Cow Parade in Houston, Texas - Moovelous Painted Ones!
76Yippee Cow Yea!
The cows are here!
This was the headline ad in the Houston Chronicle for the "Moovelous" CowParade Houston, Texas 2001 event that was on display all over the metropolitan area from September 6 - November 7.
It was a fundraising event that was the largest ever at that time benefiting Texas Children's Hospital. The goal was to raise $3.2 million for the hospital and prior to the cows ever being on display over half of that goal had been met.
Counting cows...
How many cows were individually hand painted and put on display for this Houston CowParade?
Three hundred and twenty five is the answer!!!
Just imagine the work and coordination that it took to organize an event like this one!
Cow Parade in Houston, Texas
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Cow Parade in Houston, Texas
The scope of this fundraiser was humongous and the cows, once painted, were displayed in and outside of buildings all over the Houston area.
Some were in grocery stores!
Cows were on the grounds of our two major airports.
Bovines could be found in downtown parks.
One was in a car dealership show room.
Another was in a jewelry store!
Parks to parking lots.......these colorful artistic expressions were around every nook and cranny of this city.
Several were on the grounds as well as inside hospitals.
From downtown to uptown to surrounding areas just outside of town, these colorfully painted cows drew crowds of people viewing them and photographing them.
Parents held their children on the cows backs for photographic memories of this event.
Cow Mania had taken over the city!
It created a reason to travel around the city and mark off the cows one had been able to see.
The Houston Chronicle newspaper provided an official map and guide as to each cow's where-abouts.
Both Houstonians as well as tourists that had come to our city during this event were entertained by these wildly colorful expressions of bovine artistry.
Smiling faces were seen and laughter was heard everywhere as people gathered around yet another cow.
Exchanges of information was often shared between cow aficionados.
"Have you seen this cow yet? Be sure and go to this location !"
Suddenly the people in our very friendly city had gotten even more friendly.
Moo-R Cow Sightings at the Houston Cow Parade
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Cow Parade figures
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Cow Parade MORE THAN JUST MEAT Ceramic Figure 2001 NEW!
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WESTLAND GIFTWARE "COW PARADE" FIGURE # 7260 "KIDS COWSTRUCTION"
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Sponsorships
To accomplish this type of a massive fundraiser not only was long range planning needed but sponsors had to be secured to help pay for all the expenses that would be incurred.
The volunteers worked for two years in accomplishing this feat.
All of these plain white fiberglass cows were rustled into town and the sponsorships per cow ranged from $7,500 to $100,000.
Artists had to be found to paint and decorate each cow and then they had to be delivered to a myriad of places for the 10 day show.
At the end of the show there was a live auction of 60 of these cows that took place at the Cullen Theater at Wortham Theater Center. Amazon.com conducted an online auction of many of the other cows.
Merchandise sales of miniature copies of selected cows and all types of other CowParade souvenirs ( like calendars ) were displayed at various locations all around town. This all contributed to the final amount of money raised for this excellent cause.
Sponsors ranged from all different types of business owners to school art clubs to individuals.
Cow Parade in Houston, TX
Artists
One artist that we knew who received one of those unadorned white cows was happy to pay for the privilege of painting it.
Most of the artists worked in their homes and studios but some that did not have the room were given an opportunity to use some empty store space in Uptown Park.
All summer long one could look through the windows and see these creations being made. As one would be finished, another would take it's place.
Each artist put their own stamp of originality onto these plain white moulded bovines. In some cases the cows were dismembered to create a new form such as the one at your right.
Houston Cow Parade - More Cows MOOve In!
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Cow Parade in Houston, TX
Cows galore!
For obvious reasons, this hub would be way too long if I kept adding more photos of the cows that I had taken during this ten day display. Suffice it to say, we along with thousands of other people had fun following the guide and discovering the innovatively painted and bedecked cows in all parts of our fair city.
