Despite Economy, Director Says Houston's Art Museum is Fine

In spire of the dreary economic weather and a 24 percent decline in endowments to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, the institute is continuing with expansions and is also continuing to acquire pieces for the permanent collection, thanks in part to advanced planning by the board of trustees, according to an annual letter sent to members and donors to the MFAH by museum director Peter Marzio.

Houstonist has heard rumors that the MFAH has instituted a hiring freeze, but Marzio writes that construction on a $25 million dollar expansion to Bayou Bend, the former home of Houston patroness Ima Hogg, will begin next month, and by 2010 will include a library, a gift shop and an educational center.

Marzio also writes that in the next two years the museum's main campus will include new galleries dedicated to recently-acquired arts from India, Japan and China. These improvements were made possible by the board of trustees and donations from museum patrons. Trustees acquired more than 1,300 new works of art in 2008, including an Egyptian coffin for a ibis bird to another light sculpture by James Turrell, who designed the underground tunnel connect the two buildings of the museum's main campus on Bissonnet and Main streets.

Photo by flickr user Johnron1