non-traditional, artist-made film, video, and multidisciplinary works. We support artists, engage audiences, foster community collaboration, and seed the future of creative media-making in Houston through unique artistic and educational experiences. Aurora works with a wide range of community collaborators, regularly partnering with museums, organizations, festivals, schools, libraries, community centers, and hospitals to present an array of engaging programs throughout the city.
Aurora Picture Show is about forging connections–between different ideas, perspectives, art forms, and disciplines, and between artists and audiences. We hope you’ll join and support us in our efforts to move hearts, minds, and spirits with moving image art.
WHAT WE DO
Aurora presents screenings, installations, and multidisciplinary performances year-round, often with artists in attendance to discuss their work. See upcoming and past programs at our events calendar.
Aurora’s annual, open-call Extremely Shorts Film Festival showcases a wide range of adventurous short films from around the globe, selected by a different guest juror each year.
Each spring, Aurora and Buffalo Bayou Partnership collaborate to present Night Light, an outdoor event featuring newly commissioned video installations by Houston artists along Buffalo Bayou East.
Aurora and the Menil Collection co-present Houston’s annual outdoor community-sourced projection event, BYOB (Bring Your Own Beamer).
Our popular Summer Youth Filmmaking Camps for ages 7-15 take place at Aurora between June and August, and culminate with a special premiere screening at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
We regularly partner with schools, community centers, and hospitals to present city-wide youth filmmaking programs.
Aurora is a partner in administering The Idea Fund, an annual regranting program supporting unconventional and participatory Houston-area artist projects.
We provide fiscal sponsorship for Houston-based media arts projects run by and providing a voice for marginalized communities. Current projects include Señorita Cinema and Big Queer Picture Show.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF AURORA
Aurora Picture Show was founded in 1998 by Houston-based artist and organizer Andrea Grover. Recognizing a lack of showcases for experimental and avant-garde film and video, she and a group of friends and volunteers converted a historic church into a community micro-cinema and began presenting regular screenings and hosting guest artists. The first public program was held in June 1998, and Aurora Picture Show received non-profit status in 1999.
Aurora quickly achieved a national reputation among artists and funders as one of a handful of organizations in the country committed to showcasing issue-orientated, provocative films and video art. Meanwhile, Houstonians began to view Aurora’s programs as opportunities to experience the unfamiliar in open and inviting settings. As audiences grew, and as both media technologies and artists’ practices evolved, Aurora’s artistic programming expanded to include site-specific work, performances, and installations that incorporate moving image in its many forms. The organization also began to forge strong community partnerships and produce city-wide collaborative programs.
In 2009, Aurora recognized the need in Houston for media arts education for youth. What began as just a week-long summer camp for kids focused on creative filmmaking has blossomed into a sophisticated education program including year-round artist residencies and workshops in schools, community centers and hospitals, and summer camps for participants ages 7 to 15.
Today, Aurora’s home base is located in Houston’s Second Ward, a neighborhood known for its engaged residents, cultural heritage, public art, small businesses, artist-run spaces and community organizations. Located within Houston’s East End Cultural District, the area is a centrally located and easily accessible part of our sprawling city– close to downtown, METRORail stops, and a network of bike trails.