Titles of many of the cows pretty much described their appearance. Let your imagination fill in the colors and style of these:
The Gumball Machine
Ice Cream Lover
Livin' La Vaca Loca
Texas Moo-bonnets
Udderly Beautiful
IC Polo Cow
Holsteen Cowlajuwan
Stampede
Moo-bonnets
Moondrian
Deli-cow-tessen
Moogritte
Hibiscow
Mooseum District Cow
Udderly Glazing
The Cultured Cow, Cowgirl, Cowboy, Houston Chronicow, Scholasticow, Cowculus, Mooost Immooovative, Sea Cow, City Cow, Country Moosic Star, Gulf of Mooxico, Stage COWch, Running of the Cows, Elvis Cowsley in Grazeland, Metallicow, Exploring the Mooniverse, Moo-iro, Moocho Colores, Flaming Cow, Moo-riachi and on and on it goes.
The names were clever and when looking at each creation one could easily see what had inspired the artist.
A final bevy of beauties from the Houston Cow Parade
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Did you see any of the Cowparade when it was in Houston?
See results without votingWhile this is just a smattering of the photos that I took that year, you now have some idea of the fun we had while joining others and rediscovering our city while in this MOOving Fundraiser Mode.
Many other cities have had similar fundraisers using different models. We know of Pelicans; Benches and Charlie Brown and Snoopy characters. Do you know of others?
Hope you enjoyed this look at the CowParade that took place in Houston, Texas. It was truly "Moovelous!"
Houston, Texas - Houston, Texas
Japanese Garden in Houston, Texas - Serenity in Hermann Park
Cockrell Butterfly Center Pictures ~ Butterflies Galore in Houston, Texas
Pictures of lovely Primavera in the Houston, Tx. Galleria Mall
Other hubs from in and around Houston by Peggy W...
- Japanese Garden in Houston, Texas - Serenity in Hermann Park
- Hermann Park in Houston, Texas ~ Something for Everyone
- Discovery Green Park in Houston, Texas - Pictures, Sculpture and Impressions
- Delightful Fine Dining Experience ~ Sorrento Ristorante Italiano in Houston, Texas
- Pictures of Tucked Away Houston, Texas Escape ~ Tiny Boxwoods ~ Cafe and Nursery
- Cockrell Butterfly Center Pictures ~ Butterflies Galore in Houston, Texas
- Rothko Chapel verses Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum in Houston, Texas
- Fabulous Landscape Paintings in Houston's MFA ~ Van Gogh and Other Masterpieces
- Phenomenal Cullen Sculpture Garden in Houston, Texas
- Why Linocut Art of St. Matthew Lutheran Church in Houston?
- West Houston Airport ~ Commemorative Air Force ~ WW2 Aircraft ~ Paratroopers and My Dad
- Pictures of lovely Primavera in the Houston, Tx. Galleria Mall
- Colorful Pictures ~ Attractions in Houston ~ Azalea Trail ~ Ima Hogg's Bayou Bend
- Ship Channel Tour as a Tourist Attraction in Houston, Texas
- Texas - The wild and wacky Art Car Museum in Houston
Cow Parade figure in Hermann Park
CommentsLoading...
That time of the year again ... have seen a few pop up in yards this year too around West U and Bellaire.
Hi Billy,
There are still some of the painted cows from the Cowparade in Houston situated here and there depending upon who purchased them as a fundraiser for Texas Children's Hospital. I was not aware that any of them were at the Rodeo each year. Are they new ones that are sold off to help that charitable cause? (You can probably tell that we do not attend the rodeo or I would know the answer). We do have friends that are very involved in the annual rodeo in Houston every year.
Hi Alicia Crowder,
Glad you enjoyed seeing this Cowparade hub from Houston, Texas. Sorry for the late response. For some reason your comment was labeled as spam and until another comment came along, I had not gone back to this hub. So a very late thanks for your comment!
Great hub - this is one of the things we look forward to a the Rodeo every year - afer a great cause and they look awesome. Amazing how each year they come up with new designs. Clever those Texan kids :)
What an interesting article! I'm sure cow fans everywhere should appreciate it! :)
Hi Spanislish V.,
You probably mean me, right? Ha! Actually this was all done for a good cause and raised lots of money. Was just a lot of fun for the rest of us!
They are so fanciful! however, I think someone has to much time on their hands!
