Denise Upshaw once helped develop programs for incarcerated youth at the New York City Department of Corrections. Now the founder and CEO of the Black Houston Creatives Network (BHCN) is using that policy experience to put art supplies in the hands of Houston children and open doors for the city’s Black creatives.
Dream in Color art supply drive returns Nov. 1 through Dec. 12 with a goal of collecting 15,000 new and gently used supplies. This year, donations will go to community-nominated youth organizations in five regions of the city.
In 2024, the City Council cut Houston’s public art contract with the Houston Arts Alliance from $25 million to $15 million over five years to close a budget deficit. Statewide, the Texas Commission on the Arts fields about $80 million in grant requests each year.
On school budgets, Upshaw said the arts are often the first to go.
“I feel like there’s not a lot of research behind the decisions,” Upshaw said. “They’re really more focused on the testing and what the scores look like rather than developing the human.”
Her answer is community action.
“It needs to be, what can we as a community do to fill the gap?” she said. “Because these are our kids.”
Filling the gap
Upshaw grew up in Oakland, California, where her mother refused to let a summer pass without something productive to do. She picked art programs year after year, and art later became a source of healing. Her father, a member of a Black association, taught her advocacy in neighborhoods shaped by over-policing.
“He was very big on investing into the community and making sure that we realize that we can never be above or beyond our people,” Upshaw said. “So I pursued a career in criminal justice and criminal justice policy.”
That career took her through New York City and Austin before arriving in Houston.
Exploring Houston’s art spaces, Upshaw kept meeting creatives who lacked basic professional tools, like a resume or headshot.
“As I’m helping one and two people, I realized maybe I need to do something a little bigger on a grander scale, because that’s what my career was about,” Upshaw said. “It was about developing policies that affected large populations.”
She launched the association in 2025, about a year after arriving. Following a core policy lesson, she first surveyed 200 creatives.
“It needs to be; what can we as a community do to fill the gap? Because these are our kids.”
Denise Upshaw, founder and CEO, Black Houston Creatives Network
“We didn’t just come up with things, thinking I knew what they needed,” Upshaw said. “We actually surveyed them, we talked to them, we met them where they were.”
The responses pointed to professional development, visibility, and access. It now hosts monthly mixers and showcases across visual, musical, culinary, and performing arts. It also connects creatives with business leaders through partnerships with the National Black MBA Association’s Houston chapter and the Greater Houston Black Chamber.
Houston’s nonprofit arts and culture sector generated $1.3 billion in economic activity and supported more than 21,000 jobs in 2022, according to Americans for the Arts.
Expanding support
Cheryl Morgan, a New York-based friend and adviser to Upshaw, met her more than a decade ago and watched her trade government work to cultivate this initiative.
“She decided that those things were paying the bills, which we all need, but they were not in any way feeding her soul,” Morgan said. “It’s not as if she doesn’t believe in the mission of that work, but it used to fill her, and it wasn’t doing it anymore.”
Morgan believes the legacy of BHCN will be the connections it creates.
“What I see being left behind is just people who have been perhaps isolated, perhaps marginalized, being able to come together, grow together,” Morgan said. “Houston really will become a powerhouse, an artistic powerhouse.”
Upshaw plans to add panels and training next year. Long term, she wants a physical space to showcase Houston creatives and a cultural exchange that connects them with Black artists in Paris or Brazil.
“We would love to have people involved who are just curious,” Upshaw said. “Just start with a little curiosity.”
To donate supplies, volunteer, or nominate an organization for Dream in Color, visit blackcreativesnetwork.com.
