Katy’s Contemporary Arts Museum to Open Early! Sculpture Garden and Gun Museum on the Way

by Paula Newton September 5, 2013

kcamThe Katy Contemporary Arts Museum (KCAM) will open this Sunday, months ahead of its original planned date. The 60-year-old former lumber company building in downtown Katy will host a group photography exhibition entitled All About Katy.

Ann Roman, KCAM’s executive director and curator, was first shown the property in late January, signed the lease in May, renovated the building, and is now set for the September 8 grand opening. According to yourkatynews.com, KCAM has plans to offer schools of photography and film, and they have now signed a lease with Union Pacific for the land between the museum and the highway, the future home of the “Union Pacific Sculpture Garden.” Also, there are still plans for the creation of “The Texas Gun & Trophy Museum,” which will focus on the artistry of firearm design and taxidermy.

Considering the rate at which Roman got the KCAM up and running, expect to see all those projects to happen soon. In fact, Roman makes creating and running a museum seem like a breeze, telling the Katy Times, “It’s the easiest thing in the world to find good artists and do good shows.” She has hopes of creating a Katy museum district and takes great pride in Katy’s new museum. “We happen to be the very first town surrounding Houston to have an art museum,” Roman said. “Galveston has an art center—it’s not the same thing as a museum; I’m sorry, it isn’t.”

 

 

9 comments

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9 comments

Robert Boyd September 5, 2013 - 09:54

“We happen to be the very first town surrounding Houston to have an art museum,” Roman said. “Galveston has an art center—it’s not the same thing as a museum; I’m sorry, it isn’t.”

The city of Spring and the Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts beg to differ.

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Gary H September 6, 2013 - 01:24

Isn’t the difference between art museum and art center just whether one has a permanent collection or only hosts temporary exhibitions? Doesn’t seem like Katy Contemporary Arts Museum has much to be snooty about, especially when they are paired with “The Texas Gun & Trophy Museum.” Don’t we know the saying about a pig and lipstick?

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Rainey Knudson September 6, 2013 - 08:21

The moniker “museum” is tricky — there are several institutions in TX, and elsewhere, that call themselves museums but either don’t have a collection or have a tiny one that they very rarely display — they are more rightly kunsthalles (art centers), but there’s something significantly less majestic and satisfying about the name “art center,” I suppose. In the CAMH’s 1997 book “Finders Keepers”, then-director Marti Mayo grappled with the issue of the CAMH not having a collection, without really coming to a satisfying resolution.

http://camh.org/archive-publications/publications/finderskeepers

(This undated essay is not the same one as in the book, but it’s similar):
http://www.artlies.org/article.php?id=150&issue=41&s=0

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Alex Irvine September 5, 2013 - 10:14

I think Galveston would beg to differ as well!

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Robert Boyd September 5, 2013 - 10:25

Maybe this will start a “keeping up with the Joneses” race for all the small cities surrounding Houston to build their own museums. Humble, Sugar Land, Pearland, Pasadena, etc.–why should one small geographic area (certain neighborhoods inside the Loop) have all the art? I’d welcome more suburban art spaces.

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Rainey Knudson September 5, 2013 - 11:28

What?? That’s like masterpieces going to somewhere like, say, Arkansas!

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Allison Currie September 6, 2013 - 02:12

I dream of something happening in Cypress worth looking at.

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Copyeditor September 6, 2013 - 07:31

August 8 opening?

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Paula Newton September 6, 2013 - 09:13

Good catch! Fixed, thanks.

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