Here’s a look at what’s going on at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston from July 7-13.
The Audrey Jones Beck Building, 5601 Main Street. Permanent collection: selections of European art until 1920 and American art until 1945. Picturing the Senses in European Art, through July 17; Titian and the Golden Age of Venetian Painting: Masterpieces from the National Galleries of Scotland, May 22–Aug. 14; Beauty, Humor, and Social Justice: Gifts from Joan Morgenstern, May 22–Aug. 21; Helmut Newton: White Women • Sleepless Nights • Big Nudes, now through Sept. 25.
Creation Station: This week´s theme: Looking at a Portrait by Amedeo Modigliani. Location: Beck Building, Farish Classroom. In the studio, discover and make your own work of art inspired by a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani in the European Art galleries. Art-making projects for families are inspired by original works of art on display in the galleries. Families are encouraged to work as artists, using similar materials or similar ideas as the artist who created the focus work of art. Thursday, July 7, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.; Sunday, July 10, 1-4 p.m.
Gallery Investigations: This week´s theme: Looking at a Portait by Amedeo Modigliani. Location: Beck Building, Gallery 226. This week, visit the Gallery Cart to uncover details and insights about a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani in the Euopean Art galleries. At Gallery Investigations, an MFAH educator has looking games, books, and hands-on activities to help families look carefully, uncover details, and think about the cool stuff they are discovering about works of art. Thursday, July 7, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Sketching in the Galleries: This week´s theme: Looking at a Portrait by Amedeo Modigliani. Location: Beck Building, Gallery 226. An MFAH teaching artist guides adults and children of all drawing levels. Sunday, July 10, 1-4 p.m.
Sunday Storytime: This week´s theme: Looking at a Portrait by Amedeo Modigliani. Location: Beck Building, Gallery 226. This week in the Family Zone, an MFAH educator reads the storybook Joseph Had a Little Coat by Simms Taback as part of an interactive exploration of a portrait by Amedeo Modigliani in the European Artgalleries. An MFAH educator will help families make connections between a storybook and a work of art in the galleries with looking games, hands-on materials, and questions that will get everyone talking about the work of art. Sunday, July 10, 1:30-2 p.m.
Looking Together: This program is designed for individuals with Alzheimer’s and their family members or care partners. Discover and discuss works of art together during this hour-long program in the galleries. Admission is free, but space is limited and preregistration is required. For more information or to register, contact tours@mfah.org or 713.639.7324. Monday, July 11, 10-11 a.m.
The Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet Street. Permanent collection: the Glassell Collection of African Gold, pre-Columbian art. Form Follows Function: Celebrating 10 Years of the American Institute of Architects Design Collection at the MFAH, through Jan. 30. Circa 1900: Decorative Arts at the Turn of the Century, through July 31; Charles LeDray: workworkworkworkwork, through Sept. 11; Simpson Kalisher: The Alienated Photographer, through Aug. 18.
A Book and A Look: Enjoy “A Book and A Look” every Thursday during the summer. At this storybook check-out program, check out your book and take it into the galleries to read with your family in front of a work of art that you will also “read” with the help of looking activities. MFAH staff will match up each family’s interests and favorite things with a storybook-and-art pairing. Comfy seating is part of this program, and Spanish-language books are available. Recommended ages: preschool through elementary school. Thursday, July 7, 11 a.m. – 2 p.m.
Art Beyond Sight: Art Beyond Sight is a gallery program for visitors who are blind or partially sighted. Trained educators use verbal descriptions and hands-on materials to engage participants with the museum’s art collections and exhibitions. Admission is free, but space is limited and preregistration is required. For more information, or to register, contact tours@mfah.org call 713.639.7324. Saturday, July 9, 10:30-11:30 a.m.
MFAH Members Tour: A Snapshot of the Photography Collection: With more than 26,000 works of art by 4,000 artists, the MFAH collection of photography is the largest at the MFAH. This tour surveys a portion of the immense collection through images in three exhibitions: contemporary photography in Beauty, Humor, and Social Justice: Gifts from Joan Morgenstern, photographs of landscapes in Second Nature: Contemporary Landscapes from the MFAH Collection, and street photography from the 1960s in Simpson Kalisher: The Alienated Photographer. Space is limited, and spots fill up fast. Reservations must be secured in advance. E-mail rsvp@mfah.org or call 713.353.1550. Saturday, July 9, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Rienzi: The MFAH’s European decorative arts wing, 1406 Kirby Drive, 713-639-7800.