Captain Hoof was a good one, MellasViews. Maybe someday your town will do something like this. It does take a lot of organization and time and effort to pull something like this off. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.
OMG I loved all of them. Captian Hoof was pretty hilarious.... I wish we had something like this in my town.
KCC Big Country and Proud Mom,
What is the address of that Munster House in Waxahachie?
For the Houston attractions........
The Darth Vader Helmet house is at the corner of Buffalo Speedway and University Place in West University. It is a private residence and you will be amazed at it's appearance.
The Beer Can House is on Malone Street perpendicular to and just a block or two north of Memorial Drive.
Hope you get to see these, Proud Mom! The Beer Can House is generally open on weekends for viewing on the inside as well as looking at the outside. We started showing it to people when it was still inhabited. It no longer is, but the weekend that we viewed the inside, the son of the original owners was there to talk to people. The Orange Foundation now owns it and it is quite the tourist attraction for people that appreciate oddities.
We'll be going through Waxahachie to get to Houston. We'll have to check it out.
How have I gone my whole life in and out of most of Texas, and never known any of this stuff. You guys sure are adding alot of color to my life!!! :-))
In one of my hubs I talk about a house in Waxahachie (near Dallas) that is a replica of the Munsters Mansion from the 60s TV show. It's awesome.
I'm with you PM....Darth Vader Helmet House sounds cool.
I'd definitely call a "Darth Vador Helmet House" odd and interesting. I'm headed to Houston in a couple of weeks with the family. Now I have a list of things to do in our free time!!!!
I'm a very observant person (my guess is all writers are) and I love taking people to see the odd and interesting things around town. We sound a lot alike.
Hi Proud Mom,
Thanks for forwarding this to others. More people will get a flavor of what we were able to enjoy. Can you save a piece of that pie for me? Ha!
Hello KCC Big Country,
Nice that you also got to see cows on parade. The piano cow sounds interesting.
Would love to see that gorilla! It sounds like you do what we do when we have company. We take them around and show them beautiful spots in our city......and also the unusual.
There is a home in one part of our city that was built to look like the helmet of Darth Vador. Another house.........The Beer Can House............was totally covered with flattened beer cans of every kind. The owner got tired of painting! It expanded to his yard. Amazing site!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
I guess that gorilla is very well-insulated and spreading wider as the days go by. Kinda sounds like me. Gotta go before someone else grabs that last football-shaped pecan pie. Hee Hee!
The cows also made it to my part of Texas but we didn't have nearly that many. They were awesome though. One of my favorites sat in front of a music store that sold instruments and it was painted like a piano. It had black and white piano keys all over it.
We have a popular business owner whose wife has a huge, I mean huge, concrete gorilla that sits in her front yard on a very upscale street. She paints and repaints the gorilla for every holiday and special event. For instance, right now it's probably painted for the Super Bowl. But, tomorrow she'd repaint it for Groundhog Day, then quickly switch to Valentine's Day. Even people who have grown up in this area all their lives don't know about her gorilla for some reason. So, I always include their house in any Scavenger Hunt I do so that everyone can see what the gorilla is 'wearing' now.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful photos!
You had a TON of them! We didn't have nearly that many penguins.
This sounds like the PERFECT family outing. What memories!! I'm so glad you put it in a hub. I'm going to forward it to friends who are too faint-of-heart to hub.
Have a wonderful afternoon!
Dear Ripplemaker,
I hope that you get to see something like this in person someday. Thanks for commenting.
Hello Proud Mom,
Too bad about the thefts! We only had one occurrence of it here probably because of the weight of the cows. The cow was cleverly called UDDER COWSTRUCTION. The cow was "dressed" with yellow work boots; an orange vest; a yellow hard hat and was wearing a belt with tools attached. Adjacent signs had the wording MOOVE COWTIOUSLY; STEER OUR WAY, and COWTION UDDER COWSTRUCTION.
I actually tried to load this picture into this hub and it wouldn't load. When the cow was stolen, two of the yellow boots remained. Cleverly, they added another large sign in the vacant cow space that said: CRIME SCENE HOLY COW! BEEN CATTLE RUSTLED HOW IN'COW'SIDERATE PLEASE RETURN OUR COW Two orange cones were added to the base that had the two yellow boots.
