Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is open.
Contemporary Arts Museum Houston director Hesse McGraw didn’t underplay how emotional reopening would be. CAMH’s doors had been closed to the public since March 15 of last year. Visitors returned on Feb. 25, nearly a year after the coronavirus pandemic forced most art institutions to shut down.
“It’s been really difficult and challenging for many of our staff,” he admitted. “We’ve tried to really stabilize as much as we could. But this opportunity to reopen … it feels quite extraordinary.”
Museum leadership got creative where they could. CAMHLAB, an inaugural residency program, was offered to artists such as Tobe Nwigwe and the Black Angels, Free Worm and more.
But the absence of museum tours meant no need for museum tour guides. A difficult decision was made to furlough 15 staffers, including the FAQ Team, parttime workers who answer frequently asked questions as visitors move throughout the exhibitions.
“They didn’t rely on that shift as as their primary source of income,” McGraw clarified. “Typical staff shifts are just a few hours per week.”
It’s not all bad news. Everyone on his 50-person
CONTEMPORARY ARTS MUSEUM HOUSTON HAS REOPENED
staff has been rehired. And the visitor engagement team’s pay increased to $15 an hour upon their return; most started out at minimum wage.
“We’ve amplified the resources that team has in terms of training,” McGraw said. “They’re now more equipped to give tours and talk about the exhibitions in a way that will enhance the visitor experience. So when you return, be in dialogue with them about the work on view.”
The two works he’s referring to are “Slowed and Throwed: Records of the City Through Mutated Lenses,” a two-part interdisciplinary exhibition on the life and legacy of the late DJ Screw, and “Wild Life: Elizabeth Murray & Jessi Reaves.”
When “Slowed and Throwed” opened March 9, McGraw described the line that stretched around the building as “surreal.” It became the highest-attended exhibition opening in CAMH’s history, though that success proved short-lived. COVID-19 related closures went into effect just one week later.
“To shut down that show, which had received so much joy, felt particularly cruel in the moment,” he said. Local fans of DJ Screw have until the end of April before it travels to Artpace in San Antonio.
“Wild Life,” on view through May 17, features works curated by Rebecca Matalon that function as both a survey and two-person exhibition. While the late Murray was regarded for her use of riotous, high-key colors on multidimensional canvases, Reaves modernist furniture forms evoke a sense of calamity. Many of the objects have been broken apart and reassembled.
Jointly, their work speaks to the strange, domestic experience of living in quarantine.
Those who venture out to CAMH in the Museum District are in for a surprise. Much of the building’s exterior and interior underwent renovation during the shutdown period.
“One of the things that we were able to do in the past few months was look at the building with fresh eyes as it approaches its 50th anniversary,” McGraw shared. “We did a series of things to the South East Plaza, which had been fairly disconnected from the street. Now it’s a flexible programming space, and the building is illuminated at night as well.”
Inside, wood floors, walls and electrical systems were all replaced and most of the lighting has been upgraded to LED fixtures.
AFTER BEING SHUT DOWN FOR NEARLY A YEAR.