Inside the MFAH Archive for December 2016


“Inside the MFAH” provides perspectives, conversations, and opinions from insiders at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.


  • Thanks for a great year! December 29, 2016
    We hope you had a great year. We did, thanks to you. Press play, and enjoy!
  • Bayou Bend Christmas Village 2016 - parents in Spiegeltent
    Making Holiday Magic, One Track at a Time December 15, 2016
    For the past three months, Steve Pine, senior conservator of decorative arts, has been hard at work constructing a model train set from scratch. He spoke with me about the process behind this magical work, which made its debut at the center of the Spiegeltent for this year’s Christmas Village at Bayou Bend. How did you create the model train set?I built the support and wired up the electrical …
  • FOR BLOG POST ONLY - Degas self-portrait in library
    Curator Malcolm Daniel Provides a Snapshot of Degas December 12, 2016
    Few people know that late in life, when his paintings and pastels were already famous, Edgar Degas briefly took up photography. Some 20 of his surviving photographs are featured in the exhibition Degas: A New Vision. Malcolm Daniel, the Gus and Lyndall Wortham Curator of Photography, spoke with me about Degas’s photography. What was the psychological connection between events in Degas’s life …
  • Lonely Are the Brave
    Celebrate Kirk Douglas’s Centennial with MFAH Films! December 7, 2016
    Happy birthday to legendary actor Kirk Douglas, who turns 100 on December 9! To celebrate his centennial, we’re screening Lonely Are the Brave, a 1962 Western he cites as one of his personal favorites. Here’s a nice bit of trivia: This movie had its world premiere at a theater in Houston! With a screenplay adapted by legendary writer Dalton Trumbo—a friend Douglas had just collaborated with …