The cow was recovered and placed back. If my memory is accurate, I believe a couple of college kids took the cow as a prank. Sorry that you could not see both pictures as they simply would not load.
As to why we did not see them all............remember, there were 325 of them and the Houston metropolitan area is huge! 4th largest city in the country!
Just for you.......I went back into my CowParade photo album and counted the individual cows that I had photographed.......not counting the cows in "herds" or group shots. I have 298 cow photographs and I did not count the same cow twice. Some I shot from different angles or did close-ups of the paintings on their sides for example.
We missed a few here and there due to parking problems, etc. Some were placed in the downtown tunnels between buildings. We missed seeing those. But as you now know, we saw the vast majority of them.
As to picking a favorite.........that is tough! There were a couple of them in The Galleria that were in an upright position with their front legs lifted up like upraised arms. They were dressed almost identically with golden dresses splashed with multi-colored flowers; red shoes on their feet and white gloves on their "hands." Hats matched their dresses and they had lucious red lips opened as if they were smiling. They were in a dance pose and their names.......
Frida Stare and Ginger Rhinestone!
Moonwalking Cow was a good one! Another upright cow dressed in an astronauts uniform holding a Texas Flag. The cow was standing on a white moulded "rock" that was titled.......HOUSTON WE HAVE LANDED. The large helmit atop the uniform had the cows face looking forward.
I really liked Elsie's Udder Magic. Another photo that would not load! She is another upright cow dressed in a lavendar dress with a yellow daisy necklace. She has one hoof (hand) on a red checkered table and her other "hand" is holding a blue pitcher with probably cream or something dairy in it. On the table is an ice cream dessert topped with a red cherry.
Inside an HEB grocery store was Marilyn Mooviestar. An upright cow with blonde hair, dressed in a pink dress wearing pink high heeled shoes. She is standing on a grate.......and yes, you guessed it........her dress is blown up! She is trying to push it down with her "arms."
I liked the French Moodle and Cactow. Those at least you can see as they did load onto this hub. You can also probably tell..........it would be hard to pick just one favorite.
As to a family favorite....same problem with choosing just one! I will assure you that we did have fun as a family on all of our outings. We did this on many different days.
Thanks for your questions and comments.
Hello Dayzeebee,
Yes, it was quite the undertaking to produce such a large show such as we had in Houston. And you are correct that the artists all deserve credit for making it such a delight to see and experience. Some of the cows were purchased by local businesses and still grace our fair city for everyone to enjoy as a piece of public outdoor art.
We had penguins to help our zoo pay for the new exhibit. People kept stealing them, though. It became quite a sport. Not for me, mind you, but it was a huge source of frustration for the owners and sponsors. They ended up in the oddest places.
So I'm curious. What kept you from seeing them all?
I'd also like to know which one was your personal favorite, and what was your choice as a family?
Very good hub!!! I followed ripplemaker over.
Yes, yes, yes, I would love to have something like this as a fundraising activity. Soooo cool and cute and very interesting. :-) Thank you for sharing Peggy. And salute to all the artists who did a wondrous job!
Wow Peggy W, such an interesting hub. This goes well with the year of the ox celebration.LOL. I never knew there was such an activity. I can imagine the kind of work organizers had to go through to get this going. The artists did an amazing job at making those cows look exciting! Thanks for sharing. I enjoyed it.:)
Hello Whitney05,
It really was fun going out and about and seeing most of them. We missed a few....but not many! My husband used to call it our daily "round up!" For some reason some of the really good ones would not load onto hubpages. But I think you at least get a sense of the variety that was out there. From Astronauts to the Statue of Liberty and everything in between was represented in cow fashion.
The French Moodle was one of the first CowParade figurines that I ever received. I see that it was at the Houston show. Very cool pictures. I'd love to go to a real show.
Peggy W Hub Author 14 months ago
Hi Billy,
These must be individuals or businesses that purchased them during the Cow Parade in Houston. Nice that the money went to charity.