Inside the MFAH
“Inside the MFAH” provides perspectives, conversations, and opinions from insiders at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
For the Love of Art April 24, 2012
Have you ever considered becoming a docent at the MFAH? If you love art and enjoy sharing that love with others, read below for the inside scoop from two of our docents, Shari Chadderdon and Claudia Zopoaragon. Then find out more at the next open house! Click to RSVP for Wednesday, April 25 or Saturday, May 12. Q) How long have you been a docent? Shari Chadderdon: I started training in the fall of …
The Kodak Snapshot: A Conversation with MFAH Curator Anne Tucker (part 2 of 3) April 3, 2012
In the wake of the Eastman Kodak Co. filing for bankruptcy, I sat down for a chat with Anne Wilkes Tucker, the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography at the MFAH. She discussed the history of Kodak and the monumental news that “something that huge is gone.” In part two of our conversation, Tucker explains how the Kodak snapshot changed the way artists and historians viewed the world around …
The Kodak Era: A Conversation with MFAH Curator Anne Tucker (part 1 of 3) February 17, 2012
When Eastman Kodak Co. filed for bankruptcyin January, the news didn’t just mark a drastic point in a company’s history—it marked the end of an era. After all, the story of Kodak is not simply one of economics, but one of innovation, nostalgia, and heritage. With its invention in 1935 of Kodachrome film, the first commercially successful amateur color film, Kodak forever changed how we view the …
Sampling History: A Hidden Chapter Revealed February 16, 2012
Bayou Bend has acquired a rare sampler, skillfully stitched by an African American girl born in 1829. Mary J. Greenfield Smith was a student at the school of the Oblate Sisters of Providence—the first Roman Catholic society for women of African descent in the United States. The Oblate sisters founded a school that embraced a curriculum similar to schools for white girls of the time: preparing …
Stains, Sprays, and Splendor Fill the Canvases of Color Field Painter Jules Olitski February 15, 2012
Color Fieldpainter Jules Olitski didn’t stay in one place very long, artistically speaking. Unlike his contemporaries—Helen Frankenthaler, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland—Olitski changed his artistic techniques frequently. “Olitski is unique among the Color Field painters in the rapidity of his evolution,” says Alison de Lima Greene, MFAH curator of contemporary art and special projects. Greene …
New Year Reflections December 30, 2011
The following entry is an abridged version of my introductory remarks at a recent meeting to discuss the implementation of an Electronic Records Archives system. It revisits the motivating factors for seeking the planning grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission as the MFAH enters the final months of the project, having received a no-cost extension from the commission …
The Mountain November 3, 2011
Back in January of 2010, the news that the National Historical Publications and Records Commission would fund the MFAH’s two-year Electronic Records Archives (ERA) planning grant was met with elation by the project team, which originally consisted of the chief technology officer, the director of information technology, the records manager, and myself, the Archives director. (A third I.T. …
In the Beginning November 3, 2011
In January of 2010, the MFAH Archives received a grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to study and plan the implementation of a trustworthy electronic records archive over a two-year period. The objective of the grant is to extend the archival function of preserving the museum’s permanent records into the electronic realm, since, after all, that is how records …
