<\/p>\n
Jessi Heiner discusses the vehicle entry for the group Houston Stitching Together\u2019s vehicle entry for this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the iconic parade through downtown Houston, threatened to remove that category altogether before reinstating it last minute.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Amy Erickson hangs sections of colorful stitchwork on a vehicle for Houston Stitching Together\u2019s entry in this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the parade, threatened to remove that category before reinstating it at the last minute.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Amy Erickson connects colorful stitchwork on a vehicle for Houston Stitching Together\u2019s entry in this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the iconic parade through downtown Houston, threatened to remove that category altogether before reinstating it last minute.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
A laptop with a sticker that reads \u201cYarn Against the Machine\u201d is seen as members of the group Houston Stitching Together work on the group\u2019s entry for this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the iconic parade through downtown Houston, threatened to remove that category altogether before reinstating it last minute.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Amy Erickson hangs sections of colorful stitchwork on a vehicle for Houston Stitching Together\u2019s entry in this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the iconic parade through downtown Houston, threatened to remove that category altogether before reinstating it last minute.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
A laptop with a sticker that reads \u201cYarn Against the Machine\u201d is seen as members of the group Houston Stitching Together work on the group\u2019s entry for this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the iconic parade through downtown Houston, threatened to remove that category altogether before reinstating it last minute.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Amy Erickson connects colorful stitchwork on a vehicle for Houston Stitching Together\u2019s entry in this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the iconic parade through downtown Houston, threatened to remove that category altogether before reinstating it last minute.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Jessica Catrett sorts through yarn pieces to potentially hang on group Houston Stitching Together\u2019s entry for this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the iconic parade through downtown Houston, threatened to remove that category altogether before reinstating it last minute.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Members of the group Houston Stitching Together work on the their entry for this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the iconic parade through downtown Houston, threatened to remove that category altogether before reinstating it last minute.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
Amy Erickson hangs sections of colorful stitchwork on a vehicle for Houston Stitching Together\u2019s entry in this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the iconic parade through downtown Houston, threatened to remove that category altogether before reinstating it last minute.<\/p>\n
Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n
The Houston Art Car Parade<\/a> is Kerrianne Clabaugh\u2019s Super Bowl.<\/p>\n For seven years, the art teacher and her students at Houston ISD\u2019s Sam Houston Math, Science and Technology Center have spent hours transforming beads, pool noodles and gigantic busts of Salvador Dal\u00ed<\/a> into elaborate mobile artworks. Last year, the school finally took home the parade\u2019s top prize.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a big surprise, but I think it was well deserved,\u201d Clabaugh said.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Now in her final year, the parade has taken on new meaning. Her longtime art partner launched a competing project at Westbury High School, creating a friendly rivalry.<\/p>\n But the work is also unfolding during a turbulent year for Houston ISD. The district has announced 14 campus closures<\/a> and lost more than 8,000 students<\/a> \u2014 including nearly 4,000 immigrant students<\/a> \u2014 changes that are showing up in art car projects across the district.<\/p>\n At Sam Houston, the impact is personal. Former senior and soccer captain Mauro Yosueth Henriquez was deported to Honduras<\/a> on Wednesday after nearly four months in an adult immigration detention center.<\/p>\n Clabaugh said she hopes the art car offers her students a sense of relief.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s their outlet. It’s just nice to give them that,\u201d Clabaugh said. \u201cI like to be that classroom where they want to go.\u201d<\/p>\n MORE ON MAURO: Texas GOP leaders silent on deportation of HISD student<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018It just gets bigger\u2019<\/p>\n More than 30 years ago, Rebecca Bass helped create the first HISD art car at Bellaire High School. Her work inspired other campuses to create their own art cars, and years later, she helped launch Sam Houston\u2019s program, said Wendy\u00a0Bejarano, a former Sam Houston teacher who transferred to\u00a0Westbury this year.