Houston hosts a great Museum Day

More than 1300 museums participated nationally last Saturday in the sixth annual Museum Day, offering free admission to the public. It’s reported that over 500,000 people took advantage of the chance to visit museums as part of this program.

I’ll be posting images and links to two new-to-me museums I visited. First up is Houston Center for Contemporary Craft on West Main. This place was wonderful, and I can’t wait to go back. The galleries were filled with wood, metal, glass, jewelry, and fiber art. In addition, tables and studios were filled with craftspeople and artisans interacting with the public to show weaving, woodworking, blacksmithing, beading, and jewelry-making among other crafts.

I couldn’t take photos of the exhibits, but some of my favorites were Edward Lane McCartney’s “Wrecking Ball,” made of hundreds of tiny plastic soldiers and their vehicles tied together (this was very popular with kids); “Matchbook Collection” created by Gale Gibbs from found objects; Emily Black’s “A Woman’s Place Is In The Home”–a deer head she wove from and embellished with several materials; and “The Nuances of Daily Wash” by Marilyn Faulk Lanser, using dryer lint, paper, cullulose, and wax resin. So much of the art was whimsical, and it was obvious from their reactions that people really responded to it.

And the jewelry! It was breathtaking.

I did get some shots of the table exhibits with permission.

Just some of the beautiful pieces shown by the Woodworkers Club of Houston.

Fiber art from Houston Area Fiber Artists.

I fell hard for this art doll and her owl, both created by Pepper Hume.

In the small world department, I had no idea that Kerry, who I met years ago through our mutual friend Robin, is a dollmaker. Here, she’s holding up her magical Blue Mermaid:

Behind the museum was an outside garden with sculptures and many of the plants that are used in weaving, dyeing, papermaking, basketry, and more.

And my last stop was to see a working blacksmith, whose audience included a spellbound little girl who seemed glad that unlike horses, her shoes don’t have to be hammered on with the crafted nails that her adult companion showed her. The Houston Metal Arts Guild will have a member show at Hanson Galleries in Uptown Park beginning October 8.

Thanks to support from members, foundations, corporations, and friends, admission to the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft is always free. The hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 12 to 5 p.m. Although I was delighted to see so many people, especially parents getting their children excited about art, I’m looking forward to exploring the museum again at a more leisurely pace. Who’s going with me?