We are fine-tuning our members-only trip to Texas for the long-awaited Houston MFA opening of “Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection”.

Houston MFA curator Cindi Strauss is thrilled that we will be in town for the museum’s many opening activities and has helped us plan our trip. There will be a number of events at the museum including a symposium (including Glenn Adamson from England, Grace Cochrane from Australia, Sharon Church from Philadelphia, and Cindi), a special privately guided tour of the exhibition, a personal opportunity to question Helen Williams Drutt about her thoughts on collecting, and a gala opening reception featuring a conversation between the museum director Peter Marzio and Helen. There will be many artists in town who are represented in the collection and we will take advantage of the opportunity to plan social and educational events with them. In the planning stages are visits to Houston’s other art gems. At the Houston Center for Contemporary Craft we may get a preview of the fascinating traveling show, “Women’s Tales: Four Leading Israeli Jewelers” curated by Davira Taragin. We are planning to visit the sublime Menil Collection, which is housed in a building designed by Renzo Piano and contains the contemporary, surreal, and tribal collections. We will also see the Rothko Chapel, the Byzantine Chapel, and the Cy Twombly Gallery, which are all on the Menil Collection campus. We will also visit the inspirational James Turrell Quaker Meeting house at sunset and the uniquely Texas folk art house called the “Orange Show” as well as the artist led urban renewal effort called “Project Row House”.

As is our tradition we will dine at highly rated restaurants, and for our first night in Houston we have planned a special private dinner party. The price for the trip is $580. This price includes all local transportation, two gourmet meals per day on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and dinner on Wednesday, all museum and guided tour fees and as always a $50 donation to the Art Jewelry Forum.

Hotel accommodation and transportation to and from Houston are left up to you. We have arranged for a discounted rate at the delightful Hotel ZaZa (www.hotelzaza.com/houston), which will be our home base. This new hotel, located only steps away from the MFA, offers a wide range of Spa services you may want to find time to experience.

Knowing how many people will be making the trip optimizes our planning and guarantees the best time possible. If you will be joining us in Houston from September 26th to 30th we need to hear from you quickly. All you need to do now is send a short email to info@artjewelryforum.org and let us know if you are or are not going to make the trip to Houston. We will only be able to include 25 people. So who ever signs up first goes.

Photos are from AJF’s spring trip to Boston and were taken by Sally Von Bargen.