The beautiful but empty Grapevine Convention Center
UPDATE: 3/20/2020: 4PM
Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center: Closed March And April. Live Stream event Monday, March 12, 11AM.
There have been more closings, cancellations, and postponements from museums and galleries across Texas since we published our first updating list less than a week ago. As of this writing, there have been a couple of hold outs (the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts in El Paso was still open to visitors as of Monday, and Flatbed Press in Austin announced Tuesday that it will remain open). UPDATE: March 18: Flatbed Press is now by appointment only (4 people or fewer).Even as we continue to talk about it, and share an evolving list of resources for artists affected, Glasstire is actively exploring ways we continue to be a resource for artists, collectors, museums, and galleries alike.
Ruby City.
Adding to our list of news coming out of the Texas art world: All major museums in the Houston Museum District Association announced closures yesterday. See our news on that here. Since Monday, Houston Center for Photography has closed and moved classes online. Also closed in Houston and the Houston area: The Printing Museum; Houston Asia Society; Houston Center for Contemporary Craft (HCCC); and Pearl Fincher Museum of Fine Arts. Austins’s Mexic-Arte Museum and The Witte Museum have all closed until further notice. San Antonio’s Ruby City and The McNay are closed. (SAMA had already announced.)
Expanding this list to West Texas: The Old Jail Art Center has shuttered for now, and so has the Contemporary Art Museum Plainview.
Glasstire has also received dozens of commercial and non-profit gallery and art-space closures, partial-closures, and postponement notifications. We still recommend going directly to galleries’ websites for info, or contacting galleries for by-appointment visits, but here is a partial list of notifications we have received:
Foltz Fine Art Gallery, Houston: Closed/ Open by appointment.
Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, San Antonio: Some Programs Canceled, others postponed.
DiverseWorks, Houston: Closed. Project Freeway Fellowship Talk scheduled for March 18 is canceled. 2020 Fellowship will as planned, with online application portal opening at 5 pm on Wednesday, March 18.
Artspace 111, Fort Worth: Artspace111 has decided to cancel the 2020 Spring Gallery Night celebration at Artspace111 and all other social events until further notice.
Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston: Open by appointment only until further notice.
Women & Their Work, Austin: Closed, effective March 17.
Bihl Haus Arts, San Antonio: Closed: The organization will be moving some programs online.
Wally Workman Gallery, Austin: Open by appointment only until further notice.
Holly Johnson Gallery, Dallas: Open by appointment only until further notice.
Cris Worley Fine Arts, Dallas:In response to the ongoing developments surrounding COVID-19, Cris Worley Fine Arts will be temporarily open by-appointment-only beginning Tuesday, March 17th. We will continue to see to daily operations as well as be available to assist with inquiries.
MATCH, Houston: On Monday Harris County and the City of Houston updated their guidelines for everyone to avoid groups of 10 or more people. Accordingly, MATCH will be closed to the public until further notice.
Two major arts festivals, scheduled for Austin and in Houston plus one parade, were also canceled:
A Houston and Texas favorite, The Art Car Parade, 2020 has been canceled. From the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art:
“Due to the ongoing impacts of COVID-19, and the restrictions currently in place by the City of Houston and Harris County regarding public events, the Board of Directors of the Orange Show Center for Visionary Art has decided to cancel the 2020 Houston Art Car Parade. This will include all events associated with Houston Art Car Parade Weekend scheduled to take place April 16-19, including the Main Street Drag, the Sneak Peek at Saint Arnold Brewing Company, The Legendary Art Car Ball, The VIPit Experience, and the Houston Art Car Parade Awards Ceremony.”
Austin’s annual Fusebox Festival, scheduled for mid-April, is being reconsidered as an online-only experience. Its statement reads in part: “After much thought and conversation with our team, board, stakeholders, and community over the past week, as well as the recent guidelines released by the C.D.C., we’ve decided that we cannot move forward with hosting Fusebox Festival in April as originally conceived. That said, in this moment it feels important to offer a creative response, and so we are currently re-imagining our 2020 festival as a virtual experience that will take place online in April.”
Houston’s CounterCurrent Festival, also scheduled for mid-April, has been canceled. As with Fusebox, CounterCurrent is looking for ways to present the festival online. From Karen L. Farber, Director, Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, Kathrine G. McGovern College of the Arts, University of Houston:
“In light of the concerns about public events due to COVID-19, we have no choice but to cancel this year’s CounterCurrent festival scheduled for April 14-19. Your health and safety, as well as the well-being of our staff, artists, and other stakeholders, are central to this determination. We will be working with our colleagues at the University of Houston and partner institutions to reschedule everything we can for future dates. We are also exploring which events could be transferred to virtual platforms. Please stay tuned to our website, social media channels, and emails for updates.”
