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Breakfasts and Boxed Lunches, MFAH-Style
Bring the family and grab a meal in the museum’s Cafe Express, now serving breakfast and $5 sack lunches. Café seating is available in Cullen Sculpture Garden, so take your treats across the street and enjoy a picnic. Admission to the sculpture garden is always free.
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“Cool” Facts:
The MFAH must be kept between 68 and 72 degrees with a relative humidity of 50%, which is a whole lot more comfortable than it is outside during a Houston summer. Do you know why the museum must be kept at those cool temperatures, and why some art must be kept even cooler? Below are some “cool” facts about temperature and art at the MFAH and the important role it plays in conserving works of art for future generations:
- Some works of art actually move with changes in temperature and humidity, especially organic materials such as canvas, paper, and wood. Movement can cause paint to flake from the canvas that it’s painted on or can cause the canvas itself to become brittle.
- Mold can grow if the humidity exceeds 68%, so humidity is closely regulated.
- The MFAH has works that are made of soap, wax and plastic that must be kept “cool” at all times to prevent melting.
- Black-and-white photography from the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries must be kept in refrigerated storage at a temperature of 60 degrees. Color photographs (and contemporary inkjet photographs) have to be stored at a temperature almost 30 degrees cooler, to preserve the pigments and color in the photographs.
- For every month a photograph is on view it has to be returned to refrigerated storage for one year. So, for example, if images such as the ones in Amy Blakemore’s exhibition Photographs 1988—2008 are on view for five months, that means they must be returned to storage for five years before they can be placed on view again. So see them while you can!
- Bronze sculptures that have “bronze disease” must be kept at below 40% humidity to prevent the “disease” from spreading to other works of art.
- Works coming from Asia must be sealed in special cases at 65% humidity, because that is the humidity of their original environment.
- The MFAH Buildings & Grounds department installs, maintains and monitors all the elaborate equipment needed to maintain the museum environment.
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Browse MFAH Shop
Located in the Beck lobby, MFAH Shop carries a wide range of art books and educational materials, useful and decorative accessories for your home and office, fun games, and much more! Come check it out.
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Gallery Talks
Let a museum guide take you through the galleries for a focused talk about the art on view. Make connections between different works, media, time periods, and cultures. Gallery Talks last either 20 or 45 minutes (see calendar), and they are free with museum admission every Tuesday through Saturday.
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Family Fun
Every day is fun for families at the MFAH. To wander at your own pace, pick up an Art Search card, a Family Guide, or a Family Pack. Or join in one of the many fun-filled scheduled activities, such as Creation Station, Family Tours, and Sketching in the Galleries.
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MFAH House Museums
There’s always something fun to do at Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, the MFAH house museum for American decorative arts. Rienzi, the house museum for European decorative arts, offers summer tours and activities in June and July.
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Weekend Films
See something different this summer. Only the MFAH brings you new documentaries, restored classics, award winners from Cannes, and a celebration of Italian cinema.
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Target Free First Sundays
This popular kid-friendly free-for-all offers a new topic of discovery on the first Sunday of every month. Activities include Storytime Tours, Family Flicks, art workshops, and live performances, all topped off by lemonade and popcorn. Free admission, courtesy of Target, from 1 to 5 p.m.
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Free Events on Thursdays
Once a month, the MFAH presents family-friendly movie matinees such as The Sound of Music. Artful Thursday programs, held in the evening, feature artists' talks, performances, and other entertainment.
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Spend the Holidays Here, Too!
The museum is open on Monday holidays, including Memorial Day and Labor Day. The MFAH is also open on Independence Day, or head over to Bayou Bend’s annual Fourth of July Celebration of Americana.
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