<\/p>\n \u201cShe kind of passed me the torch and pushed me to do an art car,\u201d Bejarano said. \u201cShe definitely paved the way for all the art teachers.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The school has won several art car awards, raising the stakes for this year, Clabaugh said.<\/p>\n For Sam Houston’s \u201cDali-Dusa\u201d project this year, Salvador Dal\u00ed\u2019s head is topped with the head of a snake and paired with bejeweled elephants, glittering bodies and a Medusa-themed bust of Frida Kahlo.<\/p>\n \u201cIt just gets bigger and bigger every year,\u201d Clabaugh said. \u201cIt definitely gets harder, because once you win big, everyone’s expecting you to keep doing big and amazing and crazy things.\u201d<\/p>\n This year, she and Bejarano will be back-to-back. The two \u201csister cars\u201d share some design elements but diverge on theme. While Sam Houston\u2019s car focuses on one artist,\u00a0Westbury\u2019s is themed around the Renaissance era, complete with shimmering replicas of the \u201cCreation of Adam,\u201d \u201cThe Vetruvian Man\u201d and \u201cThe Birth of Venus.\u201d<\/p>\n Bejarano said hundreds of students contributed to the project.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s mostly exciting that everybody gets to participate,\u201d Bejarano said. \u201cIt might be imperfect, but it’s perfect to (the students) because they got to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n Houston Stitching Together\u2019s entry for this year\u2019s Houston\u2019s Art Car Parade is seen, Thursday, April 9, 2026. The knitting group, known for its guerrilla-style, anti-Houston ISD takeover stance, won Best Political Statement in last year\u2019s event. This year, the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art, the organization that puts on the iconic parade through downtown Houston, threatened to remove that category altogether before reinstating it last minute.<\/p>\n Jason Fochtman\/Houston Chronicle<\/p>\n New setbacks<\/p>\n Last year, parade watchers warmly received Houston Stitching Together\u2019s \u201cSave HISD\u201d<\/a> art car \u2014 so much so that it won the prize for Best Political Statement.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The brightly knitted car \u2014 complete with hand-woven signs calling to \u201cbring back books\u201d and a papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 bust of state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles \u2014 was designed to protest HISD\u2019s ongoing state takeover.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were surprised, but it seemed like everybody really was supportive and loved us. That\u2019s what we thought,\u201d said Stitching Together’s Jessica Catrett. \u201cNow it’s taken on a different tone.\u201d<\/p>\n Just a week before this year\u2019s competition, a mass email from parade organizer the Orange Show declared that to preserve the spirit of the event, political messages on vehicles were no longer allowed<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Stitching Together team, which had almost completed a new, larger project for this year\u2019s parade, was thrown into a tailspin \u2014 especially given the parade\u2019s long history of protest.<\/p>\n HOUSTON ART CAR PARADE: Route, parking and what to know before you go<\/a><\/p>\n Tensions intensified when the Orange Show also announced it would no longer host the political category<\/a>, citing concerns that Houston Stitching Together planned to organize a protest against the district’s state takeover. The category was reinstated after criticism, and the group’s Jessi Heiner said it plans to meet with the Orange Show after the parade to better understand the fallout. Orange Show also walked back its decision on political statements.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m hoping that we can bridge the gap, figure out what happened and just build that relationship,\u201d Heiner said.<\/p>\n The group has had plenty more protest signs to weave together this year.\u00a0HISD\u2019s state-appointed Board of Managers in February approved plans to close 12 campuses next year, citing enrollment declines and aging facilities.\u00a0<\/p>\n Every campus’ name is now displayed on the back of the art car.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe morning after the school closures, everyone was super sad,\u201d said Amy Erickson, who protested the closure of Port Houston Elementary<\/a>. \u201cWe thought, \u2018What can we do? And there was the idea that we make a little tribute to the schools.\u201d<\/p>\n The Texas Education Agency has also announced it will take over four school districts<\/a> next year. Stitching Together this year themed its messaging around voting out Gov. Greg Abbott and voting for Democratic nominee Gina Hinojosa<\/a>, who has spoken out against state intervention of public schools.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s known as a granny hobby has really become a way that we can be loud and share a strong message,\u201d Erickson said. \u201cSoft yarn, but really tough message.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n