MFAH Free Community Day

On the afternoon of Sunday, May 20, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, presents Celebrating Community: Opening Day, from noon to 4 p.m., inaugurating the new Glassell School of Art; The Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza; and the BBVA Compass Roof Garden. Visitors can enjoy an array of family activities including art-making, performances, and more. The program brings many of the Museum’s community partners to the plaza to participate in the celebration, including MECA (Multicultural Education and Counseling through the Arts); METdance; Texas Southern University; Houston Public Library; Houston Community College; Inprint; and Houston Independent School District. Guests can also embark on a docent-led overview of the new Glassell School of Art, which offers classes for all ages. For more information, visit www.mfah.org.

Activities include: 

• Print & Play—Explore the process of printmaking with silly and everyday objects. Recommended for children 5 and under.
• Wearable Flower Brooches—Celebrate summer and design wearable and colorful flowers inspired by Dutch still life paintings. Recommended for children 5 and up.
• Reflective Handheld Sculptures—Create shimmering and glistening works of art inspired by different metal sculptures. Recommended for all ages.
• Story Booth—Share a story using provided prompts for inspiration, or come up with your own.
• Inprint Poetry Buskers—Get a free poem from the Inprint Poetry Buskers. Using typewriters and the muse of immediate inspiration, these talented local writers will write you a customized poem on a theme of your choice. This activity will end at 3 p.m.
• Fashion Collages with Houston Community College—Participants can create their own vibrant silhouettes by gluing magazine cutouts over fashion croquis drawings. Recommended for all ages.
• Storybook Picnic with Houston Public Library—Grab a book and spend time reading fantastic adventures and epic stories under the shade of trees.
• Play Garden Quest III: The Legend of Stella—Use your cell phone to explore the new plaza and the sculpture garden through an interactive text-based game developed by the hang@MFAH leadership group.
• Project A-DOOR-E with HISD—Explore HISD’s Project A-DOOR-E Houston and see how students transformed doors from storm-damaged homes into works of art.
• Outside the Box: Creativity Challenge—Beginning at 12:30 p.m. on the BBVA Compass Roof Garden, challenge your family and friends to a fun and exciting group art-making competition. Recommended for all ages.

Performances include: 

• Noon—Texas Southern University Jazz Ensemble
• 12:30 p.m.—Performance with percussionist Craig Hauschildt
• 1 p.m.—Ballet Folklorico Performance with MECA
• 2 p.m.—Performance with Aperio

3 p.m.—Performance with METdance

The campus of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is being transformed with a new master plan: two new buildings, designed by Steven Holl Architects; a new conservation center, designed by Lake|Flato Architects; and a landscape plan by Deborah Nevins & Associates that knits together a century’s worth of signature architectural structures. The Glassell School of Art and The Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza was designed by Steven Holl Architects, with plaza designed by Deborah Nevins & Associates in collaboration with Nevins & Benito Landscape Architecture, D.P.C.