Education
Art Is for Everyone
The MFAH is founded on one simple belief: Art is for everyone. The mission of the Education Department is to offer programs, tours, resources, and materials that teach and engage adults, children, educators, and students in the world of art. The goal is to create experiences that embrace the importance of art and the museum; to position art and the museum as a meaningful part of a well-rounded life; and to work with partners who support the community through shared values and interests.
To learn about specific offerings, visit:
Membership
Patron Groups
Programs for Adults
Programs for Families
Programs for Educators and School Groups
Programs for Colleges and Universities
Programs for Visitors with Disabilities
History
Since 1900, when the MFAH opened as an art education project in the public schools, the institution has maintained its mission of bringing art to people wherever they live, play, and learn. This commitment has established the MFAH as A Place for All People, an initiative that began in the 1990s with the support of the Wallace Foundation. A Place for All People includes a range of community partnerships (outlined two sections down), audience development, and research projects. Contact outreach@mfah.org to learn more.
Kinder Foundation Education Center
The Kinder Foundation Education Center (KFEC) is the central source of information on art for visitors of all ages at MFAH. A physical space within the MFAH campus, a hub of resources and materials, and curriculum support for educators, KFEC is the heart of the education department and the driving force that helps the museum achieve its mission of being A Place for All People.
Community Partnerships/A Place for All People
Art for All
These programs include Art Beyond Sight for visitors who are blind or have low vision; and Looking Together for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and their family members or care partners.
Art for the Mind and Spirit Where Will I Go Today?
This partnership with Texas Children’s Hospital, Shriners Hospital for Children, and the Ronald McDonald House brings meaningful art experiences to patients, their families, and caregivers. Designed to provide comfort and healing, the initiative recognizes that engaging with art contributes to one’s health, well-being, and social inclusion.
Community Festival Partner
The MFAH supports festivals throughout the community, including Bayou City Arts Festival.
Developing a Creative Family Life
These workshops teach parents how to engage children with the world of art and the MFAH.
Eye on Houston: High School Documentary Photography
Eye on Houston: High School Documentary Photography, formerly known as Eye on Third Ward, is the annual exhibition of photographs by students from Jack Yates High School and this year includes students from Cesar Chavez High School, designed to express the distinctive identity of Houston’s divers communities. The students’ photographs reflect their personal lives as well as broader subjects including the economy, education and family as they relate to the their communities. They were challenged to hone their technological skills and powers of observation by documenting their neighborhoods and its residents. View the CBS Sunday Morning segment about Eye on Third Ward via MFAH on Vimeo.
Impressions A Program for Students Who Are Deaf and Hard of Hearing
A collaboration with HISD's T. H. Rogers School, this artist residency offers students specially designed experiences to interpret art from the MFAH collections and make their own original work.
Murals in the Parks
Launched in 1996, this collaboration between the MFAH and the Houston Parks and Recreation Department created murals at more than 50 Houston city parks. Inspired by art on view at the museum, these murals were designed and painted by local artists and children.
Partnership with Beeville, Texas
This partnership with Beeville, located 180 miles southwest of Houston, includes workshops for teachers, programs for students, and exhibitions and programs at Beeville ISD, the Beeville Art Museum, and the Beeville Library.
Picture Books: Summer Art Camps at the Library
Offered with select Harris County Public Libraries, these summer camps combine literature and art for children ages 6 to 12.
Texas Sor Juana Festival
A multidisciplinary event that honors one of Mexico’s greatest writers and champions of education, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, the festival also pays tribute to the accomplishments of women from Mexico and the United States. Organized by the National Museum of Mexican Art (Chicago), Museo Alameda, Arte Público Press, Esperanza Peace and Justice Center, Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts (MECA), the Mexican American Cultural Center ( MACC), Talento Bilingüe de Houston (TBH) and various organizations throughout Texas.
Traveling Library Exhibitions
This program brings works of art from the MFAH to neighborhood public libraries throughout Houston and Harris County.
Traveling Library Exhibition
From the MFAH Press Room: "A Passion for Glass" Arrives at Harris County Libraries
Visiting Exhibition Showcases 12 Works from MFAH Collection of Lalique Glass
Houston—2011—The MFAH and Harris County Public Library (HCPL) system announce A Passion for Glass, featuring 12 works of art from the MFAH collection by René Lalique, the renowned Parisian glassmaker whose innovative designs defined the pinnacle of style in the early decades of the 20th century.
After opening at the Barbara Bush Library in Cypress Creek on September 12, 2011, A Passion for Glass travels counterclockwise around Harris County to seven additional HCPL branches over the next two years: Tomball Library (November 21, 2011–January 30, 2012); Northwest Library in Cypress (January 30–April 9, 2012); Katherine Tyra Library in Bear Creek (April 9–June 18, 2012); Katy Library (July 16–September 24, 2012); Freeman Library in Clear Lake City (September 24–December 3, 2012); North Channel Library (December 3, 2012–February 4, 2013); and Kingwood Library (February 4–April 15, 2013).
A Passion for Glass will be on display at Harris County libraries accompanied by a variety of interpretive materials that tell the story of the works’ artistic style and surprising historic context. Two styles are represented: Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The patterns and motifs of Art Nouveau were inspired primarily by the free-flowing lines and uncontrollable power of nature, whereas the Art Deco style is characterized by a machine-age aesthetic of clean lines, geometric patterns and symmetry. Themes range from Classical Greek mythology to traditional symbols of French culture and references to Asia.
