A Message from Luis Purón, Executive Director

Dear Patrons of the Arts:

First off, Happy Texas Independence Day!  I have fond memories of this holiday from when I was in college at the University of Texas at Austin. 

Remembrances of those times bring to mind the prestigious repositories for art and historical ephemera that call the University of Texas home.   It is estimated that 170 million objects reside at places like the Harry Ransom Center, home to the Gutenberg Bible; and the Blanton Museum of Art, home to the prestigious Michner Collection.  One of the major milestones in the history of the Blanton Museum of Art was the gift of almost 300 twentieth-century American paintings by the novelist James A. Michener and his wife.

The beginning of the museum dates back to 1927, when Archer M. Huntington donated 4,000 acres of land to the University with instructions that it be used to support an art museum. Proceeds from the land sale created an endowment for museum operations and funds for brick and mortar construction. On the year I was born, 1963, the University Art Museum opened in the Art Building at 23rd Street. Renowned sculptor Charles Umlauf taught there for 40 years.  In 1972, parts of the collection were exhibited in the galleries of the Harry Ransom Center, and in 1980, the gallery inside the Art Building was renamed the Huntington Gallery. At that time and because of the University, Austin was the center of the Texas art world.

In the mid-1990s, Mrs. Michener started a campaign for the construction of a new museum. The Houston Endowment made a gift to honor its former chairman, and the Huntington became the Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art, which opened its doors in 2006.  I was living in Pennsylvania at the time, but I followed the developing story from afar.

My love and appreciation for Art and for Artists was born in these rooms and galleries in the early 1980s.

I know many of you have your own personal stories about the impact Art has on your daily lives.  I look forward to hearing them at the opening of the 14th Annual Rising Eyes of Texas, which takes place this Saturday at 5 PM.  The juried exhibition of undergraduate and graduate students in the visual arts promises to be the most diverse one yet. And YES we have a submission from my alma mater.

Go see some Art this weekend!

 Luis Purón
Executive Director