Sketching in the Galleries: Draw from 18th century decorative art objects in the Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassical styles during Rienzi’s open sketching hours. The galleries hold treasures for every artist: space and light, interior design, historical narrative, decorative motifs, reflective surfaces, intriguing shapes, and form inspired by function. Saturday, July 9, 1:30-4:30 p.m.
Family Art Workshop “Cinderella Stories from Around the World”: Family Art Workshops at Rienzi encourage families to come together to create art, write stories and poems, and watch performances inspired by Rienzi’s collection. During this 3-hour workshop, instructors from the Rice Literacy and Culture Project explore the many “Cinderella” stories written from the point of view of different cultures and countries. Families will hear these international tales; write their own “Cinderella” story; and have the opportunity to make puppets for an impromptu performance. Texts featured:
- Cendrillon: A Caribbean Cinderella by Robert D. San Souci / illustrated by Brian Pinkney
- Cindy Ellen: A Wild Western Cinderella by Susan Lowell / illustrated by Jane Manning
- Yeh-Shen: A Cinderella Story from China by Ai-Ling Louie / illustrated by Ed Young
- Cinderella by Max Elenberg / illustrated by Nimah Sharkey
- Cinder Edna by Ellen Jackson / illustrated by Kevin O’Malley
- The Egyptian Cinderella by Shirley Climo / illustrated by Ruth Heller
Admission is FREE, but space is limited and reservations are required. To secure your spot, call 713.639.7800. Reservations not required for adults accompanying children. Recommended for ages 4+. All “A Great Read” programs at Rienzi are underwritten by a supporting grant from the Sterling-Turner Foundation. Sunday, July 10, 1-4 p.m.
Summer Storytime Tour: Explore Rienzi—the MFAH house museum for European decorative arts—through reading. Docents bring art and history alive by relating children’s texts to the art at Rienzi. During Storytime Tours, children explore the furniture, porcelain, and metals at Rienzi through books such as The Empty Pot and King Midas and the Golden Touch by Demi; Madame La Grande and Her So High to the Sky Uproarious Pompadour by Candace Fleming; and Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen. Admission is FREE but reservations are required. To reserve your spot online, click “register” above. To make your reservations over the phone, call 713.639.7800. Reservations are not required for adults accompanying children. This program is suitable for children age 3 to age 12. Wednesday, July 13, 10–11 a.m.
Repertory Films
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Brown Auditorium Theater, Caroline Wiess Law Building, 1001 Bissonnet Street, 713-639-7515; general admission is $7, matinee admission is $6, and children five and under are admitted free. MFAH members, senior adults, and students with ID receive a $1 discount.
Shoah: Screenings cosponsored by the Holocaust Museum Houston. *Part I & II: Thursday, July 7, 10 a.m. (606 min.; Part I: Saturday, July 9, 2 p.m. (291 min.); Part II: Sunday, July 10, 2 p.m. (315 min.). New 35mm print. Special ticket prices apply. General admission is $10 for one part; $15 for both parts. MFAH and HMH members, students with ID, seniors, and members of Film Buffs receive a $2 discount. Twelve years in the making and re-released for its 25th anniversary, Shoah is a monumental epic on the Holocaust featuring interviews with survivors, bystanders, and perpetrators. The documentary contains no historical footage, but showcases interviews which seek to “reincarnate” the Jewish tragedy, and also visits places where the crimes took place. The film was immediately hailed as a masterpiece upon its 1985 premiere—it won prizes from the National Society of Film Critics, New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, Boston Society of Film Critics, BAFTA (Best Documentary), Césars (Honorary), and IDA Awards.
Bill Cunningham New York: (Friday, July 8, 7-8:30 p.m.)For decades, Bill Cunningham, an 80-something New York Times photographer and Schwinn-riding cultural anthropologist, has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high-society charity soirées for the Times Style section in his columns “On the Street” and “Evening Hours.” Documenting uptown fixtures, downtown eccentrics, and everyone in between, Cunningham’s enormous body of work is more reliable than any catwalk as an expression of time, place, and individual flair. In turn, Bill Cunningham New York is a delicate, funny, often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his humanity and unassuming grace.
It Came from Outer Space: (Wednesday, July 13, 11 a.m. -12:15 p.m.) Presented in 3-D. FREE WITH MUSEUM ADMISSION. (No tickets required) A spaceship from another world crashes in the Arizona desert that makes an amateur stargazer and a schoolteacher suspect alien influence when the local townsfolk begin to act strange. “It Came from Outer Space is a crucial gatefold film . . . It was the first screenplay produced by Ray Bradbury — although Bradbury only turned in a treatment and the finished result was rewritten by Harry Essex.” —Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy Film Review.
Facebook Comments