Culture Fest 2006

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More than a thousand visitors were estimated to have participated in the Cypress Creek Cultural District's Culture Fest 2006, a celebration of the community and its local cultural amenities.

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The event, held Nov. 18 at the Cypress Creek Christian Church and Community Center located at 6823 Cypresswood Dr., focused on the mission of the CCCD to build a downtown for the Cypress Creek community, an area dubbed as one of America's greatest "edge cities."

Based on author Joel Garreau's book "Edge City: Life on the New Frontier," an edge city is a place with its own libraries, art museum, community center, parks, educational resources and shopping areas, CCCD board president Dr. Glenn Wilkerson said.

Wilkerson said based on growth and cultural developments in recent years, the edge city beyond Houston's city limits was already a reality.

"In [Garreau's] book, he said FM 1960 - the Cypress Creek area - is one of the places with the potential to become an edge city," Wilkerson said. "Today, that has come true."

Wilkerson also serves as senior pastor at the Cypress Creek Community Church.

Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Jerry Eversole praised district volunteers for the ambition to build Houston's only satellite art museum, the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts-Cypress Creek.

Standing in the shadow of the Barbara Bush Library, Eversole said he couldn't help but think of the former library that will soon house "The Pearl."

"The people who need to be thanked for this is the volunteers who are raising the money to take this decrepit library, re-skin it and turn it over to the museum to allow it to have one of the community's great attributes," Eversole said.

The commissioner said he believed with certainty that before long, the museum will need new room to expand as it delivers a "real gift" to the area.

"I hope all of you who are visionaries are able to look at this new museum and realize that someday we will need what we have at Barbara Bush to make a fulfillment of what we are trying to accomplish in this community," Eversole said.

Visitors to the future site of the museum were given the opportunity to tour the facility and see a map of the site's future layout.

This month, the Cypress Creek Fine Art Association announced the selection of Fretz Construction Company to manage the renovation of the facilities the museum will inhabit.

Renovations are slated to begin next January. To date, the association has raised $870,000 for construction and for expenses related to the group's operations for the last two years.

Another $500,000 will need to be raised to complete construction.

Jessica Mitchell, an art teacher from Carl Wunsche Sr. High School in Spring ISD said she was enthusiastic about the opportunities "The Pearl" will bring area students.

"It is definitely needed," Mitchell said. "I am certainly looking forward to the museum opening...big time."

Outside the museum facility, 7-year-old Brill Elementary student Ryan Cox played in the neighboring fountain while his mother enjoyed the gorgeous November weekend.

A recent move from the Old Town Spring area, she said, would yield a better way of life for her family.

"I think it is amazing. This is what we need in our backyard so we don't have to feel it is a big stressor to enjoy the arts ... it is only a short drive away," she said. "I am so excited that when I moved, this was all here for me."

In addition to museum tours, the event featured seven theatrical performances, poetry and reader's theater selections, a book sale at the Barbara Bush Library and holiday shopping opportunities at the Dickens on Cypress Creek Victorian market.