FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Houston Arts and Media Debuts HAM Slice history videos

Houston, TX – February 7, 2008 – Houston Arts and Media is unveiling an ambitious new video series that capitalizes on their media expertise to bring local Houston area history to life. HAM Slices are an ongoing series of web-based videos, each about a minute in length, combining historic photographs, new footage, music and narration into a mini-documentary about a small story of Houston area history. There will be a streaming version available on the HAM website along with a higher resolution for downloading, which is currently in beta form. The Slices will then be archived on the HAM site, reachable through the home page at www.houstonartsandmedia.org .

This launch is being done with three HAM slices covering: Hans Nagel, Houston’s first zookeeper; Epsom Downs, a Depression-era horse race track; and The Sylvan Beach Bathing Girl Revue of the 1920s. All three are now posted on HAM’s You Tube channel at www.youtube.com/houstonartsandmedia . You may view them there.

With each new HAM Slice coming every two weeks or so, Houstonians can learn more about The Bayou City’s working class residents as well as its celebrated citizens, where they worked and how they had fun. Mike Vance, HAM President, explains what viewers might expect to learn: “We want to include triumphs and heartbreaks, stories behind some of the names you see everyday, and help people gain a greater understanding about Houston’s past, whether glorious or not, in a fun and very accessible way. More than anything, we want people walking away saying, ‘Wow! I didn’t know that.’ “

Houston Arts and Media continues to work on several other projects such as Neighborhood to Neighbor, an ongoing oral history gathering project that has already placed the stories of scores of Houstonians in the Houston Public Library’s Houston Metropolitan Research Center and Rice University’s Woodson Research Center. Material from these interviews will also enhance the Houston Neighborhoods Series, more than a dozen volumes which will be published over the next several years. The first of HAM’s books will be Historic Schools of Harris County. Parties interested in supporting these efforts through donations or volunteerism should contact Houston Arts and Media via e-mail at info@houstonartsandmedia.org.