Founders Bios
Michele Barnes
Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Community Artists’ Collective (The Collective)
a resident of the historic Third Ward Community having benefited from educational experiences at Jack Yates High School (1966), University of Houston (1970), Prairie View A & M University (2005) and the University of Life-Long Learning (on-going)
naturally collaborative and a team player
The Community Artists’ Collective is a community-based 501(c)(3) organization that, since 1987, has led change in service to the community through the arts. The mission of The Collective is to provide the educational and cultural link among African American artists and all communities inspiring unlimited creativity. This mission is accomplished through programs of excellence in Education, Exhibition, Community Development and Entrepreneurship generally in collaboration with other individuals, agencies and organizations. Through this work, services that engage people in generally underserved communities are bridged by the creative process to satisfying production and experiences.
The Collective challenges local artists to make their own career decisions, to produce work which truly reflects their unique vision and to work with our organization or some other organized effort to “give something back” to the community from which we have emerged.
Personal and Professional objective: To share my skills with other community-based entities to improve the effectiveness of the provision of services, facilitate the improvement of the quality of the lives of residents our community and thereby instill hopefulness for the futures of the individuals and families in the greater Houston area.
Sarah Trotty
Sarah A. Trotty, PhD is a Texas Southern University Retired Associate Professor of Art. She served as Chair, Coordinator, and Interim Chair of Art from 1983 to 2014. Strengthening the art department traditions, she initiated a reclamation program, assisting former students in the completion of their graduations. She established a graphic art program and a comprehensive art education curriculum. During her thirty-one-years at Texas Southern University, Sarah promoted opportunities for art students’ engagement and interaction with various art institutions and programs throughout the city and state.
Sarah taught as a junior high school art teacher in the Houston Independent School District from 1968- 1974 and 1978-1983, where she was among the first of the Houston crossover teachers fostering integration and as a Fine Arts Magnet School art coordinator where students selectively integrated programs.
Sarah earned a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Art Education from the University of Houston (1968), Texas Southern (1974) and Purdue Universities (1977) respectively.
She is a Trustee at The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and a Learning and Interpretation Committee member. She is a founding member of the MFA,H, “African American Art Advisory Association, serving two terms as its president and a co-founder of the Museum Summer Multi-Cultural Internship Program. She is Co-Founder of the Community Artists’ Collective a thirty-five-year-old arts exhibition, education, advocacy organization. She has served over twenty-three years on the Rutherford B. H. Yates Museum Board, which protects the architecture and material culture of Houston’s historical Freedman Town’s community. She also serves as an advisor to the Blue Triangle Multi-Cultural Association, Midtown Art Center and has served as advisor for the Dawn Project for several years.
Sarah is passionate about the preservation of the over 160 murals on the Texas Southern University campus. She formed a committee in 2008 to plant the seeds of their conservation and hosted an event “Save Our Murals” in 2010. A TSU art student internship program, the “Sarah A. Trotty Cultural Art Internships” was named in her honor. She and her husband have launched an endowment/scholarship program to support the Sarah A. Trotty TSU Art Interns. She played a major role in the founding of the TSU University Museum and continues to support it in an advisory capacity.
Sarah has written arts’ catalogues, judged art competitions and juried art shows. She participated in group and solo exhibits including Rice University, Community Artists’ Collective, Mid-Town Art Center, Diverse Works, Beeville Art Museum, and the San Antonio Gallery. She has curated exhibitions at TSU, Lamar University, Christ Church Cathedral, and the Collective. She has given lectures and workshops at the MFA,H, TSU and the Houston Holocaust and the San Antonio Museum.
The Wheeler Avenue Women’s Guild, the Blue Triangle Multi-Cultural Association, and the University of Houston, Black Studies College have honored her.
A 57-year member of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church, Sarah serves on the Count Team and the Deaconess Board, heading up a WABC family group with an active role in their bible study fellowship. She is married to Willie F. Trotty, Ph. D, Prairie View A. & M Professor Emeritus, Retired Vice-President of Research and Development. They have three adult children and four grandchildren.
Barry Barnes
A Virginia native, Barry Barnes relocated to Houston to take a position with Exxon after graduating from Northwestern University School of Law in the class of 1975. After nearly a decade at Exxon, Barnes transitioned into private legal practice along with other Texas attorneys including Sylvester Turner. Barnes has led the firm in developing an expansive array of legal services offered to the greater Houston community.
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