With reopening announcements from New York City’s MoMA and New Museum this week (MoMA reopens on August 27, and New Museum exactly one month later on September 27), we thought it would be a good time to take a look at what’s happening in Texas.
Although, if you read Glasstire you may already be updated on how many Texas museums have reopened since the closings and cancellations that happened back in March. The first couple of major museums to reopen in the state were the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Holocaust Museum Houston in May. Even after Texas Governor Greg Abbott permitted them to do so, most other museums remained closed.
Since the May 1 end to Texas’ stay-at-home orders, however, more museums have reopened, all with new health and safety protocols which include mask mandates, social distancing, visits by appointment or ticketing, and the now all-too-familiar hand-sanitizing stations.
Among the reopened museums are the San Antonio Museum of Art, which reopened on May 28; Artpace San Antonio on June 2 and Blue Star Contemporary on June 6; The Kimbell Art Museum on June 18, The McNay Art Museum on June 24, The Amon Carter Museum of American Art on June 19, and ten other non-profit art and art-adjacent institutions which we announced here, including Lawndale Art Center, Texas Quilt Museum, The 1940 Air Terminal Museum, Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts (LHUCA), The Meadows Museum of Art at SMU, The Old Jail Art Center, and others.
Of the six museums in the Dallas Arts District, two have reopened (The Dallas Museum of Art and the Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum). The Nasher Sculpture Center reopens tomorrow, August 20. The Crow Museum of Asian Art will open on September 18, while the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza plans to open around the same time, with no set date for now; the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, which previously planned a July 9 opening, postponed that date and plans to confirm its reopening date soon.
The Nasher Sculpture Center .
Aside from the big ones in Dallas, the most recently reopened museums that we have reported on are The Blanton at UT Austin, which opened on August 12, and the Blaffer Art Museum at University of Houston, which was scheduled to reopen on August 15.
With uncertainty still the rule around Coronavirus testing, cases, and a possible vaccine, a lot of institutions’ reopening plans are in flux. Austin Contemporary’s Laguna Gloria, which was scheduled to reopen on August 6, for example, will now reopen tomorrow, August 20, and the Blaffer, as mentioned above, will open again on September 1, instead of the previously announced August 15 reopening. We will continue to keep up with these and other changes, and bring you more information as it becomes available.
If you enjoy Glasstire and would like to support our work, please consider donating. As a nonprofit, all of the money we receive goes back into our coverage of Texas art. You can make a one-time donation or become a sustaining, monthly donor here.
