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March 5, 2016, marked the 50th anniversary of Bayou Bend’s opening to the public. We’re celebrating throughout the year with blog posts offering behind-the-scenes perspectives on this cultural and historical Houston treasure.Each year, on the 4th of July, all of America celebrates the historic events of 1776. As Houston’s home for America’s treasures, Bayou Bend goes all out to commemorate …

Thirty-two students from the A+ Unlimited Potential (A+UP) middle school recently took on the challenge of a colorful, larger-than-life collaboration: a mural for the Museum’s Cullen Sculpture Garden. This public art project is now on display as part of the wall that frames the construction of the new Glassell School of Art. The mural features students’ personalized paintings that are pieced …

The films we show at the Museum give audiences the opportunity to see movies on the big screen, and we work with many film distributors who share that goal.

The MFA Café celebrates the art of eating well, with exciting changes to the menu—from the new weekend brunch to added dishes that emphasize local, fresh ingredients—and to the kitchen. New executive chef Marlies Wasterval is hard at work serving up Italian fare with a Texas flair. A native Houstonian, Wasterval joins the Museum after crafting impeccable dishes all over the world, most recently …

March 5, 2016, marked the 50th anniversary of Bayou Bend’s opening to the public. We’re celebrating throughout the year with monthly blog posts offering behind-the-scenes perspectives on this cultural and historical Houston treasure.On May 9, 2008, hundreds of people gathered on a warm, sunny morning under a huge white tent on an empty expanse of land at the corner of Memorial Drive and …

Fashionable women all across 19th-century Europe once clamored to pose for Franz X. Winterhalter, because what could be trendier than a portrait by the painter who could best capture the delicate elegance of a chic gown designed by Charles Frederick Worth, the world’s first couturier? The clientele of the two overlapped considerably, as Worth designed extensively for Napoleon III’s court and …

With the rise of cocktail culture in the 1920s, the stylish elite frequented cafés, cabarets, and speakeasies on nocturnal outings. The selection of decorative arts and costumes in Deco Nights: Evenings in the Jazz Age evokes this rich culture, sharing a visual dialogue with the urban nightlife represented by vehicles on view in Sculpted in Steel: Art Deco Automobiles and Motorcycles, 1929–1940. …

Latin Wave, our biggest annual film festival, returns from April 28 to May 1 with 11 new films from Latin America. Every year is a little different: The 2016 selection has a strong theme of young protagonists coming of age. The teens in Absence, From Afar, I Promise You Anarchy, Ixcanul, and The Second Motherall encounter unique challenges. We get absorbed in their lives, and come to sympathize …

March 5, 2016, marked the 50th anniversary of Bayou Bend’s opening to the public. We’re celebrating throughout the year with monthly blog posts offering behind-the-scenes perspectives on this cultural and historical Houston treasure. I interviewed longtime docent Cyril Hosley, whose official connection to Bayou Bend began in 1994 when she joined that year’s class of docents. But she’s been a part …

In 2016, we mark 70 years since the founding of the groundbreaking Madí movement and the 92nd birthday of its mastermind: Argentinean sculptor and poet Gyula Kosice. Kosice had a pivotal role in the takeoff of original avant-garde movements in Buenos Aires during the 1940s. Along with Uruguayan artists Carmelo Arden Quin and Rhod Rothfuss, and Argentinean poet Edgar Bayley, Kosice edited the …