Inside the closed Menil, curators prepare for a major reboot
March 27, 2018 | In the PressFrom the Houstonm Chronicle (https://www.chron.com/entertainment/article/Inside-the-closed-Menil-curators-prepare-for-a-12784427.php (opens in a new window))
The model room at the Menil Collection has never been such a dynamic dollhouse.
The full-scale reproduction of the museum gives curators a birds-eye view of each gallery, allowing them to place and tinker with the location of objects as they plan exhibitions. And right now, almost every square inch of exhibition space is in play.
While the museum is closed for a long list of repairs much of the year, its lead curators are completely rebooting the design of all but one of the galleries. (The famous "Witnesses" room of Surrealist objects will not change, and the long corridors aren't moving.)
As further evidence of the strong new focus, the museum has hired two new curators to fill what was previously a single post
Senior curator Michelle White, curator of collections Paul Davis and associate curator for modern art Clare Elliott are collaborating with exhibition designer Brooke Stroud to create new gallery spaces that offer in-depth looks at various aspects of the collection. They're showing off new acquisitions as well as unpacking a number of beloved works that have not been on view for some time.
The two new hires replace departed curator Toby Kamps, who now directs the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston. Irene Mei Zhi Shum, the new associate curator of contemporary art, and Natalie Dupêcher, the new assistant curator of modern art, are due to arrive this summer.
Shum is coming from the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Philip Johnson Glass House in New Canaan, Conn., where she was the inaugural curator and collections manager. Dupêcher is a doctoral candidate at Princeton University whose resume includes a fellowship at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The main building will reopen sometime this fall. In the meantime, Menil visitors can explore other art spaces across the campus, including the Cy Twombly Gallery, Richmond Hall, the Byzantine Fresco Chapel and the nearby Rothko Chapel.