For example, the exhibition includes two exquisite perfume bottles Lalique designed in the 1920s for the perfumeries Roger & Gallet, and Forvil. Advertising and package design, like these perfume bottles, were new industries in the early 1900s. Lalique’s delicate perfume flasks were meant to attract customers in crowded department stores. His designs were so successful at selling product, that he was commissioned to create more than 250 unique perfume bottle designs.
The objects in the exhibition highlight different functions for art glass. Vases and a bowl were decorative objects for the home. Two perfume bottles were part of the newly-developing strategy of product marketing in the department stores of 1920s and 1930s Paris. An ashtray, with a small-scale female figure adapted from a monumental fountain by Lalique, served both as advertising for Lalique and a souvenir of the 1925 Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes (International Exposition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) in Paris at which the fountain appeared.
Anticipating the exhibition’s library setting, the interpretive labels provide literary links to writers contemporary with Lalique, such as authors Émile Zola and Ernest Hemingway, and poet Robert Desnos.
Everyone will find something of interest and a wealth of information at each library hosting A Passion for Glass. Spanish-speaking visitors can enjoy the exhibition with the colorful Spanish translation of the exhibition label descriptions. Art Cards, designed specifically for classroom teachers, take an in-depth look at 2 works in the exhibition—a perfume bottle and a spiral vase—and offer discussion questions and classroom ideas for teachers. Visitors of all ages can take the Art Detective Challenge on the interactive Family Guide, or have fun creating a cinquain (a 5-line poem) inspired by the exhibition.
The MFAH traveling exhibitions extend the experience of original works of art beyond the museum’s walls. The MFAH offers one of the most unique learning environments in our city—a crossroad of cultures across time and around the world that mirror the capacity of the human spirit to invent, to create, and to dream. This capacity transcends nationalities, cultures, language, and time itself, making the MFAH A Place for All People. In 2010, the MFAH inaugurated the A Place for All People annual awards in recognition of partners whose mission, goals, and work reflect and complement those of the MFAH. “Like the MFAH, HCPL values lifelong learning and embraces the uniqueness of informal education settings throughout the community that position art as the portal for meaningful, interesting experiences that connect the visual arts to peoples’ lives,” said Dr. Victoria Ramirez, W.T. and Louise J. Moran Education Director at the MFAH.
Literacy—whether visual or reading—lies at the heart of the partnership between the MFAH and HCPL. The traveling library exhibitions offer a taste of the visual treasures that await library patrons at the MFAH. To encourage library patrons to visit the museum, the MFAH offers free admission on weekends to any student 18 years of age or younger with a HCPL Power Card, or any library card. And, the MFAH has and continues to provide buses to bring library patrons to the museum for a wide variety of activities—summer art camps, introductory tours, and special exhibitions. HCPL branches are also strong supporters and patrons of the MFAH Book Club Tours, which links works of art in the MFAH collection to themes and characters in the featured book club selection.
About René Lalique
René Lalique was born in France in 1860 into a largely rural society, and his lifetime spanned the invention of electricity, telephones, automobiles, and airplanes. In 1900, he was hailed the greatest jewelry designer in France. By the 1920s, Lalique was also the most celebrated glassmaker in the world. He made his mark in history by applying modern industrial processes to glass production, making it possible for the first time to mass-produce luxury glass for a broader public. Although Lalique died in 1945, his name is still synonymous with luxury glass and his company continues to produce his designs and sell them through Lalique stores worldwide, including Houston’s Galleria. The 12 works of art in A Passion for Glass highlight the styles for which Lalique is best known, as well as the sources that inspired his passion for glass.
Join the Patron Group: Family Circle
The Family Circle is a group for families who want to foster a long-term appreciation of the visual arts in their children while supporting the MFAH. The museum hosts four events per year exclusively for Family Circle members: three programs that focus on the MFAH permanent collections and touring exhibitions, and one major benefit staged throughout the museum. Family Circle members have the opportunity to take exclusive behind-the-scenes tours designed to give children a personalized and interactive introduction to the world of art; attend seminars that share strategies for enhancing children’s visits to the museum; and participate in other fun programs that encourage a lifelong interest in the visual arts. Annual dues: $950 (includes a Family-level membership to the MFAH)
Education Programs receive generous funding from:
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Kinder Foundation Institute of Museum and Library Services ExxonMobil Favrot Fund Michael C. Linn in memory of his mother Patricia G. Linn National Museum of Korea Mrs. Evelyn Houstoun Chew The Hamill Foundation John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Susanne M. and Melbern G. Glasscock The Boeing Company The Brown Foundation, Inc. An Anonymous Donor Chevron Corporation Fulbright & Jaworski L.L.P. Houston Junior Woman’s Club JPMorgan Chase Foundation |
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Junior League of Houston, Inc. CFP Foundation Mr. Samuel F. Gorman Mr. William J. Hill Mrs. Nancy Glanville Jewell the Strake Foundation Toni Wallingford The Marcus Institute for Digital Education in the Arts Mrs. Fred R. Lummis Humanities Texas - a state partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities Texas Commission on the Arts Dr. Charles & Jo Ann Onstead Foundation VSA—The International Organization on Arts and Disability Polly and Murry Bowden Nancy and James Gordon Lubrizol Foundation Mrs. Sara E. White. |
All education programs at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, receive endowment income from funds provided by:
Caroline Wiess Law
The National Endowment for the Humanities
The William Randolph Hearst Foundation
Fondren Foundation
BMC Software, Inc.
The Wallace Foundation
The Louise Jarrett Moran Bequest
Neal Myers and Ken Black Children’s Art Fund
The Favrot Fund
Gifts in honor of Beth Schneider