Bayou Bend Visitor and Education Center

FAIN: CH-50431-08

Glassell School of Art (Houston, TX 77005-1803)
Bonnie Campbell (Project Director: November 2006 to November 2012)

Construction of a new Visitor and Education Center for the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens.

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) requests a Challenge Grant to build a new Visitor and Education Center for Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, a division of the MFAH and one of the country's premier collections of American decorative arts and paintings. Scheduled to open in 2009, the center will increase Bayou Bend's capacity to serve as a statewide educational resource for adults, children, families, teachers, and students. The new facility will include a library, a study center, two classrooms, an orientation gallery with space for thematic displays, offices, a retail space; and a special events/lecture pavilion. With the new center, Bayou Bend will serve as a major center for the scholarly study and appreciation of American material culture. The center will introduce a larger and more diverse audience to humanities-based initiatives and transform the visitors' learning experience by expanding the type and range of programs Bayou Bend can offer.